Skip to main content

The Fireworks

(French, 1732–1806)
about 1763-65
Medium/TechniquePen and brown ink with brush and wash over graphite on cream laid paper
DimensionsSheet (sight): 26.3 x 38.1 cm (10 3/8 x 15 in.)
Framed: 53.3 x 65.4 cm (21 x 25 3/4 in.)
Credit LineOtis Norcross Fund and Seth K. Sweetser Fund
Accession number44.815
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsDrawings
ProvenanceGilbert Paignon Dijonval (b. 1708 - d. 1792) [see note 1]; by inheritance to his grandson, Vicomte Charles Gilbert Morel de Vindé (b. 1759 - d. 1842), Paris; December 17, 1821, Morel de Vindé sale, Paillet, Paris, lot 8903. Jacob de la Cottière, Director of the Librairie Hachette, Paris; given by Jacob de la Cottière to Emile Templier (d. 1891), Paris; by descent to his son-in-law, René Joret Desclosieres (d. 1912), Paris; 1913, acquired from M. Desclosières by David David-Weill (b. 1871 - d. 1952), Paris and Neuilly-sur-Seine, France (his no. 1224) [see note 2]; 1937, sold by David-Weill to Wildenstein, Paris and New York [see note 3]. 1944, sold by Arnold Seligmann, Rey and Co., New York, to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 14, 1944)

NOTES:

[1] M. Bénard, Cabinet de M. Paignon Dijonval (Paris, 1810), p. 54, cat. no. 3652.

[2] See Gabriel Henriot, Collection David-Weill, volume 3, Dessins, part 1 (Paris, 1928), pp.165-166.

[3] See "Sale of the David-Weill Collection," Art News February 27, 1937, pp. 12, 20. The drawing was included in the exhibition "French XVIII Century Pastels, Water Colors, and Drawings from the David-Weill Collection" (Wildenstein and Co., New York, November-December, 1938), no. 69.
Architectural Design (Piazza with Open Colonnade)
Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal)
View of Westminster from London
Jacob Esselens
late 17th century
Landscape with river and monastery
Roelant Roghman
17th century
Landscape with Figures and Stag Hunt
Unidentified artist, French, 16th century
Man in a Tall Hat on Horseback
Elie Nadelman
about 1915–20
The Dreamer
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
1770s
The Guardian Angel
Pietro Novelli (Il Monrealese)
early 17th century
Abraham and the Angels
Unidentified artist, Italian, 17th century
17th century