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Récréation galante (copy 1)
Entered April 2023

Munich, Bayerischen Staatsgemälde-Sammlungen, inv. 1161

Oil on canvas

127.5 x 192 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Assemblée en plein air

Gesellschaft in einem Park

 

PROVENANCE

Mannheim, Schloss, collection of Prince Elector Carl Philipp, after c. 1720-25.

Zweibrücken, Galerie; transferred in 1799 to Munich.

Oberschleissheim, Neues Schloss, Royal Gallery; transferred to the Royal Pinakothek in 1914.

Munich, Bayerischen Staatsgemälde-Sammlungen.

 

EXHIBITIONS

Paris, La peinture française à la cour de Fréderick II (1963), cat. 40 (as Watteau, “Assemblée en plein air, copie remplaçant l’original,” lent by the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich).

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mannlich, Beschreibung der Churpfalzbaierischen Gemälde Sammlungen (1805), 38, cat.    183.

Dillis, Verzeichniss der Gemälde (1838), cat. 421.

Marggraff, Die altere königliche Pinakothek (1869), cat. 720.

Munich, Gemälde-Galerie, Katalog (1905), 156-57, cat. 752.

Wildenstein, Lancret (1924), cat. 377.

Adhémar, Watteau (1950), under cat. 238.

Munich, Residenz, The Age of Rococo (1958), under cat. 218.

Washington, Paris, and Berlin, Watteau (1984), under cat. P 63.

Rosenberg, Gesamtverzeichnis französische Gemälde (2005), cat. 1234.

           

REMARKS

The colors of the costumes in this version match those of Watteau’s original painting, demonstrating that the Munich picture was copied directly from the original. Since both were in Bavaria by the mid-eighteenth century, it is conceivable that the Munich version was executed there. The copy is actually a few centimeters larger than the original in both height and width. It is a faithful copy except that the artist could not resist adding a little still life in the center foreground, helping to fill in the otherwise large empty expanse.

In 1805 the Munich picture was given to Watteau. Then, while the painting was in Schleissheim, it was attributed to Lancret, as is shown in the caption on a Hanfstaengle photograph of the picture. Wildenstein, who included the painting in his catalogue raisonné of Lancret’s oeuvre, wrote that “il est difficile de se prononcer sur lui au simple examen de la photographie.” This seems unnecessarily evasive since nothing of Lancret’s style is recognizable in this work. By 1905, when the painting was at Mannheim, it was considered a French eighteenth-century copy after Watteau. Nonetheless, scholars such as Adhémar have wrongly continued to ascribe the work to Lancret. More recently Rosenberg rightly classified the painting as an anonymous copy after the Berlin composition.

 

 

 

Récréation galante (copy 2)
Entered April 2023

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

65.5 x 92.7 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Fête galante

 

PROVENANCE

Paris(?), collection of the widow Laportière.

London, collection of Humphrey Ward (author; died 1920).

New York and Paris, with Edward Brandus (1857-1937). His sale, Philadelphia Art Galleries, May 7, 1914, lot 44: “Jean Baptiste Joseph Pater . . . Fête Champêtre. 25 x 26 / Collection Veuve Laportiere and Humphrey Ward, London.”

Collection Ballora.

Paris, collection of Vicomte de Brozik.

New York, sale, Parke-Bernet, November 30–December 1, 1956, lot 296: “L’ASSEMBLÉE DANS UN PARC. Follower of Jean Antoine Watteau / Park landscape with numerous elegantly dressed figures assembled near a marble group on a pedestal, with a young man, in white satin costume and red hat, playing the lute. The original is in the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum, Berlin. 26 x 36½ inches /  Collection of Vicomte de Brozik, Paris.” Sold for $200 to Count Louis von Cseh.

New York(?), with Count Louis von Cseh. Sold to Josephine Marsalis Clardy Fox.

El Paso, Texas, collection of Josephine Marsalis Clardy Fox (1881-1970; philanthropist). Bequeathed to the University of Texas, El Paso, in 1970.

New York, Sotheby’s, January 28, 2011, from the Irene von Cseh Trust, lot 92: “Follower of Antoine Watteau. FÊTE GALANTE / oil on canvas / 25¾ x 36 ½ in. 65.5 x 92.7 cm. The present composition follows that of the prime version by Watteau which is now located in Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. $8,000-12,000.”

           

REMARKS

Although the provenance of the painting is unusually extensive, certain portions of it are murky. According to a note in the Frick Art Reference Library, when René Gimpel visited there in 1932 he suggested changing the attribution of the picture from Pater to School of Watteau.

This copy, like our copy 3, is half the size of the original canvas.

 

 

 

Récréation galante (copy 3)
Entered April 2023

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

65 x 81 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Assemblée galante dans un parc

Concert champêtre

 

PROVENANCE

New York and Los Angeles, with Nicholas M. Acquavella.

