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Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 1)

Entered July 2016

 

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on copper  

23 x 27.5 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Fête champêtre

Fête dans un parc

 

PROVENANCE

London, Samuel Jones-Loyd, 1st Baron Overstone (1796-1883; banker and Member of Parliament), c. 1850; by descent to his daughter Harriet Sarah Jones-Loyd.

London, Carlton House, collection of Robert James Lindsay, 1st Baron Wantage (1832-1901), and Harriet Sarah Jones-Loyd, Lady Wantage (1837-1920).

Collection of David Alexander Edward Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford and 10th Earl of Balcarrres (1871-1940; Member of Parliament).

Paris, Hôtel Drouot, March 13, 1989, lot 53: “WATTEAU Antoine / (D’après)  . . . Le Bosquet de Bacchus. Huile sur cuivre. 23 x 27,5 cm / Cadre en bois sculpté.” 

 

EXHIBITIONS

London, Guildhall, French and English Painters (1902), cat. 116 (as by Watteau, Fête
 Champêtre, lent by Lady Wantage).

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain (1854-57), 4: 146.

Goncourt, Catalogue raisonné (1875), cat. 113.

Mollett, Watteau (1883), 67.

Temple, A Catlogue of Pictures (1905), cat. 253.

Manners, “Lady Wantage’s Collection” (1910), 69, 74.

Zimmermann, Watteau (1912), no. 132.
           
Dacier, Vuaflart, and Hérold, Jean de Jullienne et les graveurs, 1: 265; 3: p. 112

Adhémar, Watteau (1950), under cat. 141.

Macchia and Montagni, Tutti l’opera di Watteau (1968), under cat. 141.

 

REMARKS

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this picture had many English champions who believed it was the original version from Watteau’s hand. Nonetheless, this optimism was soon shattered. Temple in 1905 (perhaps basing himself on the earlier 1875 catalogue) challenged the attribution to Watteau and pronounced it to be by Lancret, without even referencing Watteau’s Le Bosquet de Bacchus. This opinion was repeated by Manners. Zimmerman declared it must be a copy of Watteau’s composition. Dacier, Vuaflart, and Hérold implied that it was a copy, noting that the guitarist was shown playing with his left hand; they wrongly thought that the version with Lord Everstone [sic] was  yet another version. Adhémar called it a variant of Watteau’s composition, and Montagni and Macchia followed suit. Although this painting copies Cochin’s engraving quite closely, there are some differences: it lacks the man standing to the left of the base of the statue in the middleground, and the height of that pedestal has been reduced. Also, the disposition of the tree branches in the upper left corner is different.  These details, as minor as they may seem, rule out the possibility that this painting can be identified with the one that Cochin engraved.

When Waagen saw this painting in London in the Overstone collection, he described it as on panel. This was repeated by de Goncourt who, however, had not seen it firsthand. Zimmerman, who also probably had not seen the painting firsthand, said it was on canvas.  When the work was exhibited in 1902 and again when it was sold in 1989, it was described as being on copper.

 

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 2)

Entered July 2016; revised April 2021

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

25.4 x 30.5 cm

 

PROVENANCE

Versailles, private collection

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adhémar, Watteau (1950), under cat. 141.

 

REMARKS

This painting is known to me through an otherwise unidentified photograph in the Service de documentation, Départment des peintures, musée du Louvre. Adhémar cited an “esquisse” after Le Bosquet de Bacchus that she had seen in a Versailles private collection, and given the sketchy manner in which the colors were laid in here, this work may be the painting that she saw in Versailles.

The painting is in the same direction as the engraving except that the guitarist in the foreground has been reversed so that he can strum his intrument with his right hand.

 

 

 

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 3)

Entered July 2016

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

36 x 45.5 cm

 

PROVENANCE

Versailles, Hôtel Rameau, sale, October 5, 1975, lot 140: “WATTEAU / École de / . . . Réunion galante dans un parc. Toile, Haut: 36 cm — Larg: 45,5 cm / Voir la reproduction ci-contre.” Sold for 12,000 francs.

