The collection of Dr La Caze

The collection of Dr La Caze

I have already expressed my admiration for Dr La Caze’s prodigious bequest: more than five-hundred paintings, now scattered throughout the Louvre or on deposit in the provinces. A small room, however, remains dedicated to him (Sully, room 918). A few small-format works have found refuge here, like Watteau’s L’Indifférent and La Finette, and Boucher’s The Painter in his Studio. But not a single Chardin, not a single Fragonard, even though those two painters, together with Boucher and Watteau, formed the core of the doctor’s collection of French eighteenth-century paintings, which were few at the Louvre before his donation. Chardin’s The Copper Drinking Fountain and Still Life with Cooking Utensils from the collection are exhibited farther on (room 920), and, even farther, the delicious Brioche (room 928), as well as Fragonard’s The Raised Chemise, in another gallery (room 930). If it were up to me, Dr La Caze would be more honored than he is. For a long while, his self-portrait—as he was also an amateur painter—was exhibited alongside his collection. It is now in the storerooms. I will request to see it.