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    Museum collections / Art Institute of Chicago
    Innocence Prefers Love to Riches
    Pierre Paul Prud'hon. Innocence Prefers Love to Riches, c. 1804. The Art Institute of Chicago. Public domain (CC0).

    Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago

    AT-00000733

    Innocence Prefers Love to Riches

    by Pierre Paul Prud'hon

    View at the Art Institute of Chicago

    Provenance

    Probably François Marcille (died 1856), Paris [de Goncourt and de Goncourt 1876 report that he bought it in 1839 and bequeathed it to his son Camille]; by descent to his son, Camille Marcille (died 1875), Paris; his estate sale Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 6, 1876, lot 51, for 8,000 francs [price according to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague]. L. Tabourier, Paris, by 1889 [lent to Paris 1889]; sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 20–22, 1898, lot 118, for 5,000 francs [price according to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague]. Durand-Ruel, Paris, by 1898 [it is likely that Durand-Ruel purchased the painting at the Tabourier sale, possibly as agent for Martin A. Ryerson]; sold to Martin A. Ryerson (died 1932) for 5,000 francs, July 20, 1898 [according to the transaction invoice, Ryerson Papers, Art Institute Archives]; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1933.

    Exhibition history

    Chartres, Société Archéologique d’Eure-et-Loir, Exposition Archéologique et d’objets d’art, May 10–June 10, 1858, no. 103, as Le mépris des richesses. Paris, École des Beaux-Arts, Exposition des œuvres de Prud’hon au profit de sa fille, May 4–July 4, 1874, cat. 71. Paris, Exposition Universelle Internationale de 1889: Exposition Centennale de l’art français (1789–1889), 1889, cat. 554. Art Institute of Chicago, Selected Works of 18th Century French Art in the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, January 24–April 15, 1976, cat. 19.

    Publications

    Edmond de Goncourt and Jules de Goncourt, Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, dessiné et gravé de P.P. Prud'hon (Paris: Rapilly, 1876) pp. 310–11; repr. in Œuvres Complètes vol. 7–8 (Geneva and Paris: Slatkine Reprints, 1986). Charles Clément, Prud'hon: Sa vie, ses oeuvres et sa correspondance (Paris: Didier et Cie, 1872), p. 412, n. 2. Jean Guiffrey, P. P. Prud'hon: peinture, pastels et dessins (Paris: Albert Morancé, 1924), p. 35, under no. 18. Jean Guiffrey, L'œuvre de P.-P. Prud'hon (Paris: Armand Colin, 1924), p. 25, no. 67. Rose Mary Fischkin, “Martin A. Ryerson Collection of Paintings and Sculpture, XIII to XVIII Century, Loaned to The Art Institute of Chicago” (unpub. MS, 1926, Ryerson Library, The Art Institute of Chicago), p. 151. Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), p. 361. Colin Harrison, Line and Colour: 19th Century French Drawings from the Collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, exh. cat. (Tokyo Station Gallery, 1992), n. pag, under no. 1. Sylvain Laveissière, Prud’hon ou le rêve du bonheur, exh. cat. (Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, and Metropolitan Musuem of Art, 1997), p. 181–2, under no. 120, fig. 120a. Phyllis G. Tortora, Survey of Historic Costume: A History of Western Dress (New York: Fairchild Publications, 1998), p. 259, fig. C. Elizabeth E. Guffey, Drawing an Elusive Line: The Art of Pierre-Paul Prud’hon (Newark: University of Delaware Press, and London: Associate University Press, 2001), pp. 181, 186, fig. 127. Pierre Rosenberg, Passion for Drawing: Poussin to Cézanne, Works from the Prat Collection, exh. cat. (Art Services International, Alexandria, VA, 2004), p. 174, under no. 52, fig. 2.

    Open-access museum data

    This record comes from the open-access collection data that the Art Institute of Chicago publishes for unrestricted use (Creative Commons Zero). Art Trackers shows a selection of the museum's published fields. The Art Institute of Chicago is not an Art Trackers client and has not reviewed or endorsed this page; the museum's own website is the authoritative record.

    • View this work at the Art Institute of Chicago
    • The Art Institute of Chicago: open-access terms

    Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.

    Quick Overview

    Artist
    Pierre Paul Prud'hon (French, 1758–1823)
    Date
    c. 1804
    Medium
    Oil on panel
    Dimensions
    34.3 × 27.2 cm (13 1/2 × 10 9/16 in.); Framed: 44.5 × 37.2 cm (17 1/2 × 14 5/8 in.)
    Type
    Painting
    Classification
    painting
    Style
    nineteenth century
    Place
    France
    Department
    Painting and Sculpture of Europe
    Credit line
    Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
    Accession no.
    1933.1090

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    Open-access museum record · AT-00000733

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