Updated 18 June 2025
Currently not on display
Currently not on display
Sleeping Shepherdess
| Date | c. 1730 |
|---|---|
| Materials and Techniques | oil on canvas |
| Size（cm） | 71 x 84.5 |
| Credit Line | Purchased |
| Standard ref. | Wildenstein 737 |
| Category | Paintings |
| Collection Number | P.1979-0005 |
In the first half of the eighteenth century, a genre called fêtes-galantes, which depicted the lives of well-born ladies and gentlemen pleasantly speaking of love in parks and in the countryside, came into existence. Lancret, under the influence of Jean-Antoine Watteau, became a successor to this tradition. In contrast to the works of Watteau, which were filled with melancholy, those of Lancret celebrated lighter pastoral scenes. (Source: The Digital Gallery. 1999-2006)
Provenance
Hôtel de Boullongne, Place Vandôme, Paris (commissioned by Jean Boullongne as a part of the decoration of the salon); Auc., Paris, 27 May 1896, no. 9 (cat. Notice sur un très beau salon décoré par Lancret.); Bamberger Coll.; Auc. X...(Bamberger), Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 17 March 1923, no. 59; Wildenstein & Co., by which sold to the NMWA, 1980.
Exhibition History
- 1951
- Twenty Masters of Painting, Museum of Fine Arts, Huston, 14 January 1951 - 4 February 1951, cat. no. 6, repr.
- 1955
- If Wishes Could Buy, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, 0 1955 - 0 1956, (no catalogue)
- 1978
- Rococo: Poésie et rêve de la peinture française au ⅩⅧe siècle, Musée Otani des Beaux-Arts, 14 January 1978 - 12 February 1978, cat. no. 5, repr.
- 2017
- [Traveling Exhibitions Presenting National Art Museum Collections, Fiscal 2017] Muse: Women before the Artists' Eyes: From the Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, 22 April 2017 - 2 July 2017, Akita Museum of Modern Art, 15 July-18 September, cat. no. 58
- 2020
- Sleeping: Life with Art: From Goya and Rubens to Shiota Chiharu, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 25 November 2020 - 23 February 2021, no. 0-2, col. repr.
Bibliography
- 1874
- Ballot de Sovot, Silvain. Eloge de Lancret, peintre du Roi. Paris, n. d. [1874], pp. 34, 45-47.
- 1877
- Bocher, Emmanuel. Les Gravures Françaises du XVIIIe siècle ou catalogue raisonné des estampes, eaux-fortes, pièces en couleur, au bistre et au lavis, de 1700 à 1800. vol. 4, Nicolas Lancret, Paris, 1877, pp. 91-92.
- 1924
- Wildenstein, Georges. Lancret: biographie et catalogue critiques. Paris, 1924, pp. 119-120, no. 737, figs. 182, 191.
- 1955
- Baltimore Museum of Art News. vol. 19, no. 1, Oct. 1955, repr. p. 11.
- 1981
- Annual Bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. No. 14 (1979), 1981, New Acquisitions (Painting). pp. 6-7, 12, New Acquisitions (Catalogue). pp. 16-17, repr.
- 1990
- Catalogue of painting acquisitions: 1979-1989. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1990, pp. 39-41, repr.
- 2013
- Masterpieces: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2013 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 65, col. repr.
- 2017
- Muse: Women before the Artists' Eyes: from the Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo: Traveling Exhibitions Presenting National Art Museum Collections, Fiscal 2017 (exh. cat.). Nakada, Asuka, ed. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2017, pp. 88, 140, cat. no. 58, col. repr.
- 2020
- Sleeping: Life with Art—From Goya and Rubens to Shiota Chiharu (exh. cat.). Furutate, Ryo, ed. National Museum of Art, 2020, pp. 31, 174, cat. no. 0-2, col. repr.