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Jean-Augustin Franquelin
French, 1798–1839
Reading to the Convalescent
c. 1827
In this tender scene, a young couple, presumably husband and wife, sit together in a well-appointed room. Pale and weak, the woman holds the man’s hand and leans against his shoulder as he reads aloud. The third figure, perhaps the ailing woman’s mother, also listens attentively to the reading. Franquelin specialized in such scenes of domestic life, which often hint at a moral message.
Image Caption
Jean-Augustin Franquelin, Reading to the Convalescent, c. 1827, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.740
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
24 1/8 x 19 13/16 in. (61.3 x 50.4 cm)
Frame: 34 3/8 x 30 1/4 x 3 in. (87.3 x 76.8 x 7.6 cm)
Object Number
1955.740
Acquisition
Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status
Off View
Select Bibliography
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012.
Provenance
Alexandre du Sommerard, Paris (by 1827); [Moyon, Paris, by 1837, his sale, Pierret, Paris, 16–20 Jan. 1838, no. 364]; [Neuville & Vivien, Paris, sold to Clark, 10 Mar. 1931, as La lecture à la convalescente]; Robert Sterling Clark (1931–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.