Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:The Rope Dance
Artist:Léonard Defrance (Flemish, 1735–1805)
Medium:Oil on wood
Dimensions:19 7/8 x 28 5/8 in. (50.5 x 72.7 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Purchase, 1871
Object Number:71.105
Inscription: Signed (lower right): L. Defrance / de Liege
baron de Heusch, Château de l'Andweck (until 1870; sale, Étienne Le Roy and Victor Le Roy, Brussels, May 9–10, 1870, no. 66); comte Cornet de Ways Ruart, Brussels (until d. 1870); William T. Blodgett, Paris (from 1870; sold half share to Johnston); William T. Blodgett, Paris, and John Taylor Johnston, New York (1870–71; sold to The Met)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Taste of the Seventies," April 2–September 10, 1946, no. 8.
Michel N. Benisovich. "Belgian Painters of the XVIII Century in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Art in America 35 (July 1947), p. 211, fig. 2.
Millia Davenport. The Book of Costume. New York, 1948, vol. 2, p. 715, no. 1992, ill. (cropped).
Michel N. Benisovich. "Les peintres du XVIIIe siècle en Belgique au Metropolitan Museum de New-York." Revue belge d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art 22, nos. 3–4 (1953), p. 191, fig. 2 [expanded version of Ref. Benisovich 1947].
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 28.
Joseph Philippe. "Léonard Defrance et les gravures exécutées d'après ses oeuvres." Chronique Archéologique de Pays de Liège 53 (1962), p. 101.
Alice Mackrell. Letters. October 4 and November 9, 1982, first suggests a date of 1785–87; later tentatively dates it 1786–87 on the basis of costumes.
Walter A. Liedtke. Flemish Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1984, vol. 1, pp. 38–39; vol. 2, pl. 19.
Françoise Dehousse, Maïté Pacco, and Maurice Pauchen. Léonard Defrance: l'oeuvre peint. Liège, 1985, pp. 18, 140–41, no. 216, ill., date it about 1785 on the basis of costumes.
Jacques Hendrick. La peinture au pays de Liège: XVIe, XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Liège, 1987, fig. 235.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 295, ill.
Katharine Baetjer. "Buying Pictures for New York: The Founding Purchase of 1871." Metropolitan Museum Journal 39 (2004), pp. 170, 197, 201, 245, appendix 1A no. 41, ill.
The cradled panel, in very good condition, is made up of two boards joined horizontally. The surface has been distorted by the cradle.
Dehousse, Pacco, and Pauchen (1985) list "Les Comédiens ambulants" (no. 213; sold in Brussels, May 9–10, 1870, no. 65) as the pendant to this picture. They also list four preparatory drawings (nos. 217b–e) for this picture and for another version of the subject (no. 217; sold in Amsterdam, April 30–May 2, 1907, no. 68). A woman in a costume similar to that of the acrobat occurs in paintings by Defrance of charlatans (see Dehousse, Pacco, and Pauchen 1985, nos. 208–12).
Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, Siegen 1577–1640 Antwerp)
ca. 1630
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
