The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 4, 2023

Wild Sow and Her Young Attacked by Dogs

1748

Jean-Baptiste Oudry

(French, 1686–1755)

France, 18th century

Pen and brown and gray ink, brown and gray wash, heightened with white gouache on light brown laid paper

Support: Light brown laid paper

Sheet: 37.7 x 51.7 cm (14 13/16 x 20 3/8 in.)

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1997.191

Catalogue raisonné: Locquin 675

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Though Oudry was a prolific draftsman, he purposely kept his drawings during his lifetime, hoping that they would be an asset for his heirs after his death.

Description

Jean-Baptiste Oudry began his career as a portraitist but gradually became known for his paintings of animals and hunting scenes. These images attracted the attention of Louis XV, and Oudry became one of France's foremost decorative painters during the king's reign. Here, the artist highlighted a violent battle between a sow and a group of dogs. The drawing relates to one of Oudry's most successful Salon paintings, which was exhibited to great acclaim in 1748. The sketchy lines and lack of detail throughout the sheet suggest that it was likely a study made in preparation for the later canvas, which was purchased by Louis XV and installed in one of his homes.

Inscriptions

Inscription

signd, lower left, in brown ink: JB. Oudry 1748

Provenance
?-1776
Nijman (Neyman), Amsterdam
1776
(Basan, Paris, July 8-11, 1776, no. 613, sold to Fouquet) 1
1776-?
Fouquet
?-?
Fäsch family, Basel
?-?
Private Collection, Switzerland
?-1997
(Marianne Joannides, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1997-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Provenance Footnotes

1 Sold for 80 livres according to annotated copy of sale catalogue at INHA, Paris.
Citations
Catalogue d'une belle collection de dessins italiens, flamands, hollandois, et françois...le tout rassemblé avec soins & dépenses, par M. Neyman, Amateur à Amsterdam (Paris: Basan, 1776).
Lot 613
Locquin, Jean. Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre de Jean-Baptiste Oudry, peintre du roi (1686-1755). Paris: Jean Schemit, 1912. Mentioned: p. 125, no. 675
Opperman, Hal N. Jean-Baptiste Oudry. New York: Garland Pub, 1977. Mentioned: p. 738, no. D612
Opperman, Hal N. J.-B. Oudry, 1686-1755. Exh. Cat. Fort Worth, TX: Kimball Art Museum, 1982. Mentioned: p. 204, under no. 110
Cleveland Museum of Art. Annual Report 1997. Cleveland, Ohio: The Museum, 1998. Reproduced: p. 32; Mentioned: p. 44
Cleveland Museum of Art, “Major European Porcelain Crucifix, Pre-Columbian Figure, and Other Works Added to CMA Collection,” December 3, 1997, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
"Principales Acquisitions des Musées en 1997." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 131 (March 1998). Mentioned: p. 51, no. 204
"Cleveland Acquires Oudry and Long." Drawing 19 (Winter-Spring 1998): 101. Reproduced: p. 101
DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned: cat. no. 41, p. 11, pp. 110-111, 288-289; Reproduced: p. 110
Exhibition history

Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).

Elegance and Intrigue: French Society in 18th-century Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 16-November 6, 2016).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1997.191