A man offers to help a woman reattach her garter, a common conceit in erotic painting and literature in eighteenth-century France. Her hand firmly rejects his advance, but the indecorous decision to reveal her leg in his presence suggests a ruse—perhaps inspired by the contents of the book she has discarded next to an already disrobed bronze statuette. The clock resembles the latest models by the famed furniture maker André Charles Boulle and includes a figure of Saturn, or Father Time, whose scythe has been stolen by Cupid.
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Title:The Garter
Artist:Jean François de Troy (French, Paris 1679–1752 Rome)
Date:1724
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:25 1/2 × 21 1/8 in. (64.8 × 53.7 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 2019
Accession Number:2019.141.22
Jean François de Troy was first taught by his father, the painter François de Troy (1645–1730), and later studied in Rome; he was elected a member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1708 on the basis of his painting Niobe and Her Children (Musée Fabre, Montpellier). During his own time, he was considered one of France’s finest history painters, but was also known for his tableaux de mode, a genre he is credited with inventing that depicts detailed scenes of fashionably dressed people at leisure. Although related to Watteau’s fêtes galantes, de Troy’s pictures of this sort are less ethereal and more detailed, perhaps influenced by seventeenth-century Dutch genre painting. In 1734 de Troy received a commission to paint several sets of allegorical pictures for royal apartments at Versailles and Fontainebleau. When François Le Moyne (1688–1737) was named first painter to the king in 1736, de Troy turned to designing tapestries for the Gobelins factory. In 1738 he was named director of the French Academy in Rome, a position he held until his death in 1752.
This picture and its pendant, The Declaration of Love, both depicting stylish young couples dallying in sumptuously decorated interiors, are two of de Troy’s finest examples of tableaux de mode. De Troy has painted the rooms’ furnishings in such detail that the clothing and many of the objects can be identified. The gilt-bronze clock on top of the bookcase in the Garter can be associated with a clock design attributed to André Charles Boulle (1642–1732). Several examples of the clock are known; one in the Wallace Collection, London, is inscribed on the back plate “Martinot aux Galleries du Louvre 1726” (see Watson 1956; evidently de Troy knew a slightly earlier version, since the Garter is dated 1724). The clock also appears in his painting The Reading of Molière, formerly in the Cholmondeley collection, and in his Lady Attaching a Bow to a Gentleman’s Sword, dated 1734, formerly in the collection of Baron Louis de Rothschild, Vienna. The statuette of a seated nude female figure on the console table at left closely resembles a bronze statuette of Architecture (see Fahy 1973) based on a prototype by Giovanni Bologna (1529–1608).
According to tradition, The Declaration of Love and The Garter are said to have been owned by Frederick the Great (1712–1786), King of Prussia, and later by William I (1797–1888). In fact, as Leribault (2002) points out, although Frederick the Great is known to have purchased two works by de Troy in Paris (see Paul Seidel, “Friedrich der Grosse als Sammler,” Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen 15 [1894], p. 51), these are undoubtedly to be identified with another work titled Declaration of Love (still at Frederick’s palace of Sanssouci in Potsdam) and The Reading from Molière, mentioned above. The history of the two Metropolitan Museum pendants can be traced back no further than 1883, when Carl Ludwig Kuhtz lent them to an exhibition in Berlin.
Although both works were among the seven pictures de Troy exhibited to acclaim at the Salon of 1725, only The Declaration of Love is mentioned in the the review of the previous year’s exhibition held in the Place Dauphine and it seems likely that The Garter was excluded, perhaps because of its more risqué subject (Leribault 2002).
Replicas of the two works are in the Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts (oil on canvas, Gift of C. A. Wimpfheimer, Class of 1949). Their execution is rather dry and they are unsigned, but they may be autograph or else products of the artist’s studio.
