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Le Lorgneur (copy 1)
Entered July 2020

Paris, Rothschild collection

Oil on canvas

33.4 x 25.3 cm

 

PROVENANCE

Paris, collection of Mrs. W.

Paris, collection of baron Edouard Rothschild, confiscated by the Germans during World War II, and returned after the war.

Baroness E. de Rothschild.

 

EXHIBITIONS

Paris, Orangerie, Les Chefs-d’oeuvre (1946), cat. 3 (as by Antoine Watteau, Le Lorgneur).

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Réau, “A Rediscovered Picture” (1940), 93.

Adhémar, Watteau (1950), under cat. 171.

Macchia and Montagni, L’opera completa di Watteau (1968), under cat. 115.

 

REMARKS

Very little is known about this painting. Its provenance in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is uncharted, and even its whereabouts in the first decades of the twentieth century are obscure. Moreover, as discussed by Lévy and others, parts of the provenance of the autograph version have wrongly been added to the provenance of this version.

 

Le Lorgneur (copy 2)
Entered July 2020

Whereabouts unknown   

Oil on canvas

72 x 57 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

The Mandolin Player

 

PROVENANCE

Oxford, sale, Mallams, July 14, 2016, lot 282:  Circle of Jean-Antoine Watteau, The Mandolin Player, oil on canvas, 72 x 57 cm. estimate: £1,000 - £1,500.

 

REMARKS

Although this painting follows Watteau’s composition, it is essentially twice the size of the original picture.

 

 

 

Le Lorgneur (copy 3)
Entered July 2020

Fabrice Pellen, Chancelade, Aquitaine, France

Oil on panel

23 x 30 cm (each)

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

            Polchinelle et flutiste donnant la sérénade

 

PROVENANCE

Ebay July 2020: D’après Watteau, Polchinelle et flutiste donnant la sérénade. La commedia dell’arte, la belle se cache derrière un éventail. Deux superbes panneaux anciens faisant pendant / vers la fin du XVIIIe Siècle / Format 23 x 30 cm. 680 EUR.

 

REMARKS

Despite the seller’s optimistic belief that these paintings are eighteenth-century in origin, the colors suggest that their fabrication is more recent.

 

 

 

Le Lorgneur (copy 4)
Entered July 2020

 

Whereabouts unknown

Medium unknown

Measurements unknown

 

PROVENANCE

Paris, collection of A. Febvre. His sale, Paris, April 17-20, 1882, lot 36: “WATTEAU (attribué à) . . . Le Lorgneur.” Sold for 230 francs to Brown.

 

REMARKS

This painting and its pendant, called “La Leçon de flûte” but evidently La Lorgneuse, recreate the pairing of the two compositions recorded in the Jullienne Oeuvre gravé.  Although we have no image this version of Le Lorgneur, it can be presumed it was based on the Jullienne engraving, just as its pendant was.

Unfortunately we cannot trace the histories of these works after their sale in 1882. At that auction both were bought by “Brown” and thus the pendants stayed together for the moment.

 

 

 

Le Lorgneur (copy 5)
Entered July 2020; revised August 2020

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on panel

23.7 x 19.5 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Le Musicien

 

PROVENANCE

Paris, collection of Camille Groult (1837-1908; heir to a fortune from flour milling).

New York, collection of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Stern (co-founder of a major New York City department store). Her sale, New York, Anderson Galleries, April 4-7, 1934, lot 836.

New York, with Wildenstein and Co.

New York, collection of Isaac David Lévy. Bequethed to Mrs. Isaac Lévy (b. Rosetta Davis); later Mrs. Joseph Heine. Her sale, New York, Parke Bernet, November 25, 1944. Sold  for $8,700.

New York, collection of Nadya Nozharova Farber, Countess of Novarro. Her sale, London, Sotheby’s, May 17, 1961, lot 14: “ANTOINE WATTEAU . . .  Le Musicien; a courtier standing in a landscape playing a guitar, oval, on panel 8¾ in by 6¾ in. From the Collection of Camille Groult, Paris. From the Collection of Mrs. B. Stern, New York, 1934. Exhibited: San Francisco, Palace of Legion of Honour, 1934, French Paintings, No. 59. Exhibited: New York World’s Fair, 1939, Masterpieces of Art, No. 409. See: Connoisseur, April 1934, p. 225. [See ILLUSTRATION]” Sold for £1,800 to Barber.

 

EXHIBITIONS

San Francisco (1934), cat. 59.

New York, World’s Fair, Masterpieces of Art (1939).

Milan 1963 

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Réau, “Watteau” (1928), cat. 58.

Connoisseur (April 1934), 275.

Paris, Orangerie, Les Chefs-d'oeuvre (1946), under cat. 3.

Adhémar, Watteau (1950), under cat. 171, cat. 310.

Ferré, Watteau (1972), cat. P 34.

 

REMARKS

This reduction of Watteau’s composition to just the guitarist is not satisfactory. His stance and his glance make little sense without an audience to hear his music.

 

 

 

Le Lorgneur (copy 6)
Entered July 2020

Whereabouts unknown 

Oil on canvas

123 x 88 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Musikierende Gesellschaft im Park

 

PROVENANCE

Saarbrucken, sale, Merken, July 27, 2019, lot 980102, Musikierende Gesellschaft im Park.

 

REMARKS

This copy after Watteau’s Le Lorgneur was painted by the Frankfurt-based artist Joseph Correggio (1870-1961). His signature and the date 1920 are painted on the picture.