Print this Entry

Les Délassements de la guerre (copy 1)
Entered April 2020

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on panel

 21.6 x 29.7 cm     

 

PROVENANCE

Paris, collection of Pierre Antoine Baudouin (1723-1769; artist). His sale, Paris, February 15, 1770, lot 43 : “Deux Tableaux très bien peints dans le goût de Watteau: on en connoît les Estampes gravées d’après les originaux; l’une a pour titre les Fatigues, & l’autre les Délassements de la Guerre. Ils sont sur bois, & chacun porte huit pouces de haut, sur onze pouces neuf lignes de large.” Sold for 240 livres to Menageot.

Paris, with Augustin Ménageot (1700-1784; painter and dealer).

Paris, collection of Jean-Baptiste Guillaume de Gevigney (1729-1802; Généalogiste au service du comte de Provence, Garde des titres et généalogies de la Bibliothèque du Roi ). His sale, Paris, December 1-29, 1779, lot 528: “ANTOINE VATTEAU . . . Deux Tableaux richement composés & enrichis d’un grand nombre de figures. L’un représente une Halte de Soldats sous une tente & sous des arbres; l’autre, les bagages de l’armée qui défilent par un très grand vent, dont l’effet est rendu avec la plus grande verité; ils sont escortés par des troupes. Ces deux Tableaux qui sont gravés, gagnent au mérite des productions de leurs auteurs, celui d’être peints avec des couleurs très claires qui ont conservé toute leur fraicheur. Bois. H. 7 p. & demi, l. 12 & demi.” Sold for 301 livres to Belland.

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Blanc, Le Trésor de la curiosité (1857), I: 162

Portalis, Fragonard (1889), 277.

Dacier, Vuaflart, and Hérold, Jean de Jullienne et les graveurs (1921-29) under cat. 216.

Réau, “Watteau” (1928), under cat. 43.

Adhémar, Watteau (1950), under cat. 95.

Sterling, Great French Painting in the Hermitage (1958), 231.

Macchia and Montagni, L’opera completa di Watteau, (1968), under cat. 96.

Washington, Paris, Berlin, Watteau 1684-1721 (1984), under cat. 16.

 

REMARKS

As far back as Charles Blanc and Roger Portalis, it was wrongly claimed that the copies after Watteau in the Baudouin sale were executed by Fragonard. This error arose because two paintings by Fragonard preceded the Watteau copies in the Baudouin sale. But the Fragonards were several lots earlier and were separated from the copies after Watteau by pictures by other masters—by Jacob Jordaens and by an unnamed Flemish artist. This error was still repeated by Adhémar. Although Charles Sterling noted and corrected the mistake, it still continues today. As of April 2020 the Getty Provenance Index lists Fragonard as the author of these two copies.

Our proposal that the Baudouin paintings went to abbé Gévigney’s collection is new but, we believe, well grounded. They were together as pendants (most other copies were of just after the one composition), they were essentially the same size, and were on panel. When the paintings were in the Baudouin sale, they were rightly considered to be after Watteau but, by the time they appeared in the Gévigney sale nine years later, their attribution had been upgraded.  There are other instances in the Gévigney sale of paintings whose attributions had been artificially improved.

It is possible that one of the other pictures presented here (e. g. copy 2, 4, 5, or 6) was the one once in the Baudouin and Gévigney sales, but there is too little information to attempt such an association.

 

 

 

Les Délassements de la guerre (copy 2)
Entered April 2020

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on panel

23 x 33 cm

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

The Recreations of War

 

PROVENANCE

New York, collection of Thomas Jefferson Bryan (1800-1870; lawyer). He donated his collection to the New-York Historical Society in 1867.

New York, the New-York Historical Society. Its sale, New York, Sotheby Parke Bernet, October 9, 1980, lot 89: “School of Antoine Watteau . . . The Recreations of War / On panel   9 x 13 inches / 23 x 33 cm. Note: The composition is based on a painting by Watteau in the Hermitage. Literature: Giovanni Macchia and E.C. Montagni, L’opera completa di Watteau, 1968, no. 96 (as after the Hermitage painting).”

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Monod and Einstein, “Le Musée” (1906), 250.

Réau, “Watteau” (1928), under cat. 43.

Adhémar, Watteau (1950), under cat. 96.

Macchia and Montagni, L’opera completa di Watteau (1968), under cat. 96.

 

REMARKS

The painting formerly owned by the New-York Historical Society closely follows Watteau’s original painting in medium, size, and the direction of the composition.

