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Jeune fille

Entered December 2024

 

Presumed lost

Oil on canvas

54.2 x 43.3 cm

 

PROVENANCE

Paris, collection of Victor Amadeus, prince de Carignan (1709-1741). His sale, June 18 ff, 1742, lot 163: “Un Tableau sur toile, de vingt pouces de haut, sur seize pouces de large, répresentant une jeune fille, par Vatto.” Not sold.

Paris, sale, July 30ff, 1742, collection of the Prince Carignan, unnumbered lot [lot 32]: “Un Tableau sur toile, de vingt pouces de haut, sur seiz pouces de large, répresentant une jeune fill, par Vatto.” Sold for 50 livres according to an annotated sale catalogue in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ferré, Watteau (1972), cat. X 52.

 

REMARKS

This painting has not been discussed by Watteau scholars. Although we have no documentation regarding it—no descriptions or engravings of it, no trace of later provenance—there still is good reason to believe that such a painting existed. The prince de Carignan had close ties to Watteau and his circle: his mother was the comtesse de Verrue, the famed blue stocking and art collector who was a major patron of works by Watteau and his circle, and the count himself is recorded as owning a four-part screen that was included in the Jullienne Oeuvre gravé. Moreover,his Jeune fille was sold in 1742, only some two decades after Watteau’s death, close enough in time to preclude the likelihood that this was a false attribution of the sort that would soon be flooding the Paris art market. He did own some works attributed to the school of Watteau, but these were carefully ascribed as such.

What was the Jeune fille like? Was it a commissioned portrait or was it a study of a young model? Was it full or half length? What age was she, and were there accessories such as a book, a toy, or flowers? These are unanswerable questions. Unfortunately, the painter’s oeuvre offers insufficient guidance.

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