Jean-Michel Moreau, called Moreau Le Jeune

Comte Henri de Greffulhe, Paris;
sale, London, Sotheby's, 22 July 1937, lot 35;
Dr. Tancred Borenius;
Oscar Bondy, Vienna and New York,
his sale, New York, Kende Galleries, 3 March 1949, lot 61;
Baroness Cassel van Doorn, Paris;
sale, Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 30 May 1956, lot 21;
René Fribourg, New York,
his sale, London, Sotheby's, 16 October 1963, lot 593 (as Moreau le Jeune and 'Jacques-Ange' Gabriel),
with William H. Schab, New York, from 1963 until 1967;
Private Collection, New York

Berlin, Royal Academy of Art, Exposition d'œuvres de l'art français au XVIIIème siècle, 1910, no. 196

F. Folliot, 'Restitution à Moreau le Jeune d'un dessin de la collection des Goncourt, conservé au Musée Carnavalet', Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire de l’Art français, 1992, p. 89, under no. 18

This grand depiction of a magnificent palatial structure, dramatically lit by enormous torchères, elaborate chandeliers and dappled moonlight, was at one point considered to be a collaborative work between Moreau le Jeune and the prominent French architect, Ange-Jacques Gabriel¹, but more recently the latter's involvement has been doubted.²  The drawing most probably depicts a temporary structure that was erected at Versailles for the ceremonial marriage, in 1770, of the Dauphin, later Louis XVI, to Marie-Antoinette, a hugely significant moment in European history, and an event which Moreau le Jeune, who had recently been appointed Dessinateur des Menus Plaisirs du Roi, undoubtedly witnessed.  Indeed, he made at least one other large drawing, now at Versailles, showing another moment in the celebrations; in his Illuminations du parc de Versailles, thousands of well-wishers can be seen set against the backdrop of the Fountain of Apollo.³

The present work is particularly impressive both in its scale and in the way that Moreau manages to capture perfectly the atmosphere of the occasion, with the vibrant mass of individual figures in the foreground, while also simultaneously portraying the architectural splendour of the building behind. On a technical level, the drawing is particularly notable for the extensive use of scratching out, a technique that Moreau has used here to create a sense not only of light but also of heat.  Areas in which this relatively rare technique has been employed include the wavering flames emitting from the seven torchères in the foreground, and the lights in each of the six visible chandeliers.

Although Moreau went on to execute a series of engravings celebrating the Dauphin’s marriage, it has not been possible to connect this magnificent sheet with a known print.  That does not, however, in any way detract from the significance of this hugely decorative and finely executed drawing, which gives the viewer a fascinating insight into the splendours of the French monarchy in the final few decades of the ancien régime.

1. In the 1963 Fribourg sale catalogue
2. Folliot, loc. cit. 
3. Versailles, Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, inv. no. MV5717