Gretchen Wold 2014
Inscription: Signed and dated (left, on baseboard): DETROY. 1724
Carl Ludwig Kuhtz, Berlin (until d. 1889; his estate sale, Lepke's, Berlin, February 15, 1898, no. 38, for 13,250 marks); Oscar Huldschinsky, Berlin (by 1906–28; his sale, Paul Cassirer and Hugo Helbing, Berlin, May 10, 1928, no. 65, to Thyssen); Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Rohoncz, Hungary, later Villa Favorita, Lugano (1928–d. 1947); his son, Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, his brother and two sisters, Villa Favorita (1947–49); [Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York, with Pinakos (Rudolf J. Heinemann), 1949–55; sold to Wrightsman]; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, New York (1955–his d. 1986; cat., 1973, no. 29); Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, New York (1986–d. 2019; cat., 2005, no. 46)
Paris. Salon. August 25–September 3, 1725, no catalogue [see Mercure de France 1725].
Berlin. Königliche Akademie der Künste. "Ausstellung von Gemälden älterer Meister im Berliner Privatbesitz," January 25–March 12, 1883, no. 47 (of works in the Langer Saal, lent by Carl Kuhtz).
Berlin. Ehemalig Gräflich Redern'schen Palais. "Ausstellung von Werken Alter Kunst," January 27–March 4, 1906, no. 145 (as "Zudringliche Liebeswerbung," lent by Oscar Huldschinsky).
Munich. Neue Pinakothek. "Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz," 1930, no. 330.
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "France in the Eighteenth Century," January 6–March 3, 1968, no. 670 (lent by Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Wrightsman).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Bellini to Tiepolo: Summer Loans at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 29–August 31, 1993, unnum. checklist.
THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT, BY TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION BY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART.
"Exposition de tableaux." Mercure de France 2 (June 1725), p. 1402 [reprinted in Georges Wildenstein, "Le Salon de 1725," Paris 1924, p. 40; see also Leribault 2002, p. 58], includes this work and its pendant among seven works exhibited by de Troy at the Salon that year, as "Une Demoiselle un peu courbée, ayant une jambe découverte, tenant d'une main sa jarretiere, & de l'autre repoussant un jeune homme qui s'empresse à vouloir la lui renoüer".
W[ilhelm von]. Bode and R[obert]. Dohme. "Die Ausstellung von Gemälden älterer Meister im Berliner Privatbesitz." Jahrbuch der königlich preussischen Kunstsammlungen 4 (1883), p. 254.
Charles Ephrussi. "Exposition d'oeuvres de maîtres anciens tirées des collections privées de Berlin en 1883." Gazette des beaux-arts, 2nd ser., 30 (1884), p. 104.
Wilhelm Bode. Die Sammlung Oscar Huldschinsky. Frankfurt, 1909, pp. 26–27, 40, no. 47, ill. p. 26 (installation photo), pl. XXXVIII, as probably formerly in the collection of King Frederick II (Frederick the Great).
H. Mireur. Dictionnaire des ventes d'art. Vol. 7, Paris, 1912, p. 216, as sold for 16,562 francs at the Kuhtz sale of 1898.
Louis Réau. Histoire de la peinture française au XVIIIe siècle. Vol. 1, Paris, 1925, p. 30 n. 1.
Francis M. Kelly and Randolph Schwabe. Historic Costume: A Chronicle of Fashion in Western Europe, 1490–1790. London, 1925, pp. 199, 201, 203–4, 206, 208–9, 213–14, 216, 227, 233, fig. 94 (line drawing of the figures), identify the various details of the costumes of both the man and the woman.
Max J. Friedländer. "Die Sammlung Oscar Huldschinsky." Der Cicerone 20 (1928), p. 4.
"Les ventes." Revue de l'art ancien et moderne 54 (June 1928), p. 228, ill. p. 225, records the two pictures as having sold for 1,900,000 francs at the Huldschinsky sale.
Gaston Brière in Louis Dimier. Les peintres français du XVIII siècle. Vol. 2, Paris, 1930, p. 40, no. 84.
