painted vellum with net insertions, ivory sticks, articulated guards, French, 1770s

Vellum leaf painted in watercolour, arranged as pictorial panels originally alternating with insertions of patterned and stiffened gauze. This has suffered damage, and has largely been replaced with later net. The central painted panel shows a pastoral scene of two girls in a garden with Cupid. Columns flank the net insertions, and the remaining vellum panels are painted with realistic depictions of flowers on solid coloured grounds. The ivory sticks are carved and painted, and the guards are articulated; that is, they each contain six portraits, and by sliding a thumb-piece show alternately either portraits of three girls or of three youths.
The verso depicts a landscape scene.

Given by Hester Popham

In 1711, The Spectator satirised the use of fans, claiming ‘women are armed with Fans as Men with Swords, and sometimes do more Execution with them’.

This fan has elaborate decoration of panels of net inserted into the vellum leaf. The central scene reflects the influence of the paintings of François Boucher and Jean Honoré Fragonard. Two girls sit in a garden with rose trellis and lake behind, while Cupid aims his arrow at one of them. Such an idealised outdoor scene is typical of the pastoral views popular on 18th-century fans.

The ivory sticks are carved and painted, and the guards are articulated; that is, they each contain six portraits, and by sliding a thumb-piece show alternately either portraits of three girls or of three youths. Such fans with articulated sticks are extremely rare.

T.19-1939