Jean-Antoine Watteau

Private Collection, Paris;

Sale of the marquis Bailleul and others, M^e Duchesne, Paris, 14 June 1900, lot 34, as Jean-Baptiste Pater (consigned by Georges Sortais, painter and expert, 1860-1935, on behalf of several clients);

Where acquired for 270 francs by Defeuille, presumably Louis Hubert Germain François called Defeuille (miniaturist, 1849-1932), Paris and Vétheuil;

Collection Jacques Mathey (painter and expert, 1883-1973), Paris, by whom authenticated;

From whom acquired by Raoul Dastrac (1891-1969), Aiguillon, since 1959;

By descent to his widow Hélène Lacroix, née Ryaux, Aiguillon, in 1972;

By descent to the present owner.

London, Royal Academy, Landscape in French art, December 1949-March 1950, no. 97;

Zurich, Kunsthaus, Schönheit des 18. Jahrhunderts, September-October 1955, no. 348;

Paris, Galerie Cailleux, Watteau et sa génération, March-April 1968, no. 43.

F. Ingersoll-Smouse, Pater, Paris 1928, p. 81, cat. 741 (with an erroneous marquis de Branbres provenance);

J. Mathey, ‘A Landscape by Watteau’, in The Burlington Magazine, vol. 89, no. 535, October 1947, pp. 271-273, pl. I, fig. A;

H. Adhémar and R. Huyghe, Watteau sa vie - son œuvre, Paris 1950, pp. 123, 195 and 214, cat. no. 109, pl. 53 (titled Le Moulin and Paysage des environs de Paris);

J. Mathey, Antoine Watteau : Peintures réapparues, inconnues ou négligées par les historiens, identification par les dessins, chronologie, Paris 1959, pp. 16, 33, 68, 76, cat. no. 64, fig. 64 (titled Paysage de la Bièvre);

G. Macchia and E.C. Montagni, L’opera completa di Watteau, Milan 1968, p. 109, no. 139;

‎E. Camesasca, Tout l'œuvre peint de Watteau, Paris 1970, p. 109, no. 139;

J. Ferré, Watteau. Catalogue raisonné, Madrid 1972, vol. II, pp. 691-692, no. B 47, fig. 434 and vol. III, p. 989, no. B 47, fig. 886-887;

M. Roland Michel, Watteau, un artiste au XVIII^e siècle, Paris 1984, pp. 40 and 42, pl. III;

D. Posner, Antoine Watteau, London 1984, pp. 109-112, fig. 90;

Claude to Corot: The Development of Landscape Painting in France, cat. exh. Colnaghi, New York 1990, pp. 85-86, fig. 2;

R. Temperini, Watteau, Paris and Milan 2002, p. 143, cat. no. 60;

M. Eidelberg, A Watteau Abecedario, website, as Accepted Paintings & Copies (titled La Bièvre à Gentilly, notice entered in July 2016, revised in March 2017).

Hidden from the public and scholars since 1968, The Bièvre River at Gentilly is a revelation in Watteau's work. A close examination has enabled the painting to be unequivocally attributed to Watteau, and it appears as such in Martin Eidelberg's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Antoine Watteau's paintings (A Watteau Abecedario).

The landscape (whose location has so far proved impossible to identify) shows a church and a building in the background on the left, trees in the centre and a river in the foreground. On the right, there are the ruins of a wall. For this, one of Watteau’s many surviving drawings of pure landscapes without figures, the artist has used red and black chalk, with wash highlights in places, and more rarely watercolour to bring the landscape to life.

Since 1984, Marianne Roland Michel and Donald Posner have both associated the present work with the practice of plein air drawing. This technique is documented by the theoretician and amateur member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Roger de Piles, in his Cours de peinture par principes (1708, Paris, pp. 246–248). In this text, de Piles encouraged artists to draw from nature and annotate their drawings with observations concerning the subtle variations of colour they perceive.

Roger de Piles was part of Watteau’s circle. The two men had a common friend in Pierre Crozat, with whom the painter lived. It is very probable that the artist was familiar with Roger de Piles’s theories concerning plein air landscape and that he put them into practice. The proof exists in a landscape enhanced with watercolour and annotated, in the Teylers Museum of Haarlem (inv. M 015), which scrupulously follows the instructions set out by de Piles, featuring an annotation by Watteau himself, near the belltower: ‘Demi teinte grise et généralement les ombres grises’ (Grey half-tint and generally grey shadows’). 

Other artists in his circle tried out plein air painting in this way, including Francois Desportes, several of whose oils on paper have survived (Sèvres, Musée National de la Céramique; Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts, inv. D 995.1.10).

