Print this Entry

L’Ecureuse de cuivre (copy 1)
Entered July 2021; revised September 2021

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

27 x 21 cm (with frame)

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Eine Magd beim Abwaschen von Zinntellern

 

PROVENANCE

Vienna, sale, Dorotheum, March 31, 2009, lot 118: "Antoine Watteau . . . Umkreis / Eine Magd beim Abwaschen von Zinntellern, Öl auf Leinwand. 27 x 21 cm. Gerahmt, (Wo) / €2.000-3.000 US$2600-3800 / Wir danken Herrn René Millet, Paris, für seine Zuschreibung des Gemäldes an Watteau (mündliche Mitteilung). A maidservant washing dishes." Sold for €2,750 ($3,626) plus premium.

 

REMARKS

Given the cloistered existence of Watteau’s painting until 1890, it seems likely that this copy must have been produced in the twentieth century. The scullery maid looks more Northern than Watteau’s elegant figure.

 

 

 

 

L’Ecureuse de cuivre (copy 2)
Entered May 2023

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on copper

22.9 x 17.1 cm.

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

The Scutter[sic] of Copper

 

PROVENANCE

Austin, Texas, sale, Austin Auction Gallery, July 23, 2022, lot 697: “Antoine Watteau . . . (2) FRAMED OIL PAINTINGS AFTER WATTEAU & LANDSCAPE /  (lot of 2) Framed oil paintings , including: (1) oil painting on copper, ‘L’ecauceuse’ (The Scutter of Copper), after Jean Antoine Watteau . . . signed lower right Van Hof, sight: approx. 9”h, 6.75”w, overall: approx. 15.25”h, 12.75”w; (1) oil painting on board, Italianate Landscape in the manner of Herman van Swanevelt . . . total Start Price: $80,00.”

 

REMARKS

This crude copy after Watteau’s L’Ecureuse is nothing more than that, except that it lacks certain features of his painting such as the boy leaning out the window and the chicken in the foreground.

The painting with which this copy was paired is oval in format and is framed differently. Despite the auction's claim, it is an unimaginative, hackneyed landscape that has nothing to do with Swanevelt or the seventeenth century.