E. Hanfstaengl. "Castle Rohoncz Collection Shown in Munich." Art News 28 (August 16, 1930), p. 19, ill.
Gaston Brière. "Jean-François de Troy, peintre de la société élégante: Nouveaux renseignements sur l'œuvre de l'artiste." Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art Français (1931), p. 164, states that both pictures were lent to the Boymans Museum in Rotterdam in 1931.
Charles Sterling inChefs d'œuvre de l'art français. Exh. cat., Palais National des Arts. Paris, 1937, p. 77, under no. 148, refers to the two pictures now at the Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, exhibited as by de Troy, as replicas of the MMA works.
Rudolf Heinemann. Stiftung Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz. Lugano-Castagnola, 1937, vol. 1, p. 154, no. 430; vol. 2, pl. 260.
Hans Vollmer inAllgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. Ed. Hans Vollmer. Vol. 33, Leipzig, 1939, p. 442.
Millia Davenport. The Book of Costume. New York, 1948, vol. 1, p. 667, no. 1788, ill., erroneously illustrates this work as "Déclaration," in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin.
Rudolf Heinemann in Villa Favorita, Castagnola/Lugano. Aus dem Besitz der Stiftung Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz. Castagnola/Lugano, 1949, p. 75, no. 256.
F. J. B. Watson. Furniture. London, 1956, p. 19, notes that the bracket clock depicted here is similar to one in the Wallace Collection, London (F 41, pl. 47), designed by André Charles Boulle (1642–1732).
Cyril Connolly. "Style Rococo." Art News Annual 26 (1957), p. 111, ill.
Jean Cailleux. "The 'Lecture de Molière' by Jean François de Troy and Its Date." Burlington Magazine 102 (February 1960), unpaginated.
Jacques Thuillier and Albert Châtelet. French Painting. Geneva, 1964, p. 149.
Denys Sutton. France in the Eighteenth Century. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts. London, 1968, p. 121, no. 670, fig. 106.
Marilyn Caldwell. "Amor Vincit Tempus." North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 8 (September 1968), p. 29, fig. 4.
Denys Sutton. "Pleasure for the Aesthete." Apollo 90 (September 1969), pp. 236–37, colorpl. XXIV, notes that there are close variants of the two pictures in the collection of Harold Wimpfheimer, New York (now Williams College Museum of Art).
John Masters. Casanova. New York, 1969, ill. p. 178 (color, cropped).
Andrea Busiri Vici. "Opere romane di Jean de Troy." Antichità viva 9 (March–April 1970), pp. 6, 17 n. 12, fig. 2.
Michael Levey inArt and Architecture of the Eighteenth Century in France. Harmondsworth, England, 1972, pp. 9, 359 n. 14.
Everett Fahy inThe Wrightsman Collection. Vol. 5, Paintings, Drawings. [New York], 1973, pp. 280–84, 287–88, 290–96, no. 29, ill. p. 281 (color), figs. 1, 5, 6 (details), provides extensive provenance information; relates the compositions of the two pictures to contemporary French theater, especially the social comedies of Pierre Marivaux (1688–1763); states that the clock here reappears in de Troy's paintings "The Reading of Molière" (Marchioness of Cholmondeley) and "Lady Attaching a Bow to a Gentleman's Sword" (formerly Baron Louis de Rothschild, Vienna); notes that the statuette on the table is very similar to a bronze statuette of Architecture attributed to Adriaen de Vries (ca. 1560–1626) in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Leopold Blumka, New York.
R. A. Cecil. "The Wrightsman Collection." Burlington Magazine 118 (July 1976), p. 518, calls it charming, but overcleaned and harsh in coloring.
E. Bénézit. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs. new ed. Paris, 1976, vol. 10, p. 287.
David Wakefield. French Eighteenth-Century Painting. London, 1984, p. 52, fig. 48.
Penelope Hunter-Stiebel. Chez Elle, Chez Lui: At Home in 18th Century France. Exh. cat., Rosenberg & Stiebel. New York, 1987, p. 16, notes that it is unlikely that De Troy owned the clock by André Charles Boulle, and that he likely adapted it from studies for his portrait of Gabriel Bernard de Rieux.
