Jean Antoine Watteau

G.Déloye (L.756);
sale, Paris, 12-15 June 1899, lot 144;
with H. Shickman, New York, 1973;
New York, private collection;
Sale, New York, Christie’s, 2 January 2003, lot 65.

P. Rosenberg and L.-A. Prat, Antoine Watteau 1684-1721, Catalogue raisonné des dessins, Milan 1996, vol. II, no. 421

 

Laid down. Paper surface very slightly discoloured, but overall condition generally very good and fresh. Sold in a carved and gilded frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Engraved: In reverse by Jean de Jullienne (fig. 1)

An impression of Jean de Jullienne's etching after this drawing, conserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, bears an 18th-century inscription identifying the prototype: 'Le dessein original est du Schidone il est deux tiers plus petit et on le voit dans la Collection de Mr Mariette. Watteau qui le trouvait Charmant la dessiné tel que le voici et c'est Mr de Julienne qui l'a gravé.' ('The original drawing is by Schidone, it is two-thirds smaller and it can be seen in M. Mariette's collection. Watteau, who found it charming, drew it, as can be seen here, and it is M. de Jullienne who engraved it').  The drawing that Watteau copied, by the Emilian painter Bartolomeo Schedoni (1578-1615), is today lost, but, as the inscription on the Jullienne print records, it was once in the collection of the celebrated drawings connoisseur Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694-1774), and was lot 712 in the 1775 sale of his collection. Pierre Rosenberg and Louis-Antoine Prat speculate that the Schedoni drawing may previously have belonged to Pierre Crozat (1665-1740), at whose posthumous sale in 1741 Mariette was an active buyer.

More than seventy drawn copies by Watteau after paintings and drawings by the Old Masters are known today, which, as Pierre Rosenberg has observed, are reasonably faithful records of the prototypes, yet also very distinctively by Watteau.¹  The artist's biographer, the Comte de Caylus, noted in 1748 that his friend copied the Old Masters with an eye 'to their possible usefulness', and clearly focussed on the aspects of their work that were most in keeping with his own. It is probable that his copy of Schedone's Virgin and Child provided Watteau with inspiration when he came to paint his own Holy Family (fig. 2), a picture that was purchased by Catherine the Great in 1769, and is now in the Hermitage.

The drawing's spatial clarity and sharply accented modelling led Rosenberg and Prat to date it circa 1715-16, on stylistic grounds.

1.  P. Rosenberg, 'Watteau's Copies after the Old Masters' in A. Wintermute, et al., Watteau and His World: French Drawing from 1700 to 1750, exh. cat., New York, Frick Collection, and Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, 1999-2000, pp. 50-55