AFTER NICOLAS LANCRET | 'A femme avare, galant escroc'

oil on oak panel This work represents the ballad from 1666 by Jean de la Fontaine: 'A femme avare, galant escroc' ('the lover for a stingy woman is a swindler'), itself based on a thirteenth-century short story by the great Italian poet and Humanist, Giovanni Boccaccio. The original painting by Nicolas Lancret is an oil on copper, 28 x 36 cm., today in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow (inv. no. Ж-982), datable to 'circa' 1740–50.1 The present picture is in the opposite sense to Lancret's work, since it derives from the popular engraving made after the painting by Nicolas de Larmessin (1684–1755).2 The engraving includes the verses: 'Rayez les cent Louis prétés: car A Madame / Hier, devant temoins, je les ay bien rendus: / l'Epoux enrageroit encor plus que la femme, / S'il scavoit a quel titre elle les a recus.' 1 http://www.arts-museum.ru/data/fonds/europe_and_america/j/2001_3000/6605_Skupoy_zhenschine___lyubovnik_plut/index.php?lang=en2 http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1618028&partId=1&searchText=lancret+femme+avare&page=1

All paintings available to view at the Sotheby’s Greenford Park warehouse, 5 - 7 and 10 – 13 September (10 - 4pm), by appointment. The panel is uncradled and very slightly bowed. The paint surface is slightly dirty and the varnish is discoloured. Small surface scuffs and losses are visible, particularly along the upper and lower margins, and fine lines of discoloured retouching are visible in the craquelure, particularly in the lady's white dress, and the green table cloth. Inspection under ultraviolet light is impeded by the dirty varnish, beneath which the aforementioned retouchings are only just visible. More recent retouchings appear in all four corners, and along the lower margin.
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