{
"data": {
"id": 149176,
"accession_number": "1977.93",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "The Fables of La Fontaine: The Fox and the Turkey Hens, 1733. Jean-Baptiste Oudry (French, 1686\u20131755). Brush and black ink and gray wash heightened with white gouache, blue ink in margin; framing lines in brown ink; image: 24 x 18.8 cm (9 7/16 x 7 3/8 in.); sheet: 31 x 26 cm (12 3/16 x 10 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1977.93",
"current_location": null,
"title": "The Fox and the Turkey Hens",
"series": "The Fables of La Fontaine",
"creation_date": "1733",
"creation_date_earliest": 1733,
"creation_date_latest": 1733,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"France, 18th century"
],
"technique": "brush and black ink and gray wash heightened with white gouache, blue ink in margin; framing lines in brown ink",
"support_materials": [
{
"description": "blue laid paper",
"watermarks": []
}
],
"department": "Drawings",
"collection": "DR - French",
"type": "Drawing",
"measurements": "Image: 24 x 18.8 cm (9 7/16 x 7 3/8 in.); Sheet: 31 x 26 cm (12 3/16 x 10 1/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.31,
"height_inch": 12,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.1875,
"width": 0.26,
"width_inch": 10,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.25
},
"image": {
"height": 0.24,
"height_inch": 9,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.4375,
"width": 0.188,
"width_inch": 7,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.375
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "signed, lower right, in brown ink: JB. Oudry / 1733; VERSO, upper center, in brown ink: 103.",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 302666,
"title": "Year in Review: 1977",
"description": "Year in Review: 1977. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1977-January 22, 1978).",
"opening_date": "1977-12-28T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 304539,
"title": "Brush Drawings",
"description": "Brush Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 3-May 10, 1981).",
"opening_date": "1981-03-03T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 309577,
"title": "French Prints and Drawings in the Age of the Bourbons, 1589-1792",
"description": "French Prints and Drawings in the Age of the Bourbons, 1589-1792. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 2-May 16, 1982).",
"opening_date": "1982-02-02T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 309513,
"title": "Paper: The Continuous Thread",
"description": "Paper: The Continuous Thread. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 31-October 24, 1982).",
"opening_date": "1982-08-31T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 309877,
"title": "Nocturnal Impressions",
"description": "Nocturnal Impressions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20-May 12, 1985).",
"opening_date": "1985-02-20T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311635,
"title": "French Drawings from the Collection",
"description": "French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995).",
"opening_date": "1994-12-13T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 543573,
"title": "Fairy Tales and Fables: Illustration and Storytelling in Art",
"description": "Fairy Tales and Fables: Illustration and Storytelling in Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 4-September 8, 2024).",
"opening_date": "2024-05-04T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "17th and 18th Century Genre and French Drawings, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (May 31-August 19, 1979).",
"opening_date": "1979-05-31T04:00:00Z"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "collection of the artist",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "Montenault",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "c. 1751 ",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "the bothers De Bure",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "by 1828 ",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "[sale of J.-J. De Bure, 1853, no. 344]",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1853 ",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "Adolphe Thibaudeau",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "[Solar sale, 1860, no. 627]",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "Morgand, Paris",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "c. 1876 ",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "M. Roederer, Reims",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "Rosenbach, New York",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "c. 1930 ",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "Private collection, New York",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "all according to Opperman 1977, p. 683: collection of the artist; c. 1751sold to Montenault (not in Lugt). the bothers De Bure, by 1828 (not in Lugt); [sale of J.-J. De Bure, 1853, no. 344] (no sale listed by Lugt); Adolphe Thibaudeau (no article in Lugt, but see under 2473). [Solar sale, 1860, no. 627] (sale not cited by Lugt). Morgand, Paris, c. 1876 (not in Lugt); M. Roederer, Reims (not in Lugt); Rosenbach, New York, c. 1930 (not in Lugt); Private collection, New York. [Claus Virch]",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "The most recent edition of La Fontaine\u2019s Fables illustrated by Oudry was a colored version produced in 2007 by Editions Diane de Selliers.",
"description": "This drawing depicts a fable about turkeys whose anxieties about falling victim to a fox ultimately make them susceptible to the predator. It was one of 276 designs produced by Jean-Baptiste Oudry related to humorous but educational stories compiled by French poet Jean de La Fontaine in the later 1600s. Published in four luxurious volumes between 1755 and 1759, The Fables of La Fontaine withOudry\u2019s illustrations was one of the most ambitious publishing projects of the artist\u2019s time. The books were art objects meant to be collected more than read, but they were successful enough that they were reissued several times in later centuries.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79930167"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1977.93-the-fox-and-the-turk"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Webb, Sheila, and Cleveland Museum of Art. Paper, the Continuous Thread. Cleveland, OH: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 43, no. 34; Mentioned: p. 68",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Montan\u0303\u00e9s-Lleras, Susana. \u201cFairy Tales and Fables\" The transformation of illustration in the long 19th century.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 64, no. 1 (2024): 10-11.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 10",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM-2024-01/page/10/mode/2up"
},
{
"citation": "Montan\u0303\u00e9s-lleras, Susana. \u201cOf Technology and Fantasy: fairy tales, fables, and the transformation of illustration in the long 19th century.\u201d Gramarye : The Journal of the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy 28 (Winter 2025): 51-65.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 53, fig. 3, Mentioned: p. 56-59.",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1977.93",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1977.93/1977.93_web.jpg",
"width": "751",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "136848",
"filename": "1977.93_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1977.93/1977.93_print.jpg",
"width": "2861",
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"filesize": "2414895",
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"full": {
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"width": "5582",
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},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 149176,
"creators": [
{
"id": 1949,
"description": "Jean-Baptiste Oudry (French, 1686\u20131755)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1686",
"death_year": "1755",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1977-10-22T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1733,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1733",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"The Fox and the Turkey Hens: Illustration for the Fables of La Fontaine"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 07:40:48.242000"
}
}