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Le Défilé (copy 1)

Entered March 2020; revised May 2021 

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

20 x 26 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES    

Le Siège d’une forteresse

 

PROVENANCE

Paris, collection of Monsieur de Saint-Rémy. His sale, March 18-19, 1878, lot 48: “FRANÇOIS CASANOVA . . . Le Siège d’une forteresse. Toile. Haut., 20 cent.; larg., 26 cent.” Bought by Paul Mantz.

Paris, collection of Paul Mantz (1821-1895; art critic).

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mantz, Watteau (1892), 8

Mantz,  "Watteau" (1899), 188. 

Adhémar, Watteau (1950), under cat. 38.

Macchia and Montagni, L’opera completa di Watteau (1968), under cat. 41.

 

REMARKS

Despite the attribution to Casanova when it appeared for sale in 1878, Paul Mantz, who bought the painting, claimed that it was a reduced version of Watteau’s Le Défilé. As far as can be determined, the painting was not illustrated at the time or commented upon by anyone other than Mantz. The latter described the work as “d’un brun monochrome.”  Phillips wrongly thought that Mantz’s painting was the one lent by Miss James to the Royal Academy exhibition in 1891.

Adhémar described Mantz’s picture as a “copie réduite,” referring only to its size. Presumably it showed the whole of Watteau’s composition.

 

Click here for Le Défilé