Provenance
Sir Richard Wallace, 1st bt. [1818-1890], London and Paris, by 1883;[1] by inheritance to his wife, Julie-Amélie-Charlotte Castelnau, Lady Wallace [1819-1897], Paris and London; by inheritance to her adviser and secretary, Sir John Murray Scott [1847-1912], London and Paris; by inheritance to his friend, Josephine Victoria Sackville-West, Lady Sackville [1864-1936], Sevenoaks, Kent [painting remained in Paris during this time]; sold 1913 to (Jacques Seligmann and Co., Inc., Paris and New York, no. 579 of Seligmann inventory); sold 1914 to (M. Knoedler & Co., London, New York, and Paris); sold March 1922 to John McCormack [1884-1945], New York; (M. Knoedler & Co., London, New York, and Paris); sold 1924 to William R. Timken [1866-1949], New York;[2] by inheritance to his widow, Lillian Guyer Timken [1881-1959] New York; bequest 1960 to NGA.
[1] Alexandre Ananoff, with Daniel Wildenstein, _François Boucher_, 2 vols., Lausanne and Paris, 1976: 1:173, no. 36, confused the early provenance of NGA's _Diana and Endymion_ by Fragonard with that of the Boucher painting of the same title. It was the Boucher painting that appeared in sales in Paris in 1773, 1779, and 1830.
[2] Provenance information beginning with Knoedler's 1914 purchase from Seligmann's through their 1924 sale to Timken is from David Rust's notes of a telephone conversation on 15 July 1981 with Nancy Little, Knoedler librarian (in NGA curatorial files).
Accession Number
1960.6.2
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 94.9 x 136.8 cm (37 3/8 x 53 7/8 in.) | framed: 125.1 x 168.3 cm (49 1/4 x 66 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Timken Collection
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
Diana and Endymion (c. 1755-1756) depicts the classical myth of the moon goddess who fell in love with the sleeping shepherd Endymion—one of the most beloved mythological subjects in European art. According to the myth, Diana asked Zeus to grant Endymion eternal sleep so that she could visit him each night without his waking, and the story thus combined divine love, eternal youth, and the beautiful tableau of a goddess visiting a sleeping mortal. The 1755-56 date places this during Fragonard's early career, when he was competing for the Prix de Rome and establishing the classical credentials that would support his later Rococo subjects. His treatment of the Diana and Endymion myth demonstrates the Academic training that underlies his more playful subjects: the figures' poses, the composition's structure, and the mythological narrative all follow the conventions that the Academy required. But within these conventions, Fragonard's distinctive handling—the rapid brushwork, the warm palette, and the sense of movement that distinguishes his work—already shows the artist who would transform the fête galante tradition. The painting also reveals the Rococo's approach to classical mythology: where Academic tradition treated mythological subjects with solemnity, Fragonard and the Rococo painters found in them opportunities for sensuality, playfulness, and the celebration of pleasure that the myths themselves often described.
Cultural Impact
Fragonard's mythological paintings influenced how classical subjects were treated in Rococo art, replacing Academic solemnity with sensuality and playfulness. The paintings influenced later artists who similarly found opportunities for pleasure in mythological narratives. The Diana and Endymion subject influenced how the relationship between divine and mortal love was represented, connecting classical myth to Rococo sensibility.
Why It Matters
This painting matters because it reveals the Rococo's approach to classical mythology—finding in the Diana and Endymion myth not the solemnity that Academic tradition required but the sensuality and pleasure that the myth itself described. Fragonard's treatment argues that classical mythology's most significant dimension is its celebration of love rather than its moral instruction.