 

REMARKS

          
In most regards this copy closely follows Cochin’s engraving after Le Bosquet de Bacchus. Yet there is a notable divergence: a woman seated in the foreground, right of center, replaces the guitarist found in Watteau’s composition. Nonetheless, this woman also has a source in Watteau’s art; she was copied from Nicolas Henri Tardieu’s engraving after Watteau’s Les Champs Ellisées.

 

 

 

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 4)

Entered July 2016

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on copper

29.2 x 36.2 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

A Fête Champêtre

 

PROVENANCE

London, Christie's, December 15-16, 1983, lot 272: ”Follower of Jean-Baptiste Pater / A Fête Champêtre / on copper / 11½ x 14¼  in. (29.2 x 36.2 cm.).”

 

REMARKS

The painting is not by a follower of Pater but, rather, is simply another anonymous copy after Cochin’s engraving of Le Bosquet de Bacchus.

 

 

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 5)

Entered July 2016

 

Prague, Narodni Galerie V Praze (National Gallery in Prague), inv. 0 192.

Oil on copper

31 x 42 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Gallant Party

Gesellschaft in einem Garten

 

PROVENANCE

Prague, collection of Dr. Josef Karl Eduard Hoser (1770-1848; scientist) by 1838; donated to the Society of the Patriotic Friends of Art in 1843. Subsequently transferred to the Rudolfinum and then the National Gallery.

 

EXHIBITIONS

Rousová, Dances and Festivities (2008), cat. 55 (as “ Jean Antoine Watteau – copy,” Gallant Party (Le Bosquet de Bacchus).

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hoser, Alphabetisches Verzeichniss (1838), 15.

Hoser, Catalogue raisonné (1846), cat. 194.

Prague, Verzeichniss der Kunstwerke in der Gemälde-Galerie (1862).

Wurzbach, Niederländisches Kunstler-Lexicon (1906), 1: 183.

Slaviček, Flemish Paintings in Prague (2000), cat. 58.

 
REMARKS

When the Prague collector Josef Hoser owned this painting in the 1830s, he attributed it to Watteau himself. A decade later he ascribed it to the Flemish artist, Frans Breydel (1679-1750). That attribution remained in place until the end of the twentieth century, when it was recognized that the painting was merely a copy of the Cochin print after Watteau’s Le Bosquet de Bacchus.

 

  

  

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 6)

Entered July 2016

 

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on panel

36.2 x 44.5 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLE

Fête Champêtre

 

PROVENANCE

San Francisco, Butterfield & Butterfield, sale, May 20, 1992, lot 4934. “MANNER OF JEAN BAPTISTE PATER / French, 18th Century / FETE CHAMPETRE / Oil on cradled panel / 14¼ x 17 ½ inches / 36.2 x 44 .5 cm / Estimate 3,000/5,000.” Sold for $2,750.

 

REMARKS

This painting, a weak imitation of Cochin’s engraving, has nothing to do with Pater or his manner. That attribution is merely the auction system’s inability to acknowledge anonymous copies as such.

 

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 7)

Entered July 2016; revised May 2017

 

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on panel

36.5 x 59.3 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Fête Champêtre

 

RELATED PRINTS

 

Léopold Massard (1812-1889) was a member of the dynasty of engravers founded by Jean Massard (1740-1822). He made this print for the February 1846 issue of L’Artiste.

The caption under the print reads at left, “WATTEAU PINX,” and one might be tempted to think that this is a late derivative from Cochin’s engraving after Watteau’s Le Bosquet de Bacchus. However, the two children and the standing dog are not elements in the Cochin print. They can be found in the copy once in the Vogel collection, a painting that has the two children and standing dog. Massard obviously selected to show only the left half of the painting, arbitrarily cut the figures at the left side, and added an arched top.

The print was issued as second time in red ink as though simulating a sanguine drawing or a manière de crayon print. A statement that appeared beneath the print bore a typical Romantic view of the pre-Revolutionary world: “La vie est un roman, à chaque page s’écrie: j’avais déjà lu cela. Sous la Régence, dans le Paradis de Watteau, je m’appelais Adam et elle s’appelait Ève."

