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X. Le Guitariste
Entered September 2020
Whereabouts unknown
Oil on canvas
67 x 53 cm
PROVENANCE
Paris and Gouvieux, collection of baron Emmanuel Léonino (1864-1936; mining of precious metals) His sale, Paris, Galerie Jean Charpentier, March 18-19, 1937, lot 63: “WATTEAU (ÉCOLE D’ANTOINE) . . . LE GUITARISTE. Assis sur un rocher, coiffé d’un tricorne, en veste bleue garnie d’une collarette blanche, il accorde son instrument. Toile. Haut., 0m67: larg. 0m53. Cadre en bois sculpté.” Sold for 7,800 francs according to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the Frick Art Reference Library.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adhémar, Watteau (1950), cat. 315.
Montagni and Macchia, L’opera completa di Watteau (1968), cat. 2o–Z.
REMARKS
As far as can be determined, this painting went unnoticed until it appeared in the Leonino sale in 1937. Adhémar rejected this painting, including it in her section devoted to paintings “École de Watteau, douteux, incertains,” but she did not comment upon it. Likewise, Montagni and Macchia followed suit, not accepting it as a work by Watteau. None of the more recent critics –Roland Michel, Posner, Temperini, Glorieux—have commented on the work, which because it was never reproduced, has fallen from memory.
In that the painting was not given to Watteau even in the 1930s, a time when attributions were more generous, there is little likelihood that we would think better of it were it to reappear today.
In that the painting showed the Mezetin outdoors, seated on a rock, it was probably analogous to Watteau’s Mezetin in Vaduz. However, that picture is substantially larger and the character wears a loose flowing cap whereas Léonino’s painting showed him with a tricorn.