- 38
Louis Carrogis dit Carmontelle
Estimate
30,000 - 40,000 EUR
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Description
- Louis Carrogis dit Carmontelle
- Mademoiselle Pitoin à son piano accompagnée de son père à la basse
- Red and black chalk, watercolour, heightened with white gouache
On a Pierre de la Mésangère mount bearing the inscriptions Mlle Pitoin à Son piano. Mr Son Père L'accompagnant sur la Baffe - 380 x 228 mm ; 15 by 9 in
Provenance
Perhaps collection of the artist before 1807 ;
Perhaps acquired by Richard de Lédans outside the sale after the death of Carmontelle on the 17 April 1807, part of the group "750 portraits en pied" ;
Perhaps collection Pierre de la Mésangère (1761-1831) after 1816 and still on its mount ;
Perhaps part of his sale 18 July 1832, n°304 " collection composée de cinq cent vingt portraits dessinés et gouachés par Carmontelle" ;
Anonymous sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Piasa, 22 March 2006, lot 135
Perhaps acquired by Richard de Lédans outside the sale after the death of Carmontelle on the 17 April 1807, part of the group "750 portraits en pied" ;
Perhaps collection Pierre de la Mésangère (1761-1831) after 1816 and still on its mount ;
Perhaps part of his sale 18 July 1832, n°304 " collection composée de cinq cent vingt portraits dessinés et gouachés par Carmontelle" ;
Anonymous sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Piasa, 22 March 2006, lot 135
Exhibited
Marguerite Gérard, Artiste en 1789, dans l'atelier de Fragonard, Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris, 10 September - 6 December 2009, n. 36, p. 132
Catalogue Note
Other than at leisure portraits of the Orléans family's courtesans, Carmontelle loved to depict minor daily events of this refined society, "the most brilliant and most spiritual of Paris" according to Madame de Genlis [1].
The music sheet absorbing the father and daughter during this charming concert is titled Medea, a very trendy character during the 18th century, the composer Salomon dedicated his opus Medea and Jason in 1713 to her. Also Rameau, whose portrait Carmontelle had made, selected the heroine for a harpsichord cantata, now lost. After all, no matter who the composers of this concert are, Carmontelle represented it with tenderness, like he had already done with his incredible drawing illustrating the Mozart family's stay at the Palais-Royal, today at Condé Museum [2].
The young Mozart was depicted as a young child by Carmontelle, in the company of his older sister Maria Anna and his father Leopold. He is playing on the same harpsichord with a gilt frieze and in a charming pose revealing the talent of the artist's tender astuteness. The young prodigy was thus concentrated on his score, his little feet floating in the immense void left between the harpsichord's stool and the ground too far for his legs to reach. What an image!
With the same delicate thoroughness, Carmontelle depicts here the same instrument for this pleasant moment shared between father and daughter. The Chevalier de Lédans who purchased all the Carmontelle drawings after the artist's death, wrote in his Memoirs concerning the two music lovers from the Pitoin family that "the father and daughter would have been crucified for Lulli's music. The plainchant of the Florentine made them swoon[3]". Playing here a very French composer, they do not seem at the least exalted!
Another version of this drawing is housed in Chantilly Museum (Inv Car. 432) and transited from the collection of Pierre de la Mésangère. Our passe-partout mounting also seems to be from this collection, but as Carmontelle could give liveliness to second versions of these drawings, it is difficult to confirm.
[1]Madame de Genlis, Mémoires (Memoirs), Paris, 2004, p. 194 by Salomon, appeared several years before around 1713.
[2]Inv. CAR 418
[3]Quote from F. A.Gruyer, Les portraits de Carmontelle (Portraits by Carmontelle): Chantilly, Paris, 1902, p. 432.
The music sheet absorbing the father and daughter during this charming concert is titled Medea, a very trendy character during the 18th century, the composer Salomon dedicated his opus Medea and Jason in 1713 to her. Also Rameau, whose portrait Carmontelle had made, selected the heroine for a harpsichord cantata, now lost. After all, no matter who the composers of this concert are, Carmontelle represented it with tenderness, like he had already done with his incredible drawing illustrating the Mozart family's stay at the Palais-Royal, today at Condé Museum [2].
The young Mozart was depicted as a young child by Carmontelle, in the company of his older sister Maria Anna and his father Leopold. He is playing on the same harpsichord with a gilt frieze and in a charming pose revealing the talent of the artist's tender astuteness. The young prodigy was thus concentrated on his score, his little feet floating in the immense void left between the harpsichord's stool and the ground too far for his legs to reach. What an image!
With the same delicate thoroughness, Carmontelle depicts here the same instrument for this pleasant moment shared between father and daughter. The Chevalier de Lédans who purchased all the Carmontelle drawings after the artist's death, wrote in his Memoirs concerning the two music lovers from the Pitoin family that "the father and daughter would have been crucified for Lulli's music. The plainchant of the Florentine made them swoon[3]". Playing here a very French composer, they do not seem at the least exalted!
Another version of this drawing is housed in Chantilly Museum (Inv Car. 432) and transited from the collection of Pierre de la Mésangère. Our passe-partout mounting also seems to be from this collection, but as Carmontelle could give liveliness to second versions of these drawings, it is difficult to confirm.
[1]Madame de Genlis, Mémoires (Memoirs), Paris, 2004, p. 194 by Salomon, appeared several years before around 1713.
[2]Inv. CAR 418
[3]Quote from F. A.Gruyer, Les portraits de Carmontelle (Portraits by Carmontelle): Chantilly, Paris, 1902, p. 432.