Massard’s print implies that the painting was in Paris in the mid-nineteenth century. This helps push the provenance of the present painting back almost a full century.

 

PROVENANCE

Paris, private collection, mid-nineteenth century.

Czechoslovakia, Joseph and Daniel Vogel collection; by descent to Ferdinand Peter Vogel.

Rumson, New Jersey (USA), collection of Ferdinand Peter Vogel; his sale, New York, Parke-Bernet, April 18, 1956, lot 58: “BONAVENTURE DE BAR . . . FÊTE CHAMPÊTRE. In a park with trees permitting a glimpse of a valley in the background, colorfully dressed Watteauesque young people are depicted in three groups; at left, a couple with children before a fountain, and at right two couples and a child, with a man playing a guitar. 14 ¼ x 23 ¼ inches.” Sold for $250 according to an annotated copy of the catalogue in the Frick Art Reference Library, New York.

Collection of Victor William Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck, 9th Duke of Portland (1897-1990; statesman).

Private collection; sale New York, Sotheby’s, June 9, 2011, lot 93: “PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION / Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich . . . FÊTE CHAMPÊTRE / oil on panel / 14 3/8 by 23 3/8 in.; 36.5 x 59.3 cm. / PROVENANCE / Victor William Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck, 9th Duke of Portland / By whom given to the present owner circa 1988.  $15,000-20,000   €10,400-13,800   £9,200-12,200.” Bought in.

 

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Eidelberg, “De Bar” (2011-13), cat. X18

 

REMARKS

When the painting was sold in 2011, it was claimed that the work had been given c. 1988 to the seller by William Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck, 9th Duke of Portland [1897-1990]. The earlier provenance of the picture from the Vogel family brings that claim into doubt.

While this painting is clearly a copy after Cochin’s engraving of Le Bosquet de Bacchus, it was not identified as such for the last half century. It essentially repeats Watteau’s arrangement of figures, trees, and sculptures, but the spacing is exaggerated and the overall format has been transformed into a decidedly horizontal shape. Also, the two children and standing dog do not appear in Watteau’s composition. Rather, they were borrowed by the copyist from the Louis Crépy engraving after Watteau’s La Perspective. The attributions to Bonaventure de Bar (1700-29) and Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich (1712-74) are the marketplace’s misguided attempts to attach a name to this anonymous copy after Watteau.

 

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 8)

Entered July 2016

 

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

70 x 60 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Divertissement champêtre

 

PROVENANCE

Brussels, collection of Henry Shelton Sanford (1823-1891; businessman and American Ambassador to Belgium); his sale, Brussels, February 15-16, 1875, lot 77: “WATTEAU. LE BOSQUET DE BACCHUS. Plusieurs personages se sont réunis dans le rond-point d’un parc seigneurial.
   Au premier plan, auprès d’un basin que décore un groupe sculpté, une jeune femme s’éloigne vers la gauche, en compagnie d’un gentilhomme richement habillé. Sur un tertre peu élevé, à droite, un jeune homme, jouant de la guitarre, est assis près d’une dame, ayant à ses côtés une petite fille qui caresse un chien.
   Au centre de la composition, où s’élève une colonne portant une statue, reposent sur le gazon divers personages se livrent au plaisirs d’une conversation sans contrainte; un jeune couple, debout, se dispose à faire une promenade.
   Derrière la colonne, un homme se tient également debout, la tête tournée vers l’allée qui se dessine à gauche et s’enfonce sous l’ombrage d’une épaisse charmille.
   Ce sujet est gravé par C. N. Cochin.
   Hauteur 70 cent. Largeur 60 cent. Toile.”
  

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dacier, Vuaflart, et Hérold. Jean de Jullienne et les graveurs (1921-29) under cat. 265.

Adhémar, Watteau (1950), under cat. 141.

Macchia and Montagni, Tutti l’opera di Watteau (1969), under cat. 141.