 

 

Les Délassements de la guerre (copy 3)
Entered March 2020; revised May 2022

 

Whereabouts unknown 

Oil on canvas

22 x 34 cm

 

PROVENANCE

Paris, sale, Tour Maubourg (Audap), June 25, 2020, lot 278: “Ecole Française vers 1720, entourage d’Antoine WATTEAU / Les fatigues de la guerre / Les délassements de la guerre / Paire des toiles / (Restaurations anciennes) / Haut. 22 cm; Larg. 34 cm / Reprises des tableaux conserves à l’Ermitage de Saint Petersbourg / 2 000/3 000 €”

 

REMARKS

Both this picture and its pendant, a copy after Les Fatigues de guerre, are painted in the same direction as Watteau’s original canvases. The photographs are too indistinct to determine whether these are the copies sold from the New-York Historical Society in 1980 (our copy 2).

 

 

Les Délassements de la guerre (copy 4)
Entered April 2020

Whereabouts unknown

Materials unknown

22 x 34 cm

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Washington, Paris, Berlin, Watteau 1684-1721 (1984), under cat. 16.

 

REMARKS

This painting is known through a photograph on file in the Service de documentation, Département des peintures, Musée du Louvre. Unfortunately, it is not annotated regarding the source. The catalogue for the 1984 Watteau tricentenary exhibition refers to this work as being by Pater but there is nothing in the painting’s execution to support such a claim.

This picture is an excellent copy of Watteau’s composition, and judging by its left-right orientation, it was apparently copied from Watteau’s painting rather than from Crepy’s engraving. It is a faithful copy except that it extends farther to the left, leaving an empty space between the drummer and the frame.

 

 

 

Les Délassements de la guerre (copy 5)
Entered April 2020

Whereabouts unknown

Materials unknown

Measurements unknown

 

PROVENANCE

Paris, collection of Dr. Benoist. His sale, Paris, February 8, 1856, lot 76: “WATTEAU (ANTOINE) . . . Charmante composition connu sous le titre les Délassements de la Guerre.”

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dacier, Vuaflart, and Hérold, Jean de Jullienne et les graveurs (1921-29), under cat. 216.

Réau, “Watteau” (1928), under cat. 43

Washington, Paris, Berlin, Watteau 1684-1721 (1984), under cat. 16.

 

REMARKS

Almost nothing is known about this picture. It may well be one of the other copies that are catalogued here.

 

Les Délassements de la guerre (copy 6)
Entered April 2020

Whereabouts unknown

Materials unknown

Measurements unknown

 

PROVENANCE

France, collection of M. Farjas (ancien conseilleur à la cour de Rouen). His sale, Paris, May 13, 1878, lot 35: “WATTEAU . . . Les Délassements de la guerre. La gravure annexée.”

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dacier, Vuaflart, and Hérold, Jean de Jullienne et les graveurs (1921-29), under cat. 216.

Réau, “Watteau” (1928), under cat. 43.

 

REMARKS

Although we know little about the painting—its size, support, direction—It probably was a close copy of Watteau’s composition since the Crepy engraving was included for comparison; anything less than a close copy would have been noticed and would have been detrimental to the picture’s sale.  

 

 

Les Délassements de la guerre (copy 7)
Entered April 2020

Whereabouts unknown

Materials unknown

48.5 x 38.5 cm

 

REMARKS

This painting is known only through a photograph in the Service de documentation, Musée du Louvre, Département des peintures. An anonymous annotation on the verso of the photograph proposes that the painting is an eighteenth-century copy, and questions whether it might be by Pierre d’Angellis or Jan Peeter Verdussen.

The oval format of this copy is unusual. It has modified the horizontal format of Watteau’s composition by increasing the depth of the foreground and the height of the sky.

 

 

Les Délassements de la guerre (copy 8)
Entered November 2021

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on panel

44 x 35 cm

 

           
ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Soldats campés à l’entrée d’un bois

 

PROVENANCE

Paris, unidentified sale, unknown date, lot 303: “WATTEAU (d’après ANT . . . Soldats, campés à l’entrée d’un bois . . .”

Neuilly-sur-Seine, sale, Aguttes, November 18, 2021, lot 26: D’après Antoine Watteau. Soldats campés à l’entrée d’un bois. Huile sur panneau de bois. H. 44; L. 35 cm. Etiquette d’une ancienne vente au verso.

 

REMARKS

 

Attached to the reverse side is a portion of a page from an old, as-yet unidentified sale catalogue where this painting figured as lot 303. It was rightly classified as being after Watteau and, indeed, the orientation of the painted composition reveals that it is just a copy after the engraving.

           

 

For Les Délassements de la guerre, CLICK HERE

Print this Entry