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L’Indiscret (copy 1)
Entered December 2024
Whereabouts unknown
Oil on canvas
41 x 32 cm
ALTERNATIVE TITLES
La Fileuse
Jeune fille dans un paysage
La Villageoise
The Villager
PROVENANCE
Paris, sale, Hôtel Drouot (L’Huillier), March 15, 2022, lot 14: “Ecole Flamande du XVIIIe siècle / Jeune fille dans un paysage / Huile sur toile (rentoilage) / 41 x 32 cm / Dans un cadre d’époque Louis XIV / 800-1000 EUR Est.”
Paris, sale, Tajan, October 27, 2022, lot 98: “ATTRIBUE A JEAN-BAPTISTE BENARD (1720-1789), d’après Antoine WATTEAU / La villageoise/ Toile / Sans cadre / Attr. To J. B. Benard, after A. Watteau, The villager, canvas, without frame 41 x 32,5 cm – 16,1 x 12,8 in. Notes: Reprise de la partie gauche de l‘Indiscret de Watteau (musée de Rotterdam). 2,000-3,000 EUR Est.”
Paris, sale, Hôtel Drouot (Mirabaud Mercier), March 21, 2023, lot 200: “Ecole française du XVIIIe siècle, entourage d’Antoine WATTEAU / La fileuse / Huile sur toile / Haut.: 41 , Larg.: 32.5 cm / 1 000 / 1 500 €”
REMARKS
This picture is only a partial copy of L’Indiscret. It copies the woman at the left of Watteau’s composition, but not the man on the ground ogling her. The proposed attributions to the Flemish School and to Jean-Baptiste Benard are without merit.
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L’Indiscret (copy 2)
Entered December 2024
Paris, private collection
Oil on canvas
56 x 68 cm
ALTERNATIVE TITLES
Rustic Lovers
PROVENANCE
London, sale, Sotheby’s, April 8, 1987, lot 151: “After Antoine Watteau / RUSTIC LOVERS / a pair, both oil on canvas, in 18th century carved gilt wood frames / each: 57.5 by 71.5 cm; 22½ by 28 in. (2) / £4,000-6,000”
REMARKS
Unidentified French painter, Rustic Lovers, oil on canvas, 57.5 x 71.5 cm.
Follower of Nicola Lancret, La Sieste, oil on canvas, 56 x 68 cm. Paris, private collection.
This copy after L’Indiscret was one of a pair of overdoors. The irregular shapes of the canvases indicate that they were mean to fit into complex boiseries. Whereas the one is a direct copy of Watteau’s l’Indiscret, the pendant does not copy a design by Watteau. Rather, it echos a design by Nicolas Lancret, La Sieste, known through a painting in a private Parisian collection.
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L’Indiscret (copy 3)
Entered December 2024
Whereabouts unknown
Oil on canvas
47 x 71 cm
PROVENANCE
Paris, sale, Hôtel Drouot, May 30, 1941, lot 154: “WATTEAU (d’après) / L’indiscret. Toile. H., 0m 47; Larg., 0m 71.”
REMARKS
One might be tempted to think that this painting was the one now in Rotterdam, but by 1941 it was already in the van Beuningen collection. Moreover, while the Paris picture is almost the same size as the one in The Netherlands, the measurements differ slightly: it is slightly shorter but wider: 47 x 71 cm versus 55 x 66 cm. Another mark against the Paris painting is that when it was at auction in 1941, it was classified as only “d’après Watteau.” Unfortunately, the painting was not illustrated at the time.