 

REMARKS

The copyist responsible for this work undoubtedly worked from the Cochin print, but compressed the figures into a narrow, vertical format.

Some time after the Sanford sale, the attribution of the painting was demoted to “École de Watteau,” as is indicated on the back of a photograph in the Service de documentation, Département de peinture, Musée du Louvre. Also, its title was changed to the more generic “Divertissement champêtre.”

 

 

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 9)

Entered July 2016; revised December 2018

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

51.3 x 62.4 cm

 

PROVENANCE

(?) Antwerp, private collection.

Paris, with Emmanuel David (dealer), c.1972-73

Boulogne sur Seine, collection of D. Ozmen, c. 1990

 

REMARKS

This painting is known through photographs at the Witt Library and the Service de documentation, Département de peintures, musée du Louvre. The Witt photo bears the notation “Pater” and is otherwise unidentified. The Louvre photo bears the stamped mark of an Antwerp photographer (t’Felt, 2 Graliekapelstr. Antwerp) which suggests that the owner may have lived in that city or nearby. This picture is also documented in the archives of Marianne Roland Michel, Petit Palais, and an April 1990 letter from D. Ozmen to Pierre Rosenberg on file in the Service de documentation, Département des peintures, musée du Louvre. 

Unlike most copies after Le Bosquet de Bacchus, this one is in the opposite direction of Cochin’s engraving, but it is unlikely that it was copied from the original Watteau painting.

 

 

 

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 10

Entered July 2016

 

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

116 x 89 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Réunion galante dans un parc

 

PROVENANCE

Paris, Salle de ventes Matias & Oget - Blanchet, June 26, 2019, lot 25: “ÉCOLE FRANÇAISE DU XIXE SIÈCLE, DANS LE GOÛT D'ANTOINE WATTEAU / Réunion galante dans un parc / Toile. / Restaurations. / 116 x 89 cm / 1 000 - 1 500 €.”

 

REMARKS

This picture is based upon Cochin’s engraving after Bosquet de Bacchus. It omits some the figures in the middleground and, like other copies of Watteau’s composition (e.g., copy 8, 14, etc), it has transformed the original horizontal format into a vertical one.

 

 

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 11)

Entered July 2016

 

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on copper

40.6 x 50.8 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Fête Champêtre

 

PROVENANCE

New York, Sotheby’s Arcade, January 19, 1994, lot 252: “Manner of Jean-Baptiste Pater / FÊTE CHAMPÊTRE / oil on metal / 16 by 20 in.   40.6 by 50.8 cm. / $2,000-3,000.” Bought in.

 

REMARKS

The style of this painting has nothing to do with Pater or his school. It is merely an anonymous copy. Although it is in the opposite direction of Cochin's engraving, it is unlikely that is was copied from the original Watteau painting.

 

 

 

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 12)

Entered July 2016

 

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on panel

28 x 38 cm

 

PROVENANCE

Versailles, Palais des congrés, November 11, 1976, lot 32: “WATTEAU (D’après) / XIXe siècle. . . . LE BOSQUET DE BACCHUS. Peinture sur panneau encadré. 28 x 38.”

 

REMARKS

The painting was apparently not illustrated at the time nor can it be identified with any extant versions, save for our copy 4 and that was supposedly on copper, not wood panel.

 

 

 

 

 
Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 13)

Entered July 2016

 

 

Cowdray House near Midhurst (West Sussex), Inv. 119

Oil on canvas

34.3 x 44.5 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Fête Champêtre

 

PROVENANCE

Cowdray House near Midhurst (West Sussex), collection of John Pearson, 3rd Viscount Cowdray (1910-1995); by descent to Michael Pearson, 4th Viscount Cowdray (b. 1944).

 

REMARKS

The early history of this painting is not known. Since the mid-20th century it has been classified as “School of Watteau.”

Although not immediately apparent, this picture was derived from Le Bosquet de Bacchus. The couple at the left was taken from the left foreground of Watteau’s composition. So too, the standing and seated couples were taken from the middle ground of Watteau’s composition. The guitarist seated on the ground beside them was originally in the right foreground corner of Watteau’s composition. But by eliminating all the other figures, the fountain of Bacchus, the other sculpture, and Watteau’s rich arrangement of trees, this copyist has ended up with a vapid composition. 

