The Scythian Philosopher

Artists

Dimensions

31 × 25.7 cm (12 3/16 × 10 1/8 in.)

Provenance

One of a series of drawings for illustrations to the Fables of Jean de La Fontaine bound in two albums sold by the artist to Louis-Regnard de Montenault, Paris (c. 1751); Jean-Jacques and Marie-Jacques de Bure, Paris (De Bure Frères, Booksellers, by 1828); Jean-Jacques de Bure, Paris, by descent (as of 1847); his sale, Paris, Potier, 1-18 December 1853, lot 344; Comte Adolphe-Narcisse Thibaudeau, Paris; Eugénie Doche, Paris; Auguste Fontaine, Bookseller, Paris; Félix Solar, Paris (1856); his sale, Paris, Pillet, 19 November-8 December 1860, lot 627; Baron Isidore Taylor, Paris; private sale to Damascène Morgand and Charles Fatout, Booksellers, Paris (c. 1876); private sale to Émile Pereire, Paris; private sale to Louis Roederer, Reims; his nephew, Léon Olry-Roderer, Reims and Paris, by descent; Thomas Agnew and Sons Ltd., London; Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach and the Rosenbach Company, Philadelphia and New York (as of 1923); private sale to Raphael Esmerian, New York (c. 1946); his sale, Paris, Palais Galliera (Ader, Picard, Tajan), 6 June 1973, part 3, lot 46; one album sold to the British Rail Pension Fund, London (resold at Sotheby’s on 3 July 1996 in London, which has remained intact) and the other album (the source of the present drawing) sold to Art Associates Partnership (Dr. Claus Virch), New York, who sold the sheets individually; sale, New York, Sotheby’s, 25 January 2002, lot 105, sold; to Jeffrey E. Horvitz, Boston, gift; to Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Jeffrey E. Horvitz, 2006.331