The painting was not engraved for the Jullienne Oeuvre gravé.
PROVENANCE
Berlin, collection of Jakob Goldschmidt (1882-1955; banker). The painting’s presence in the famed Goldschmidt collection is claimed in the 1948 sale catalogue cited below.
Paris, sale, Hôtel Drouot, February 15, 1934, lot 20: “MERCIER (Philippe) . . . Le Divertissement champêtre. Dans un parc ombreux, au pied d’une statue de pierre, des personnages de la Comédie Italienne se sont reunis. Assis sur le sol, Gilles tient une guitare sur les genoux. Non loin, une jeune femme en jupe bleue et corsage de taffetas changeant, coiffée d’un toquet à plumes, joue avec un éventail. Au premier plan, une draperie, un tambourin et des roses. Plus loin, d’autres personnages. Toile. Haut., 0m55; larg, 0m46. Cadre en bois sculpté. (Voir la Reproduction).”
New York, collection of C. S. Wadsworth. Passed to the C. S. Wadsworth Trust. Its sale in New York, Parke-Bernet, December 11, 1948, lot 65: “PHILIPPE LE MERCIER . . . CONCERT GALANT DANS UN PARC. Wooded park landscape with a statue of Venus at centre. In the foreground, a gallant in pink and gray costume and two young women in pink, blue, and fawn silk gowns are seated on an embankment. A musician in white Pierrot costume sits on the ground at their feet, holding a guitar. Other figures, one wearing a mask, eavesdrop from behind a hedge at the left. 22 x 18 inches. Collection of J. Goldschmidt, Berlin.”
Paris, sale, Hôtel Drouot (Beaussont Lefèvre), May 10, 2022, lot 32: “Ecole française dans le goût de WATTEAU: ‘Groupe de personnages dans un parc’. Huile sur toile. 54 x 42.5 cm.” Bought by Simon Waldron.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ferré, Watteau (1972), 3: cat. P 1.
REMARKS
Pierre Quentin Chedel after Watteau, Harlequin jaloux, engraving, c. 1731.
Nicolas Henri Tardieu after Watteau, Assis au près de toy, engraving, c. 1731.
This painting’s reputed provenance from the distinguished collection of Jakob Goldschmidt, if true, suggests that it was attributed to Watteau in the late nineteenth century, if not earlier. That it was attributed to him could easily have been justified. Not only does its grouping of seated commedia dell’arte characters point toward him but the three principal players – the actress with a plumed hat, the pink-costumed Mezzetin seated at the left, and the Pierrot with a guitar seated on the ground—all duplicate characters in Watteau’s Harlequin jaloux, a composition recorded in the Jullienne Oeuvre gravé. Also, as in Watteau’s Harlequin jaloux, Harlequin and Scapin pop out of the bushes in the background, acting surprised at what is happening in the foreground. Moreover, if we presume that Watteau’s composition was engraved in the opposite direction, as is often the case in the Jullienne engravings, then the Waldron painting corresponds to the left-right sense of direction that would also have been found in Watteau’s painting. Yet there are significant differences between the Waldron painting and Watteau’s composition. There is a second actress in the Waldron painting, the statue in the background is different, and the arrangement of the tress differs. All these elements make it abundantly clear that the Waldron picture is a variant of the established Watteau composition.
The Waldron picture’s arrangement of tree boughs and branches, as well as the statue of a Venus Medici seen from behind, are derived from another well-known Watteau composition: Assis au près de toy. That painting was also engraved for the Jullienne corpus but in the same sense as Watteau’s picture, so that it cannot be determined which was our copyist’s source. Nonetheless, in combining elements from two different compositions, this painter shows himself to have been a pasticheur in the true meaning of that term.
The execution of the Waldron painting also fixes the status of the pasticheur. The hard, strongly drawn facial features demonstrate the distance between him and the artist he was ostensibly imitating. It precludes the possibility that the painting could be attributed to Watteau himself. The recent attempts to assign the picture to Philippe Mercier are equally misguided. Mercier’s name is too often proposed for anonymous, Watteau-like paintings that are in search of an author.
X. Concert galante (copy 1)
Entered May 2023
Whereabouts unknown
Oil on canvas
33 x 36 cm
ALTERNATIVE TITLE
Les Indiscrets
PROVENANCE
Versailles, sale, Hôtel des Cheveaux-Légers, February 16, 1967, lot 28: Philippe Mercier.
Paris, Galerie Pierre Birtschansky, c. 1967.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jardin des arts (February 1967), 78.
REMARKS
Pierre Quentin Chedel after Watteau, Harlequin jaloux, engraving, c. 1731.
Unidentified artist, Concert galante. Paris, collection of Simon Waldron.
Unidentified artist, Concert galante (copy 1).
If one could trace the earlier history of this painting, it is not improbable that it was attributed to Watteau. In the years after World War II, it was unconvincingly given to Philippe Mercier. Ultimately based on Watteau’s Harlequin jaloux, this work’s more immediate source is the variant composition in the collection of Simon Waldron, the so-called Concert galante. Like that painting, a fourth figure has been added to Watteau’s original trio. Other distinguishing features of the Waldron picture, especially the statue of Venus seen from behind, are not present here because the copyist eliminated the upper half portion of its model. Not least of all, if the quality of the Waldron painting is at a remove from Watteau’s standard, this copy is at a still further remove. The face of the Pierrot reveals all too clearly the evident faults of the painter.
Although touted in 1967 as coming from the famed collection of Dr. Louis La Caze, that supposed provenance is both undocumented and highly suspicious.