 

 

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 14)

Entered July 2016

 

 

Prague, Narodni Galerie V Praze (National Gallery in Prague), inv. DO 4605.

Oil on panel

28.5 x 20 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Gallant Party in a Park

 

PROVENANCE

Acquired by the museum in 1945 from an unrecorded source.

                                                                                                                                   
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Eidelberg, “De Bar” (2011-13), 2: cat. X. 11.

 

EXHIBITIONS

Rousová, Dances and Festivities (2008), cat. 54 (as “Antoine Watteau – copy,” Gallant Party in a Park (Le Bosquet de Bacchus).

 

REMARKS

The museum presently classifies this painting as a copy after Cochin’s engraving of Watteau’s Le Bosquet de Bacchus, and dates it to the end of the eighteenth or beginning of the nineteenth century. The copyist changed the image to a vertical format.

 

 

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 15)

Entered July 2016

 

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

46 x 35.5 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES    

La Conversation dans le parc

Figures in a Park

 

PROVENANCE

London, Syon House, collection of Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland (1714-1786). The painting was cited in a mid-eighteenth century inventory as being in the Duchess’ bedroom, and was listed under the name of Mercier. It passed by descent within the Percy family.

London, Syon House, collection of Hugh Percy, the 10th Duke of Northumberland (1914-1988); his sale, London, Sotheby’s, March 26, 1952, lot 102: “PHILIP MERCIER. . . . FIGURES IN A PARK: a couple standing by a fountain, others seated and conversing in the background   17½ in. by 13 ¾in. In the First Duchess’s List. N.C. 529.” Sold to Thesiger [P. D. Colnaghi] for £92.    

Paris, Palais Galliera, June 7, 1974, lot 26: “Mercier / (Philippe) . . . La Conversation dans le parc. Toile. Haut. 0,465; larg. 0,360 / Ancienne collection du Duc de Northumberland.”

France, private collection, c. 1978.

Paris, Hôtel Drouot (Beaussant & Lefèvre), December 18, 2009, lot 52: “Philippe MERCIER . . . La conversation dans le parc / Huile sur toile, rentoilé.  46 x 35,5 cm   3 000 / 4 000 € / Provenance: Collection Duc de Northumberland. Galerie Colnaghi.” Sold for €6,500  

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Raines, “Watteaus and ‘Watteaus’ in England” (1977), 54.

Ingamells and Raines, “Catalogue of Mercier” (1976-78), cat. 245

Eidelberg, "Mercier, Watteau's English Follower" (2013).

 

REMARKS

Until recently, the eighteenth-century attribution of this painting to Mercier was maintained by all—including Ingamells and Raines’ catalogue of Mercier’s oeuvre. Indeed, it has been claimed that his direct imitation of Watteau’s Le Bosquet de Bacchus is typical of his modus operandi. Yet, as I have demonstrated, Mercier has a distinctive style of his own, one that is quite unlike the many copies and pastiches after Watteau that are attributed to him. Like the present example, they often have long English pedigrees, but they have nothing to do with his actual oeuvre.

 

 

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 16)

Entered July 2016

 

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

Measurements unknown

 

PROVENANCE

(?) Antwerp

 

REMARKS

This painting is known to me only from an annotated photograph in the Service de documentation, département de peintures, musée du Louvre, which suggests the painting was in Antwerp.

 

 

 

 

 Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 17)

Entered July 2016

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

42 x 33 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Fête Champêtre

 

PROVENANCE

Collection of Robin Macdonald Sinclair, 2nd Viscount Thurso (1922-1995); given as a present to Mr. and Mrs. John E. Treleaven.

