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Belle n'écoutez rien (copy 1)

Entered April 2016; revised September 2016

 

Paris art market

Oil on panel

24.1 x 32.4 cm

 

REMARKS

This picture and its pendant, a copy after Pour garder l’honneur d’une belle, are in the opposite direction of Cochin’s prints. Although they have been presented as the originals from Watteau’s hand, the quality of execution—especially in the faces—argues against that claim. Also, this picture shows several divergences from the engraving. The copyist has omitted the trees behind Pierrot and has reduced the trees behind Dr. Baloardo into an undefined mass of green, omitting, for example, the definition of the tree trunks visible in Cochin’s print.

 

 

Belle n'écoutez rien (copy 2)

Entered April 2016; revised September 2016

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on panel

22.2 x 31.8 cm

 

PROVENANCE

England, collection of Mrs. L. B. Branwell, c. 1927.

London, David Geider Gallery, attributed to Gillot. Advertised in Connoisseur (April 1973).

Nice, collection of Madame Deschamps. Sold Nice, 1981, lot 30, attributed to Gillot.

Locarno-Muralto, Switzerland, collection of Hans Haller, c. 1982. Known only through correspondence in the files of the Service de documentation, Départment des peintures, Musée du Louvre, this painting and its pendant (neither photographed) were said to have come from a French private collection, which would accord with the sale in Nice in 1981. Also, Haller’s paintings measured 22.3 x 32.1 cm, which is close to the previously noted measurements of 22.2 x 31.8 cm.

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

“Notes and Queries,” (1927), 40, 43.  

 

REMARKS

This picture and its pendant, a copy after Pour garder l’honneur d’une belle, reverse the direction of Cochin’s prints. However, we cannot be sure of the direction of Watteau’s original paintings and, moreover, several engravings after Cochin’s prints are in the direction of these paintings.

When this painting and its pendant were in the Branwell collection, their relation to Watteau’s oeuvre was not recognized. Subsequently, when they were on the London art market in the 1970s, and again when they were in Madame Deschamps' and Haller’s collections, they were attributed to Gillot. In fact, by 1982 Gillot “signatures” were on the paintings. Haller recognized that the compositions had been engraved under Watteau’s name and thus he theorized that his paintings were copies by Gillot after Watteau, an ahistoric and illogical conclusion.

 

 

 

Belle n'écoutez rien (copy 3)

Entered April 2016; revised September 2016

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on panel

27 x 36 cm

 

PROVENANCE

Cologne, Kunsthaus Lempertz, sale, March 26, 2014, lot 8: “Deutscher Meister des 18. Jahrhunderts… ZWEI GEMÄLDE MIT SZENEN DER COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE / Öl auf Holz. Jeweils 27 x 36 cm. Rahmen aus der Zeit.” The pair of paintings sold for €4,026.

 

REMARKS

This copy of Watteau’s Belle n’écoutez rien has not been discussed in the literature.  It, like the pendant, a copy after Pour garder l’honneur d’une belle, was probably based on the Cochin engraving, and is in the same direction as the print. While relatively faithful to the engraved model, the copyist has taken certain liberties, as in the formation of the clouds and the grove of trees behind Pierrot. A telling change is the pattern of scattered flowers that he added to adorn the actress’s skirt, creating a type of decorative textile that Watteau carefully shunned.

 

 

 

Belle n’écoutez rien (copy 4)

Entered April 2016; revised September 2016

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

38.1 x 45.7 cm

 

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Scene from the Italian Comedy

 

PROVENANCE

Sale, London, Sotheby’s, December 14, 1938, “Property of a Collector,” lot 78: “CLAUDE GILLOT. . . . Scene from the Italian Comedy: on a terrace Scaramouche is surprising Columbine and Harlequin  15 in. by 18 in. [See ILLUSTRATION]”  Sold for £75 to Hans Gronau (1904-1951; art historian and dealer) according to Sotheby’s printed results.

 

REMARKS

This picture and its pendant, a copy after Pour garder l’honneur d’une belle, have not been discussed in the Watteau literature. They are in the opposite direction of Cochin’s prints. While generally faithful to the engraved model, the copyist elaborated certain elements: he added paving stones to the terrace and replaced the simple ball atop the pedestal with a vine-encircled urn. 

 

 

Belle, n’écoutez rien (copy 5)

Entered April 2016

 

Whereabouts unknown

Materials unknown

Measurements unknown

 

PROVENANCE

Paris (?), collection of Monsieur Rostain, c. October 1983.

 

REMARKS

According to a memorandum in the files of the Service de documentation, Département des peintures, Musée du Louvre, this copy of Belle n’écoutez rien was brought into the Louvre for expertise in 1983. It was described as showing just the five central figures from Watteau’s composition.

         

For Belle n'écoutez rien, CLICK HERE

 

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