The Rest by a Fountain
Charles-Joseph Natoire, French, 1700 - 1777
about 1737
Oil on canvas
Overall: 27 3/16 × 35 13/16 in. (69 × 91 cm)
Frame: 34 3/4 × 43 9/16 × 3 1/16 in. (88.2 × 110.6 × 7.7 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Mrs. Harvey P. Hood W'18 Fund and the Miriam H. and S. Sidney Stoneman Acquisition Fund
P.995.43
Geography
Place Made: France, Europe
Period
1600-1800
Object Name
Painting
Research Area
Nazi-Era Provenance Research
Painting
Not on view
Inscriptions
Signed, lower left: Natoire. / .f.
Label
Working for noble patrons in Paris in the 1730s and 1740s, Charles-Joseph Natoire specialized in mythological and pastoral themes. Here, the artist imagines peasants and a noblewoman meeting at a fountain, a bucolic scene that would have been favored by the upper classes, who romanticized rural life. The artist’s colors have shifted over time; the synthetic green, likely the copper-derived pigment verdigris, has turned brown. Natoire also worked in oil paint, which thins over time and becomes increasingly transparent, revealing parts of the painting that were once obscured. These traces attest to an artist’s process and are called pentimenti. Most prominently, the head of a dog, which the artist later painted over, has reemerged beneath the horse’s feet.
From the 2025 exhibition Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Making Colors in Europe, 1400–1800, curated by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art
Course History
ARTH 2, Introduction to the History of Art II, Joy Kenseth, Marlene Heck, Winter 2012
ARTH 2, Introduction to the History of Art II, Katie Hornstein, Jane Carroll, Winter 2013
ARTH 2, Introduction to the History of Art II, Katie Hornstein, Jane Carroll, Winter 2013
ARTH 2, Introduction to the History of Art II, Joy Kenseth, Mary Coffey, Winter 2014
ARTH 48, Rococo to Neoclassicism, Kristin O'Rourke, Fall 2014
ARTH 2, Introduction to the History of Art II, Joy Kenseth, Mary Coffey, Winter 2016
ARTH 48, Art & Society in the Age of the Rococo, Kristin O'Rourke, Winter 2016
ARTH 28.05, Art & Society in the Rococo, Kristin O'Rourke, Spring 2022
ITAL 1.01, Introductory Italian I, Giorgio Alberti, Fall 2022
ITAL 1.02, Introductory Italian I, Andrea Zoller, Fall 2022
ITAL 1.03, Introductory Italian I, Andrea Zoller, Fall 2022
Italian 1.02, Introductory Italian I, Andrea Zoller, Winter 2023
Italian 1.01, Introductory Italian I, Giorgio Alberti, Winter 2023
Italian 11.01, Intensive Italian, Giorgio Alberti, Winter 2023
Art History 7.05, Pompeii: Antique & Modern, Ada Cohen, Winter 2023
Italian 2.01, Introductory Italian II, Andrea Zoller, Winter 2023
Italian 2.02, Introductory Italian II, Matteo Gilebbi, Winter 2023
History 47.02, The French Revolution, Darrin McMahon, Spring 2023
Italian 1.01, Introductory Italian 1, Giorgio Alberti, Fall 2023
Italian 1.02, Introductory Italian 1, Marco D'Angelo, Fall 2023
Italian 1.03, Introductory Italian 1, Floriana Ciniglia, Fall 2023
Italian 1.04, Introductory Italian 1, Noemi Perego, Fall 2023
Italian 2.01, Introductory Italian II, Marco D'Angelo, Fall 2023
Italian 1.01, Introductory Italian 1, Giorgio Alberti, Winter 2024
Italian 1.02, Introductory Italian 1, Floriana Ciniglia, Winter 2024
Italian 2.01, Introductory Italian II, Giorgio Alberti, Winter 2024
Italian 2.02, Introductory Italian II, Noemi Perego, Winter 2024
Studio Art 17.08, Digital Drawing, Karol Kawiaka, Winter 2024
Studio Art 17.08, Digital Drawing, Karol Kawiaka, Winter 2024
Geography 29.01, Global Cities, Erin Collins, Spring 2024
Geography 29.01, Global Cities, Erin Collins, Spring 2024
Italian 1.01, Introductory Italian I, Noemi Perego, Spring 2024
Italian 11.01, Intensive Italian, Floriana Ciniglia, Spring 2024
Italian 2.01, Introductory Italian II, Floriana Ciniglia, Spring 2024
Italian 3.01, Introductory Italian III, Tania Convertini, Spring 2024
Italian 3.02, Introductory Italian III, Giorgio Alberti, Spring 2024
Italian 1.02, Introductory Italian I, Floriana Ciniglia, Fall 2024
Italian 1.03, Introductory Italian I, Floriana Ciniglia, Fall 2024
Italian 1.01, Introductory Italian I, Floriana Ciniglia, Fall 2024
Italian 11.01, Intensive Italian, Matteo Gilebbi, Fall 2024
Italian 3.01, Introductory Italian III, Giorgio Alberti, Fall 2024
Italian 3.02, Introductory Italian III, Matteo Gilebbi, Fall 2024
Exhibition History
America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, May 21-August 20, 2017.
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Making Colors in Europe, 1400–1800, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 6 - Fall 2026.
Aspects of Human Experience: Works from the Permanent Collection, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Art History 2, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 12, 1998-March 14, 1999.
European Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, William B. Jaffe and Evelyn A. Jaffe Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 30, 2008-March 8, 2009.
From Altarpiece to Portrait: Assembling a European Collection, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26, 2019-February 16, 2020.
Intimate Encounters: Love and Domesticity in Eighteenth-Century France, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 4, 1997-January 4, 1998; The Toledo Museum, Toledo, Ohio, February 15-May 10, 1998; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, May 31-August 23, 1998.
Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 20, 2009-present.
Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 28, 1995-June 22, 1997.
Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 3, 1999-January 14, 2008.
Points of View, Art History 2, ARTH 2, Winter 2016, Joy Kenseth and Mary Coffey, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 1-March 13, 2016.
Publication History
Richard Rand, Intimate Encounters: Love and Domesticity in Eighteenth-Century France, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1997, ill. title page, p.119-121, no. 15, ill. p. 121.
"9 Reasons Why The Hood Bought This Painting", Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, Volume 88, Number 8, May 1996, South Burlington: The Lane Press Inc., 1996, pages 46-47
T. Barton Thurber, Twenty Years of Building a Collection: The Hood Museum of Art, Apollo (Vol. 162, no. 526), December 2005, London: Apollo Magazine, 2005, pp. 46-53, ill. p.51.
T. Barton Thurber, European Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2008, pp. 66-67, ill. p.67, no. 25.
John R. Stomberg, The Hood Now: Art and Inquiry at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2019, p. 99, ill. plate no. 30.
Provenance
Jean-Francois de Canchy (b. 1949), France, date unknown; sold Christie's, Monaco, 4 December 1992, lot 49; where sold to Didier Aaron, Inc., New York, New York, 1992; where acquired by the present collection, 1995.
This record is part of an active database that includes information from historic documentation that may not have been recently reviewed. Information may be inaccurate or incomplete. We also acknowledge some language and imagery may be offensive, violent, or discriminatory. These records reflect the institution’s history or the views of artists or scholars, past and present. Our collections research is ongoing.
We welcome questions, feedback, and suggestions for improvement. Please contact us at: Hood.Collections@dartmouth.edu