New York, collection of Elinor Dorrance Ingersoll. Her estate sale and others, New York, Christie’s, January 12, 1978, lot 75: “Circle of ANTOINE WATTEAU . . . A CONCERT CHAMPÊTRE / 25½ x 32 in (65 x 81 cm.) / EXHIBITED: Los Angeles Art Association, Loan Exhibition of International Art, 1937, No. 79 / See illustration.”

 
EXHIBITIONS

Los Angeles Art Association, Loan Exhibition of International Art  (1937), cat. no. 79 (as by Watteau, Assemblée galante dans un parc, lent by Nicholas M. Acquavella, Hollywood and New York).

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Washington, Paris, and Berlin, Watteau (1984), under cat. P63.

           

REMARKS

Rosenberg erred in listing the Acquavela painting and the one sold in 1978 at Christie’s as different pictures. As the 1937 exhibition catalogue shows, they are one and the same. This copy, like our copy 2, is half the size of Watteau’s original canvas.

 

 

 

Récréation galante (copy 4)
Entered April 2023

Whereabouts unknown

Materials unknown

Measurements unknown

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Le concert dans le parc

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dacier, Vuaflart, and Hérold, Jean de Jullienne et les graveurs, 3: under cat. 199.

 

PROVENANCE

Paris, collection of Paul Daniel Saint (1778-1847; painter of miniatures). His sale, Paris, May 4-7, 1846: lot 57: “DU MÊME (WATTEAU (Antoine) . . . Le concert dans le parc. Dix-neuf personnages diversement groupés animent cette charmante composition. Dans le groupe principale, on remarque parfaitement éclairé, une jeune femme en galant costume, corsage de satin rose et jupe de satin blanc; elle tient sur ses genoux un livre de musique, dans lequel elle parait chanter; un homme placé près d’elle, et jouant de la guitare, semble l’accompagner. Un peu plus loin un homme et une femme se promènent et causent; à droite une jeune fille se defend de caresses d’un jeune homme. Ce tableau, l’un plus terminés du maître, a été fait a Nogent-sur-Marne, village qu’habitait Watteau, qui s’est plu à représenter sous les habits d’un de ses personnages, le portrait du curé de l’endroit.” According to annotated copies of the catalogue in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, the picture sold for 49,000 francs to “Mennechet de Barival/descendant de Paillet.”

Chiray-Ourscamp, collection of  Alphonse Mennechet de Barival (1812-1903; philanthropist and politician) and Henriette Caroline Mennechet, née Paillet (1815-1861; musician).

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Washington, Paris and Berlin, Watteau (1984), under cat. P63.

           

REMARKS

Saint’s painting is said to have included nineteen figures but there are just eighteen in the Berlin picture. Whether this was an error on the cataloguer’s part or was due to the copyist taking certain liberties cannot be determined.

The Mennechet de Barivals had an extensive collection of eighteenth-century art, much of which went to the museum in Saint-Quentin.  Without knowing the measurements of this painting and without an image of it, it is not possible to identify it with any of the copies still extant.

 

 

 

Récréation galante (copy 5)
Entered April 2023

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

110 x 165 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Festliche Gesellschaft im Freien

Gesellschaft im Freien

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Wine, Eighteenth Century French Paintings (2018), 550.

 

PROVENANCE

Zurich, sale, Koller, March 13-April 13, 2008, lot 6417: WATTEAU, ANTOINE  . . . Festliche Gesellschaft im Freien. Öl auf Leinwand. 106 x 161 cm. Est. CHF 3 000. - / 5 000.- € 1 860.-/3 110.-“
 
Bonn, sale, Auktionshaus Plückbaum, February 20, 2021, lot 1445: “Watteau, Antoine . . .Copie nach, ‘Gesellschaft im Freien, Öl auf Leinwand, 110 x 165 cm. Der französischer Künstler Antoine Watteau, begeistette  bereits seine Zeitgennosen des 18. Jahrhunderts mit den stimmungs- und lustvollen Motiven seiner ‘fêtes galantes’. Über die Jahrhunderte hinweg dienten seine Weke auch jungen Künstlern als Inspiration. Das Original, mit den Maßen 110 x 163 cm. befindet sich heute in der Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (Inv. Nr. 4748).” Sold for €550 plus 28%.

           

REMARKS

This picture is a faithful copy of Watteau’s picture in the Gemäldegalerie, and agrees with it in size and color scheme. It likely was made on site from Watteau’s original canvas.

 

 

 

Récréation galante (copy 6)
Entered May 2023

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

110 x 160 cm

 

PROVENANCE

Haslemere (Surrey), sale, John Nicholson Auctions, September 25, 2020, lot 1599.

London, with Trafalgar Gallery.

Salisbury, sale, Wolley & Wallis, March 8, 2023, lot 241: “After Jean-Antoine Watteau
Fête champêtre / Oil on canvas / 112.4 x 166cm;  44¼ x 65¼in/ After the original, of similar dimensions, in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin (no.474B). Estimate: £400 - £600.” Sold for £550.

 

REMARKS

This picture is a faithful copy of Watteau’s picture in the Gemäldegalerie, and, like our copy 5, agrees with it in size and general color scheme. It likely was made on site from Watteau’s original canvas.