In 1892, Paul Mantz published a letter from Watteau to his friend and patron Jean de Jullienne, in which the artist explained that he was painting landscapes at Nogent (P. Mantz, Antoine Watteau, Paris, 1892, p. 134 citing Chennevières, Montaiglon (eds), Archives de l'art français: recueil de documents inédits relatifs à l'histoire des arts en France, Paris, 1852, vol. 2, pp. 208–214). If this document proves genuine – its authenticity is by no means certain – it would provide evidence of Watteau’s practice in his own words. The artist tells his patron: ‘je vous montrerai quelques bagatelles comme les païsages de Nogent que vous estimez assez par cette raison que j'en fis les pensées en presence de madame de Julienne à qui je baise les mains très-respectueusement’ (‘I will show you some trifles like the Nogent landscapes which you will admire well enough for the reason that I created these ideas in the presence of Madame de Jullienne, whose hands I kiss most respectfully’. Another letter, whose authenticity is this time not in doubt, clearly records this approach to landscape painting in Watteau’s work. Another of his patrons, Pierre Crozat, wrote to Michel-Ange de la Chausse, at that time French consul to the Holy See, on 1 July 1715: ‘Je fais travailler le sr Vatteau affin de vs. faire voir de ses ouvrages et la preuve de tous ce que jay eu lhonneur de vous dire de l’Estat de nos peintres. Je noublieray pas aussy la vueue du pons neuf quil ma pareu que vs. Souhaities davoir. M. vatteau a le deffaut de tous les bons peintures d’Estre un peu l[ent] par ce quils veulent satisfaire un chacun’ (‘I am pressing Monsieur Watteau to show you his works and the proof of everything I have had the honour to tell you about the status of our painters. Also, I will not forget the view of the Pont Neuf which I believe you would like to have. Monsieur Watteau has the weakness of all good painters, of being a bit slow because wanting to please everyone’ (letter from Pierre Crozat to Michel-Ange de la Chausse, 1 July 1715, Nantes, Archives Diplomatique. Mentioned with neither transcription nor classification number by C. Hattori, ‘Passeports délivrés à des artistes au XVIII^e siècle: à Watteau, à Oudry et à quelques autres’, in Cahiers d’histoire de l’art, no. 2, 2004, p. 28). This second reference, earlier than Watteau’s letter to Jullienne, is a reliable source for documenting Watteau’s practice of urban landscape painting, into which category the landscape with a belltower falls.

The technique used makes this work a unicum in Watteau’s oeuvre. It is the only oil on paper by the artist to have survived. It was mounted on canvas probably in the eighteenth century. The paper has a countermark (on the right side) often found on paper used by Watteau, which reads ‘J [heart] CUSSON’ (see R. and T. Gaudriault, Filigranes et autres caractéristiques des papiers fabriqués en France aux 17^e et 18^e siècles, Paris, 1995, p. 118). Countermarks giving Cusson’s name were used frequently in the last quarter of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth, making dating difficult without the existence of a date in the paper’s watermark. The countermark is documented since at least 1659. An analysis using backlighting of the support suggests the paper has an inscription running along the upper part of the composition.

The painting’s provenance goes back to the very beginning of the twentieth century. Martin Eidelberg had become aware of the sale of a work on 14 June 1900. At that time attributed to Pater, the description and measurements of no. 34 in this sale exactly match the present work: ‘Paysage où l'on remarque, à gauche, une maison bâtie sur pilotis qui se reflète dans l'eau ; plus loin, un clocher ; à droite, des grands arbres et un mur en ruines. Très intéressante étude sur papier. H. 0m39; L. 0m34’ (‘Landscape showing, on the left, a house built on stilts reflected in the water; further away, a belltower; on the right, large trees and a wall in ruins. Very interesting study on paper H. 0m39; L. 0m34’). For this sale, the painting had been entrusted by its owner, probably a Parisian, to Georges Sortais, painter and expert (1860–1935) ‘agissant au nom et comme mandataire verbal de plusieurs personnes’ (‘acting in the name of and as agent for several individuals’. Probably bought by the miniaturist Louis Hubert Germain François, known as Defeuille (1849–1932), Landscape with a Church and a River became part of his estate, which remained unclaimed in 1932. A member of the Mathey family was present at the sale, probably Paul, father of Jacques. It is possible that Jacques, through his status as an expert, was informed about the work’s inclusion in a sale of the Defeuille estate, as yet unresolved, and could have bought it. It reappears in 1959, in the collection belonging to Raoul Dastrac (1891–1969), and thence by descent.

We are grateful to Pr. Martin Eidelberg and Dr. Axel Moulinier for having written this notice.