Alain Gruber inL'art décoratif en Europe: Classique et Baroque. Ed. Alain Gruber. Paris, 1992, p. 258, ill. (color, overall and detail), illustrates it as an example of the popularity of chinoiserie fabrics during this period.
Michael Levey. Painting and Sculpture in France, 1700–1789. New Haven, 1993, pp. 21, 299 n. 31.
Richard Rand inIntimate Encounters: Love and Domesticity in Eighteenth-Century France. Exh. cat., Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College. Hanover, N.H., 1997, pp. 104, 108 n. 3, fig. 42, under nos. 9–10.
Katharina Krause. "Genrebilder: Mode und Gesellschaft der Aristokraten bei Jean-François de Troy." Festschrift für Johannes Langner zum 65. Geburtstag am 1. Februar 1997. Ed. Klaus Gereon Beuckers and Annemarie Jaeggi. Münster, 1997, pp. 145–46, 155 n. 30, fig. 3.
Christophe Leribault. Jean-François de Troy (1679–1752). Paris, 2002, pp. 59–60, 269–71, 437, no. P.114a, ill. pp. 59 (color), 61 (color, detail), 271, rejects the tradition of Frederick the Great and Wilhelm I as former owners, identifying the two de Troys known to have been in Frederick's collection (see Seidel 1894, 1922) as a second work called "The Declaration of Love" (P.202; Sanssouci, Potsdam) and "The Reading from Molière" (P.203; private collection, Great Britain); believes the two versions in Williamstown could be autograph copies.
Everett Fahy inThe Wrightsman Pictures. Ed. Everett Fahy. New York, 2005, pp. 162–66, no. 46, ill. (color).
Everett Fahy inPhilippe de Montebello and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977–2008. New York, 2009, p. 32, fig. 41 (color).
Old Master Paintings: Part I. Christie's, New York. January 28, 2015, p. 114, under no. 40.
Robin Pogrebin. "The Met is Given Hundreds of Artworks." New York Times (November 16, 2019), p. C3 [online ed., "A Trustee Leaves Trove of Old Masters Works to the Met," November 13, 2019; https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/13/arts/design/bequest-met-museum-wrightsman.html].
Hakim Bishara. "A Glorious Gift of European Artworks Is on Display at the Metropolitan Museum." Hyperallergic. November 19, 2019, ill. (color, installation view) [https://hyperallergic.com/528444/a-glorious-gift-of-european-artworks-is-on-display-at-the-metropolitan-museum/].
Liza Oliver. Art, Trade, and Imperialism in Modern French India. Amsterdam, 2019, p. 60, as "Undone Garter".
Old Masters. Christie's, New York. October 15, 2020, p. 174, under no. 57.
The Private Collection of Jayne Wrightsman. Christie's, New York. October 14, 2020, p. 29.
Old Masters Evening Sale. Christie's, London. December 15, 2020, p. 138, under no. 42.
Guillaume Faroult. L'Amour peintre: L'imagerie érotique en France au XVIIIe siècle. Paris, 2020, pp. 223–24, ill. p. 198, and fig. 119 (color, overall and detail).
David Pullins in "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 2018–20, Part I: Antiquity to the Late Eighteenth Century." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 78 (Winter 2021), p. 39.
Colin B. Bailey. "Review of Baetjer 2019." Burlington Magazine 163 (May 2021), p. 470.
Versions of this work and its pendant are in the Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts (oil on canvas, Gift of C. A. Wimpfheimer, Class of 1949), where they are attributed to de Troy: La Declaration d'amour, 25 9/16 x 21 7/16 in., 80.17.2 La Conversation galante, 25 9/16 x 21 5/16 in., 80.17.1
This work may not be lent, by terms of its acquisition by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Antoine Watteau (French, Valenciennes 1684–1721 Nogent-sur-Marne)
ca. 1718–20
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