Fragonard makes €10.6 million in Paris, but its destination remains unknown
Fragonard and Watteau accounted for more than half of the Patiño evening sale. The results leave open the public-access question raised before the auction.
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Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s L’Instant désiré ou Les Amants heureux sold for €10.6 million at Christie’s in Paris on 23 September. Antoine Watteau’s L’Île enchantée followed closely at €10.37 million. Together, the two paintings accounted for more than half of the €38,736,120 evening sale of the Graziella Patiño de Ortiz Linares collection.
Fragonard’s estimate was €2.5 million to €3.5 million. The €10.6 million result includes buyer’s premium; the estimate excludes it, so a direct multiple would overstate the bidding comparison. Art History News drew attention to the result the following day. Christie’s own lot and results pages confirm the figures.
The small canvas, 49.5 by 60.5 cm, shows an embracing couple amid loose, luminous drapery. It arrives with a substantial exhibition and ownership history. Christie’s places it with J. Pierpont Morgan by 1907, then with the comtesse de la Béraudière by 1913. Graziella and Jorge Ortiz Linares acquired it from her, and it subsequently passed by descent.
The earlier chain is less secure. The catalogue describes ownership by the marquis de Livois as very probable and a later connection with Georges Hoentschel as possible. Those qualifications are part of the provenance, not details to be smoothed away when the sale is reported.
Christie’s describes a collection assembled over four decades for the couple’s Paris home, the Hôtel Blumenthal, with help from dealers including Marcel Bissey and Jacques Helft. That describes the formation of the wider collection; it does not establish that either dealer handled this particular Fragonard. The auction house’s assessment is also that of the seller’s representative.
There is a public-collection question behind the prices. Before the sale, Alexandre Lafore wrote in La Tribune de l’Art of his hope that the Fragonard might join works from the Livois collection in Angers. He also raised concern that the Fragonard and Watteau could leave France. These were hopes and concerns, not an announcement of a museum bid or an export decision.
Christie’s published results do not name the buyer or establish the painting’s destination. The collection’s dispersal is confirmed; its next public chapter is not. Whether either picture will remain accessible matters at least as much as a headline about prices, and cannot be answered from the totals alone.
Sources & further reading
Christie’s: Graziella Patiño de Ortiz Linares Collection: evening sale results
Christie’s: Lot 12: L’Instant désiré ou Les Amants heureux
Christie’s: 18th-century treasures from the Graziella Patiño de Ortiz Linares Collection (Lucy Scovell)
La Tribune de l’Art: Deux belles collections dispersées à Paris (Alexandre Lafore)
