Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Probably Pierre-Antoine Baudouin (1723-1769), François Boucher's son-in-law;

Probably his estate sale, P. Remy, Paris, 15 February 1770, lot 37 ("Une tête de viellard, vue de face. Hauteur, quatorze pouces fix lignes; largeur, douze pouces.");

Where acquired by "Lacombe" for 12-6 livres;

Possibly Peter Adolf Hall (1739-1793);

Possibly by whom sold, Basan and Guilleaumon, Paris, 15 November 1779, lot 34 ("Une Tête de vieillard à cheveux blancs, vigoureusement peinte, & exécutée dans le style de Rembrandt.");

Where acquired by "Geofrey" for 17-1 livres;

Possibly Jean-Baptiste Guillaume, Abbé de Gévigney (1729-1802);

Possibly his sale, Paillet, Paris, 1 December 1779, lot 596 ("Une tête de Vieillard, peinte dans la manière de Rembrandt.");

Where acquired by "Dubois" for 24 livres;

"Thoré" [presumably Etienne Joseph Théophile Thoré (1807–1869)] (according to the Frick Library's annotated copy of the following sale catalogue);

By whom anonymously offered, Alliance des Arts, Paris, 30 January 1843, lot 106 ("Tête de vieillard à barbe — Esquisse rapide d'une belle couleur... H. 41, L. 33.");

Paul Barroilhet (1810-1871), Paris;

Édouard Warneck (1834-1924), Paris;

His estate sale ("Collection Warneck"), Georges Petit, Paris, 27-28 May 1926, lot 100;

Where acquired by Wildenstein & Co., New York;

From whom acquired by George A. Rentschler (1892-1972), Cincinnati, Ohio, by 1941;

By whose descendants sold ("Property from a Private Collection"), Christie's, New York, 26 January 2011, lot 47;

Where acquired by the present collector.

Cincinnati Art Museum, Masterpieces of Art: European paintings from the New York and San Francisco World's Fairs, 15 January - 9 February 1941, no. 19 (lent by George A. Rentschler);

New York, M. Knoedler & Company and Columbia University, Masters of the Loaded Brush: Oil Sketches from Rubens to Tiepolo, 4 April - 29 April 1967, no. 72 (lent anonymously).

Probably R. Portalis, Honoré Fragonard, sa vie et son oeuvre, Paris 1889, p. 290;

Probably P. de Nolhac, J.-H. Fragonard, 1732-1806, Paris 1906, p. 112;

G. Wildenstein, The Paintings of Fragonard, London 1960, p. 242, cat. no. 192, reproduced pl. 22;

E.C. Vogel, in Masters of the Loaded Brush: Oil Sketches from Rubens to Tiepolo, exhibition catalogue, New York 1967, pp. 97-98, cat. no. 72, reproduced;

G. Mandel and D. Wildenstein, L'opera completa di Fragonard, Milan 1972, p. 95, cat. no. 203, reproduced;

P. Rosenberg and F. Bergot, French Master Drawings from the Rouen Museum, From Caron to Delacroix, exhibition catalogue, Washington 1981, p. 32 under cat. no. 39, reproduced;

H. Gerson, Ausbreitung und Nachwirkung der holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Amsterdam 1983, p. 96 note 4;

J.P. Cuzin, Jean-Honoré Fragonard: Vie et oeuvre, Catalogue complet des peintures, Fribourg 1987, pp. 132, 290, cat. no. 164, reproduced;

P. Rosenberg, Fragonard, exhibition catalogue, New York 1988, pp. 202, 206 under cat. no. 100, reproduced fig. 1;

P. Rosenberg, Tout l'œuvre peint de Fragonard, Paris 1989, p. 91, cat. no. 183, reproduced;

J.P. Cuzin and D. Salmon, Fragonard: regards croisés, Paris 2007, pp. 36, 42, 226 note 118, reproduced fig. 55;

Y. Rimaud, in Le phare Rembrandt: Le mythe d'un peintre au siècle de Fragonard, exhibition catalogue, Paris 2025, pp. 111-114, reproduced fig. 12.