The Gardener (c. 1723–27): Art, History and Details

The Gardener (c. 1723–27) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Nicolas Lancret (French, 1690–1743).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This whimsical series is one typically found in fashionable, elite Parisian residences of the eighteenth century. Panel paintings of this variety were created to decorated the space above chair rails and in between doors and windows, and Lancret's series was painted for a room in the Pavillon d'Hauteville in Paris. In keeping with the eighteenth-century French tradition of depicting the four seasons or the times of the day, Lancret's five decorative panels have a unifying theme. Pastoral activities and games, favored themes of Lancret, are the overarching motifs, and depict afternoon pastimes, set in nature. Three of the panels, The Swing, The See Saw, and The Vintage,depict lithe, youthful duets playfully engaging in the outdoor pleasures, while the narrower panels, The Gardener and Horticulture, host individual figures cultivating lush, private gardens. Despite the disparate subjects, stylistic details unify the series, including the delicate arabesques derived from nature that frame the scenes, and similar flora and fauna in each panel.

Object facts

• Title: The Gardener
• Date: c. 1723–27
• Creator attribution: Nicolas Lancret (French, 1690–1743)
• Culture: France
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 157 x 43 x 5.5 cm (61 13/16 x 16 15/16 x 2 3/16 in.); Unframed: 151 x 36.5 cm (59 7/16 x 14 3/8 in.)
• Collection: P - French 18th Century
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1948.176.1

Collection credit

Gift of the Louis Dudley Beaumont Foundation

Further reading listed by the museum

• Wildenstein, Georges. Lancret. Paris: G. Servant, 1924.
• Detroit Institute of Arts. The Fourth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters: French Paintings of the Eighteenth Century, Detroit Institute of Arts, December 2 to 20, 1926. [Detroit]: [Institute of Arts], 1926.
• Detroit Institute of Arts. The Fourth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters: French Paintings of the Eighteenth Century, Detroit Institute of Arts, December 2 to 20, 1926. [Detroit]: [Institute of Arts], 1926.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.