- 55
François Boucher
Description
- François Boucher
- The Mill of Quiquengrogne at Charenton
- inscribed on a label on the reverse, in an 18th century(?) hand: Vue du Moulin de Charenton près de Paris/p....larie fit pour...M. Portail qui le céda à Mme de Pompadour; and in Russian, transcribed from an earlier lining: Restored under supervision of the Imperial Academy of Arts P. Sokolov 1862
- oil on canvas, in a painted oval
Provenance
Russian collection, 19th century;
Mme. C. Lelong;
By whom sold, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 1 May 1903, lot 5;
With Hamburger Frères, Paris, 1921;
William Randolph Hearst;
His sale, New York, Parke-Bernet, 5-7 January 1939, lot 22;
There acquired by B. Trevor for $5,500;
From whom acquired by Stair Sainty Matthiesen, New York;
From whom acquired by the late owner in 1987, and thence by descent.
Exhibited
Literature
P. de Nolhac, François Boucher, premier peintre du Roi, Paris 1907, p. 163;
H. Macfall, Boucher, London 1908, p. 155, reproduced p. 122;
A. Ananoff, François Boucher, Paris 1976, vol. II, p. 12, cat. no. 318, reproduced fig. 910;
A. Laing, in François Boucher 1703-1770, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1986, p. 282, under cat. no. 69;
G.S. Sainty, in François Boucher, His Circle and Influence, exhibition catalogue, New York 1987, pp. 53-55, reproduced pl. IV.
Condition
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."
Catalogue Note
The depictions of the mill structure by Boucher and other artists are quite varied. This might be explained by the existence of more than one mill of this unusual form but, more likely, these differences are due to artistic license and, in Boucher’s case, to a highly romanticized portrayal.3 Le Bas's engraving after Boucher (fig. 1) shows the mill with a three-arched stone bridge rather than the four-arched bridge in the present painting. The mill structure has a single wheel rather than two wheels as shown here (as in Lancret’s composition which also shows two wheel openings). Both the tapestry cartoon and Toledo painting depict the mill with one wheel; it is seen at a slight angle and with other variations to the structure.
An inscription on the reverse of this painting, in what appears to be an 18th century hand, states that it was at one time in the possession of Mme de Pompadour, official mistress of King Louis XV, and given to her by the artist Jacques-Andre Portail (1695-1759). Portail was Dessinateur du Roi and Gardes des Tableaux. Though Mme de Pompadour is known to have owned a number of works by Boucher, no landscapes by the artist were included in the inventory or sale following her death. It may be that whoever wrote the inscription on this painting confused it with the painting mentioned above, which was later engraved by Le Bas with a dedication to Portail ("Première vue de Charenton" and "Dédié à M. Portail Peintre du Roy, et Garde des Plans et Tableaux de Sa Majesté").4
There are two related drawings for the figures of the mother and child seen in the foreground: one in black chalk, with differences to the costume of the mother; and another, in the opposite direction, in red chalk.5 The red chalk drawing (fig. 2), now in the National Museum, Stockholm (Inv. no. 2937/1863), is closer in composition, showing the exact same costume for the mother with her over-skirt bunched up on both hips, and the position of the baby’s arm and his hand with finger pointing downwards.
Alastair Laing, who is currently working on a catalogue raisonné of Boucher’s paintings, has recently seen this painting firsthand. He and his collaborator, Jamie Mulherron (who has seen only an image), are hesitant to give to this painting a full endorsement to the artist, considering it to be a work they would categorize as “Attributed to Boucher.” This is due to the handling of paint, particularly in the foliage, which they find uncharacteristic, and to the depiction of the mill with two wheels, which is unlike any of Boucher’s other representations of it .
1. See Nicolas Vleughels, The Mill at Quiquengrogne, dated 1721, drawing, New York, Morgan Library; Nicolas Lancret, Le Moulin de Quiquengrogne, in G. Wildenstein, Lancret, Paris 1924, p. 74, cat. no. 41, engraving by E. Cousinet reproduced fig. 27.
2. The painting of the Mill at Charenton thought to be the painting on which Le Bas's engraving was based, listed in Ananoff cat. no. 167 and included in the sale catalogue, London, Sotheby’s, 5 July 2005 lot 14, was not accepted as autograph by Alastair Laing and was withdrawn from the sale.
3. See A. Laing, under Literature, 1986, p. 280.
4. A. Laing, private communication dated 28 September 2015.
5. See Ananoff, Boucher Drawings, vol. I, nos. 66 and 65 respectively.