The Indulgent Mother
Louis Jean François Lagrenée (Paris 1725 – Paris 1805)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1771 (signed and dated)
Materials
Oil on copper
Measurements
406 x 330 mm (16 x 13 in)
Place of origin
Paris
Order this imageCollection
Stourhead, Wiltshire
NT 732293
Summary
Oil painting on copper, The Indulgent Mother by Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée the elder (Paris 1725 – Paris 1805), signed and dated: L.Lagrenee 1771. This meticulously painted pastoral scene depicts the indulgent mother of the title tempting a lamb with a sprig of foliage while her naked infant attempts to draw it on with a silken leash. Other figures are included hanging washing out to dry and cosseting the lamb. The picture has presumably deliberate religious resonances, both in its format which resembles a Rest on the Flight into Egypt, and its iconography, which suggests the Virgin and Christ Child coaxing the Christian Soul. The picture was bought directly from the artist by the Hoare family for the sum of 720 French Livres under the title La mère complaisant.
Provenance
Commissioned by the Duc de Choiseul (1719 – 1785) and bought directly from the artist by the Hoare family, thence by descent; given to the National Trust along with the house, its grounds, and the rest of contents by Sir Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare, 6th Bt (1865 – 1947) in 1946.
Credit line
Stourhead, The Hoare Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Recto: Signed and dated L. Lagrenee 1771
Makers and roles
Louis Jean François Lagrenée (Paris 1725 – Paris 1805), artist