Jean Antoine Watteau Valenciennes 1684 - 1721 Nogent-sur-Marne

bidding is closed

Description

Jean Antoine Watteau
recto: Man Kneeling in Prayer (Saint Louis)verso by another hand: Couple from Commedia del' Arte
recto: red chalk on paper
verso: pen and gray ink and watercolor
8 5/8 by 6 9/16 in.
20.3 by 15.2 cm.

Provenance

With Leo Franklyn, London, 1957;
With Central Picture Galleries, New York, 1970

Literature

L. Franklyn and D. Carrit, Antoine Watteau, Twenty-six Recently Found Drawings, London 1957, reproduced pl. 20;
K. T. Parker and J. Mathey, Antoine Watteau, Catalogue complet de son oeuvre dessiné, Paris 1957, vol. 1, no .110 (recto), reproduced. and 111(verso);
J. Mathey, Antoine Watteau. Peintures réapparues, inconnues ou négligées par les historiens; identifications par les dessins; chronologie, Paris 1959, pp. 13 and 30;
D. Sutton, "Drawings of Antoine Watteau," in The Burlington Magazine, CI, January 1959, p. 31, with doubts about the attribution;
J. Mathey, "Drawings by Watteau and Gillot," in The Burlington Magazine, CII, August 1960, p. 358;
M. P. Eidelberg, Watteau's Drawings, Their Use and Significance, doctoral thesis, Princeton University, 1965, published London and New York, 1977, p. 51, note 31, pp. 137-139, fig. 136 (recto) and 138 (verso);
M. Morgan Grasselli, "Watteau's use of the trois-crayon technique," in Drawings Defined, New York 1987, p. 194, note 4;
P. Rosenberg and L.-A. Prat, Antoine Watteau 1684-1721. Catalogue raisonné des dessins, Milan 1996, p. 244, no. 156, recto and verso reproduced;
M. Morgan Grasselli, "Review of Pierre Rosenberg and Louis-Antoine Prat, Antoine Watteau 1684-1721," in Master Drawings, vol. 39, no. 3, 2001, p. 318, as possibly by Claude Gillot.

Catalogue Note

This was one of a diverse group of drawings attributed to Watteau, which was acquired by Leo Franklyn and David Carrit in London. Jacques Mathey upheld the attribution and published the group, but the only drawing now considered to be by Watteau is the recto of the present sheet.

Rosenberg and Prat included it in their catalogue raisonné of Watteau's drawings (see Literature), though they knew the drawing only in reproduction, and suggested it might be a copy after Claude Vignon. M. Rosenberg confirmed the attribution when he saw the drawing itself in October 2001.