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Abundance
Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (French, 1758–1823)
about 1812–20
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
116.5 x 88.9 cm (45 7/8 x 35 in.)
Credit Line
Special Fund for the Purchase of Pictures
Accession Number13.391
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Inspired by the Italian Renaissance artist Correggio, Prud'hon developed a distinctive style of graceful, dreamlike beauty. A favorite of Napoleon and his wife Josephine, he became the French Empire's official designer of parades and other state functions, and painted numerous decorations for government buildings and private homes. This unfinished painting shows the allegorical figure of Abundance offering a cornucopia, or horn of plenty, to a woman in contemporary, Empire-style dress.
Provenance1823, by inheritance from the artist to Charles Boulangarde Boisfremont (b. 1773 - d. 1838), Paris; by inheritance to his daughter, Emilie Boisfremont Power (d. 1864), Paris; given by Mme. Power to Laurent Laperlier (b. 1803 - d. 1878), Paris and Algeria [see note 1]; February 17, 1879, posthumous Laperlier sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, lot 37, probably to Henri Rouart (b. 1833 - d. 1912), Paris; December 11, 1912, posthumous Rouart sale, Galerie Manzi-Joyant, Paris, lot 62, sold to the MFA. (Accession date: February 6, 1913)
NOTES:
[1] Edmond de Goncourt, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, dessine et grave de P. P. Prud'hon (Paris, 1876), p. 193. Lent by Laperlier to the Exposition des Oeuvres de Prud'hon (Paris: Ecole des Beaux Arts, 1874), cat. no. 86.
NOTES:
[1] Edmond de Goncourt, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, dessine et grave de P. P. Prud'hon (Paris, 1876), p. 193. Lent by Laperlier to the Exposition des Oeuvres de Prud'hon (Paris: Ecole des Beaux Arts, 1874), cat. no. 86.