Les Comédiens sur le champ de foire (copy 1)
Entered June 2019
Whereabouts unknown
Oil on canvas
72 x 97 cm.
ALTERNATIVE TITLES
Fête de la foire du Lendit
Ländlicher Jahrmarkt mit Schauspielern
PROVENANCE
Paris, with Victor Alvin-Beaumont (b. 1862; artist, dealer, critic).
Sale, Versailles, Palais des Congrès, March 3, 1968, lot 145: “WATTEAU Antoine (Ecole de) (XVIIIe siècle . . . Fête de la foire du Lendit. Toile, Haut. 72 cm. Larg. 97 cm / (Voir la reproduction ci-contre).”
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adhémar, Watteau (1950), under cat. 51.
Washington, Paris, Berlin, Watteau 1684-1721 (1984), under cat. 10.
Vogtherr, Französische Gemälde, under cat. 1.
REMARKS
This is a reduced version of Watteau’s composition. For example, it does not include the group at the left of commedia dell’arte characters courting the seated women, nor does it include the group of figures in Oriental costume. So too, the Roman buildings at the right are missing and the shaping and disposition of the trees do not follow the model provided by Watteau.
Les Comédiens sur le champ de foire (copy 2)
Entered June 2019
Whereabouts unknown
Oil on canvas
64 x 79 cm
ALTERNATIVE TITLES
Fête dans un parc
Ländlicher Jahrmarkt mit Schauspielern
PROVENANCE
Versailles, Palais des Congrés, May 3, 1968, lot 146: “de BAR Bonaventure (Attribué à) (XVIIIe siècle). Fête dans un parc. Toile. Cadre ancien, bois sculpté. Haut. 64 cm. Larg. 79 cm.”
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Washington, Paris, Berlin, Watteau 1684-1721 (1984), under cat. 10.
Eidelberg, Bonavenrure de Bar, cat. X21, http://watteauandhiscircle.org/de%20bar%202.htm.
Vogtherr, Französische Gemälde, under cat. 1.
REMARKS
This anonymous copy after Watteau’s composition is essentially faithful in repeating the figural elements, but the original landscape has been replaced by a different arrangement of tree and, at the right, by a more standard rendering of a French town. The attribution proposed in 1968 to Bonaventure de Bar does not bear scrutiny.
For Les Comédiens sur le champ de foire, CLICK HERE