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Un Concert
Entered June 2018
Presumed lost
Materials unknown
Measurements unknown
PROVENANCE
Paris, collection of Louise Marguerite Delaporte (died c. 1732, wife of François Guillaume Martin, sieur de Vaucresson); cited in the inventory of her estate prepared on December 12, 1732: “Un Concert, tableau original de Watteau . . . 100 l[ivres].”
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rambaud, Documents du Minutier central (1964, 1971), 1: 573.
REMARKS
This citation, not previously noted in the Watteau literature, is one of the earliest references to a specific painting by the artist in a private collection. It is contemporaneous with the paintings recorded in Jullienne’s Oeuvre gravé and those cited in the 1737 sale of the comtesse de Verrue’s collection. Because the inventory of Madame Delaporte’s possessions was drawn up only eleven and a half years after Watteau’s death, there is every reason to believe that Un Concert was genuinely by the master. There is a greater degree of certainty in this instance than the paintings ascribed to Watteau in contemporary London sales. However, without a description of the composition, we cannot link this reference with any known Watteau composition.