Provenance
Casimir Perrin, marquis de Cypierre [1783-1844], Paris; (his estate sale, at his residence by Thoré, Paris, 10 March 1845 and days following, no. 52 or 53).[1] possibly marquise de Montesquiou-Fezensac, Paris;[2] Camille Groult [1837-1908], Paris, possibly from 1889, to1908.[3] (Wildenstein & Co., New York); sold February 1954 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1961 to NGA.
[1] This is the first confirmed record of the painting. For discussion of possible earlier provenance now rejected by scholars, see Richard Rand's entry on this painting and its pendant, _The Swing_ (NGA 1961.9.17), in Philip Conisbee, et al., _French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century_, The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue, Washington, 2009: 199, 202 nn. 13, 14.
[2] The pair of paintings were possibly the two Fragonards sold from the Montesquiou-Fezensac collection to Henri Haro, buying for Camille Groult, prior to its 1897 sale at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 19 March 1897; see Colin Eisler, _Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian_, Oxford, 1977: 331 n. 17.
[3] Groult's ownership was incorrectly given as "until at least 1889" in the provenance for the painting published in the NGA's 2009 catalogue (see note 1). Thanks to correspondence from Olafur Thorvaldsson (e-mail of 27 September 2019, in NGA curatorial files), Groult's ownership can be further clarified.
Groult was given as the owner of the paintings in publications of 1889 (Portalis; who actually places only NGA 1961.9.16 in Groult's collection, and confuses the provenances of three paintings in his entry), 1906 (Nolhac), 1908 (Flament; kindly sent to NGA by Mr. Thorvaldsson), and 1927 (Reau). If Groult did not acquire the paintings until 1897 (see note 2 about this possibility), the 1889 publication is in error. Since Groult died in 1908, the 1927 publication must have meant he was a former owner, although it is possible the painting was inherited by his son, Jean Groult (1868-1951). The painting was not included in the 21 March 1952 sale of the Groult collection.
[4] The bill of sale (copy in NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/397) is dated February 10, 1954, and was for a total of fourteen paintings; payments by the Foundation continued to March 1957.
Accession Number
1961.9.16
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 216.2 × 197.8 cm (85 1/8 × 77 7/8 in.) | framed: 246.38 × 228.92 × 16.51 cm (97 × 90 1/8 × 6 1/2 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Samuel H. Kress Collection
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
Blindman's Buff (c. 1770-1775) depicts one of the most ancient and widespread games in European culture—a game whose combination of blindness, vulnerability, and chance made it a perfect subject for the Rococo's exploration of knowledge and ignorance, power and powerlessness. The blindfolded player, groping in darkness while the others dodge and laugh, embodies the condition of ignorance that the Enlightenment—.contemporary intellectual movement—sought to overcome. But Fragonard's treatment suggests that the game's pleasure lies precisely in the blindfolded player's vulnerability: the others' amusement depends on the blindfolded player's inability to see. The 1770-75 date places this during the period when the Rococo's playful sensibility was being challenged by the Enlightenment's demand for reason and knowledge. Fragonard's Blindman's Buff can be read as a response to this challenge: the painting argues that there is pleasure in ignorance and that the Enlightenment's demand for knowledge eliminates the playfulness that the Rococo celebrated. The garden setting, with its formal layout and its associations with aristocratic leisure, provides the context that gives the game its social meaning. The players' elegant costumes and graceful movements transform a children's game into an aristocratic amusement—another instance of the Rococo's characteristic transformation of the childish into the refined.
Cultural Impact
Fragonard's Blindman's Buff influenced how the Enlightenment's challenge to the Rococo was represented in visual art, arguing that knowledge eliminates play. The painting influenced later artists who similarly explored the relationship between knowledge and pleasure. The blindman's buff subject influenced how the Rococo's philosophical position—its defense of pleasure against the Enlightenment's demand for reason—was visually articulated.
Why It Matters
This painting matters because it articulates the Rococo's philosophical resistance to the Enlightenment—the argument that there is pleasure in ignorance and that the demand for knowledge eliminates the playfulness that the Rococo celebrated. Fragonard's Blindman's Buff is simultaneously a depiction of an aristocratic game and a philosophical argument about the relationship between knowledge and pleasure.
