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X. Lovers with a Musician

Entered September 2021

Whereabouts unknown

Material unknown

Measurements unknown

 

REMARKS

This painting is known to me through a photograph in the Frick Art Reference Library, filed under “Lancret.” However, the style of the painting does not point to Lancret. Rather, the picture is a pastiche of elements taken from several of Watteau’s compositions and was executed by an anonymous artist, probably of the nineteenth century if not later.

The woman seated at the center of Lovers with a Musician is based on a figure in Watteau’s Concert champêtre, where she leans on a basket, which explains the tilt to her torso, but in the pastiche there is no basket and she awkwardly rests her weight on her partner's knee. The guitarist in the foreground was based on the musician in L’Accord parfait, not the painting itself but the engraving after it. Finally, the strolling couple at the left was derived from one of several possible models, such as the couple at the left of L’Assemblée dans un parc in the Louvre or L’Amour paisible in Berlin. Despite the worthy pedigree of these figures, the resultant painting remains a weak reflection of the rococo.

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