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X. Singerie

Entered July 2023

Blank

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on panel

74 x 57 cm

 

PROVENANCE

Paris, collection of Daniel Saint (1778-1847; miniaturist). His sale, Paris, Hôtel des ventes, May 4-7, 1846, lot 66 bis: “DU MÊME [WATTEAU (Antoine)] . . . Divers sujets, pastorales, danses costumes, scènes chinoises; ces divers objets ont été peintes par Watteau, sur fond d’or, sur les panneaux d’un clavecin, provenant d’une maison royale.” According to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the painting sold for 1,051 francs to “Varneck.”
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Paris, collection of Georges Edouard Warneck (1834-1924; art collector and dealer). His sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, May 27-28, 1926, lot 95: “ÉCOLE FRANÇAISE / XVIIIE . . . Panneau d’arabesques. Entre deux arabesques, un couple de paysans execute une contredanse, elle en robe rose, lui en veston rouge, gillet jaune et culotte bleue. Entre eux, se dresse une corbeille de fleurs, dans laquelle est couché un singe qui joue de tambourin. Un autre singe, danseur corde, passe au-dessus. Fond d’or. Bois. Haut. 74 cent.; larg. 57 cent.” According to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the painting sold for 9,000 francs to “Wagner de Besançon [sic].“

Paris, with Marguerite (1896-1971; couturière a.k.a.Maggy Rouff) and Pierre Bezançon de Wagner (1887-1972; industrialist).

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Goncourt, Catalogue raisonné (1875), under cat 315.

Adhémar, Watteau (1950), cat. 21.

Macchia and Montagni, L’opera completa di Watteau (1968), cat. 29 A.

 

REMARKS

At the center of this arabesque a man and woman dance stiffly, much as they would in one of Watteau’s early fêtes galantes. Above and unrelated to them, a monkey acrobat carefully walks across a tightrope, maintaining his balancing with a long pole, while a recumbent simian below beats a tambourine.

Despite the specious claims made when this and other decorative panels were sold from the Saint collection, most of them—including this one—were not painted by Watteau but rather by several different hands.