London, sale, Sotheby’s, May 2, 2018, lot 2°: “FOLLOWER OF JEAN-ANTOINE WATTEAU. THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT; THE VILLAGE BRIDE. A pair, both oil on canvas each: 45.6 x 63.2 cm.; 18 x 24 7/8 in. The present compositions relate closely to Jean-Antoine Watteau's paintings of the same subjects in the Sir John Soane Museum, London, [1] and in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.[2] / 1. Inv no. P111; see P. Rosenberg and E. Camesasca, Tout l’œuvre peint de Watteau, Paris 1982, p. 107, cat. no. 127, reproduced p. 106. 2. See Rosenberg and Camesasca 1982, p. 99, cat. no. 63, reproduced.”
REMARKS
Watteau, La Mariée de village, oil on canvas, 65 x 92 cm. Charlottenburg, Schloss Sans-souci.
This picture and probably its pendant are free variants after well-known compositions by Watteau. This scene of merry-making is largely based on Nicolas Cochin’s engraving after Watteau’s La Mariée de village. However, it omits probably a third of Watteau’s inventions—the bridal party and its coaches, many of the subsidiary figures, the imposing Italian architecture. On the other hand, there are other elements in the foreground of this painting—the violinist, hurdy-gurdy player, the boy teasing the dog, the dilapidated inn—that were apparently derived from other sources.
