The owners of this unpublished painting by Fragonard had always seen it
in their home, without having any idea of its value. The “Girl with the Hat”
was discovered during a family inventory by an auctioneer. “Special
Envoy” witnessed this exceptional moment.
Stéphane Pinta works for a firm specializing in the expertise of old
paintings. That morning, after a phone call from an auctioneer, he had
the intuition that a fantastic discovery perhaps awaited him... Arriving
there, he had no need to exchange the the slightest word with his
colleague to know that both share the same impression: that of being in
the presence of the work of a great name, " very likely a painting by
Fragonard".
Under the layer of dirt which darkens its colors, the two experts divine a
marvel, " everything we love in 18th century French painting. Fragonard
is the freest, the most brilliant, the most inventive as there could be at
that time. The canvas will have to be authenticated, but to a connoisseur's eye, certain clues are unmistakable. Starting with "this way of painting with a brush very loaded with material. Only he knows how to
do that. It's painted almost with the fingers", enthuses Stéphane Pinta,
admiring this " really "free" that the painter had at the height of his art,
"between 1767 and 1769".
In 2021, the discovery of another unpublished work by Fragonard shook
the art world
Under the frame of the painting, the inscription "To Mme R. Fragonard"
confirms this first impression: the expert recognizes "her spelling, her
way of making the 'f'" . It is also the one worn by another unpublished
work by Fragonard discovered two years previously, during an
inheritance inventory in the Marne, by the same Turquin firm. At auction,
the Reading Philosopher was sold for... more than 7 million euros.
Authenticated, this painting will in turn be offered for sale. Previously, a
restorer was responsible for restoring the Young Girl in the Hat to its
original colors, a “harmony of whites, blues, yellows” . And if the painting
is today " in absolutely perfect condition", it is thanks to the layer of
sedimented dirt which covered it, a sort of natural filter "which prevented
the deterioration of the pictorial material", explains She. We can now
admire all "the delicacy of the shadows and the pink of the cheeks and
the mouth", so typical of the artist
Seen franceinfo.
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