Lot 138
  • 138

Pierre Etienne Falconet

Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 GBP
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Description

  • Pierre Etienne Falconet
  • A Young Girl Holding an Apple
  • Black, white and red chalk on blue (discolored) paper;
    numbered in brown ink lower right: 15
  • 16 5/8 x 13 1/8 inches

Provenance

With Rosenberg and Stiebel, New York;
Mme d'Ayala;
sale, New York, Christie's, 10 January 1990, lot 124,
where purchased by the late Jan Krugier

Exhibited

Venice, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, The Timeless Eye: Master Drawings from the Jan and Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski Collection, 1999, no. 69

Literature

A. Dückers, Line, Licht und Schatten, Meisterzeichnungen und Skulturen der Sammlung Jan und Marie-Anne Krugier -oniatowski, Berlin, 1999, p. 401.
P. Rylands, The Timeless Eye: Master drawings from the Jan and Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski Collection, Berlin, 1999, p. 401

Condition

Laid down. Surface slightly rubbed and paper has also slightly discolored. It has small repairs and losses around the edges and a few small tears. There are about five pin point holes scattered on the sheet. The black chalk is still quite strong and fresh. Sold in a wooden gilded partly old French late eighteenth century 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."

Catalogue Note

Writing in the 1999 exhibition catalogue, Jean-François Méjanès suggested that this portrait was executed by Falconet while in England.  The artist lived in London from 1766 until 1773, devoting his time mainly to portraiture.  The son of the famous French sculptor, Etienne Falconet (1716-1791), he had come to England on the recommendation of his father, to join the famous English portraitist, Joshua Reynolds.  The young Falconet soon had great success with his natural and lively portraits of children.  As Méjanès pointed out, both the costume of this little girl and her gesture, holding a peach or an apple, are also to be found in Falconet's portrait of Miss Harriet Parrot, engraved in mezzotint by Valentine Green.  A great many of the artist's portraits of this type were reproduced in this way, in the newly popular mezzotint technique. 

Falconet's profile portraits recall a type of image developed in France by Charles-Nicolas Cochin around 1760, and Méjanès considered that Falconet was responsible for introducing this genre of image to England, when he moved there a few years later.  Another similarly executed portrait by Falconet of a child seen in profile was on the art market in 1993.1

1 Sale, London, Christie’s, 13 January 1993, lot 96