New York, collection of Helen (c. 1902/03-1989) and John E. (c. 1905-1963) Treleaven (antique dealers); sold New York, Sotheby’s, January 10, 1991, lot 86: “Property from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John E. Treleaven, New York . . . Sebastien Jacques LeClerc. Called LeClerc des Gobelins . . . FÊTES CHAMPÊTRES: A PAIR OF PAINTINGS / both oil on canvas / each 16½ x 13 in   42 by 33 cm. / Provenance:  Viscount Thurso / $30,000-40,000.” The pair sold for $28,600, including the buyer’s premium, according to the firm’s printed sale results.

 

 

REMARKS

 

The pendant picture can be seen as a paraphrase of the principal figures in Watteau’s La Cascade, although the correspondence is generic at best.

 

 

 

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 18)

Entered July 2016

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on panel

21 x 15.5 cm

 

 ALTERNATIVE TITLES

            Scène galante

 

PROVENANCE

Sale Paris, Hôtel Drouot (Tessier & Sarrou & Associés), June 26, 2015, lot 18: "D’après Antoine WATTEAU/ Scène galante / Huile sur panneau / 21 x 15,5 cm. / 300/500 €." Sold for €600.

 

REMARKS

The moody quality of this copy suggests that it was painted in the nineteenth century. 

 

 

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 19)

Entered July 2016

 

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on panel

25.4 x 30.5 cm

 

PROVENANCE

Berlin, Schwabach collection.

New York, Arnhold collection.

New York, Parke Bernet, September 25-27, 1947, lot 104: “Follower of Jean Antoine Watteau. . . Le Bosquet de Bacchus. . . Terrace scene, with a young woman in pink robe and a courtier in crimson and blue costume, standing by a fountain, a dog and two children playing at their side. The central group and fountain taken from the painting in the collection of Lady Wantage; see Watteau, Klassiker der Kunst, 1912, p. 132 (N.Y. Private Collector)… 10 x 12 inches.”  Not illustrated.  According to Parke Bernet’s records, the vendor was Arnhold; the painting sold for $70 to S. Landerer.

 

REMARKS

Although not illustrated in the 1947 sale catalogue, an annotated photograph in the Witt Collection, London, indicates that this is the work in question.

 

 

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 20)

Entered July 2016

 

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on panel

23 x 19.5 cm

 

PROVENANCE

Dublin, collection of John Laffon, c. 1957.

Dublin, collection of Serge Philipson, by 1983.
           
London, Phillips, July 2, 1996, “the property of a gentleman,” lot 207: Circle of Antoine Watteau / (18th Century) / LE BOSQUET DE BACCHUS / On panel / 9in. x 7 5/8in. (23cm x 19.5cm.) / The original composition by Watteau is lost; the composition is taken from the right hand section of an engraving by Nicolas Cochin, with some variations. Two other versions of the original painting are mentioned, one belonging to Lord Overstone, and a second went through the Samford [sic] Sale, Brussels, 1875, (See Ettore Camesasca, Complete Paintings of Watteau 1971, No. 141, p. 111. The whereabouts of these two paintings are unknown). / £1000-1500.”

 

REMARKS

Both Dublin-based owners of this painting entertained the idea that it might be by Watteau himself, although they curiously did not refer to Le Bosquet de Bacchus. Both made inquiries to the Louvre curatorial staff; correspondence from John Laffon to Hélène Adhémar in 1957, and from a representative of Serge Philipson to Pierre Rosenberg in 1983, are in the files of the Service de documentation, département de peintures, musée du Louvre.

However, the painting is clearly only a partial copy after the right side of Cochin engraving, and then the elements have been shifted. It combines the couple from the right side of the engraving and the figures on the ground from the middle ground, in effect creating a very different sense of narrative. It’s execution suggests a late date, perhaps in the nineteenth century.

 

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 21)

Entered September 2016

 

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on copper

24 x 26.5 cm

 

ALTERNATE TITLES

Scène galante dans un parc

 

PROVENANCE

Sale Paris, Hôtel Drouot (Robert & Baille), April 7, 2010, lot 16: “WATTEAU  Antoine (Suite de) . . . Ecole française du XIX^e siècle / Scène galante dans un parc / Huile sur cuivre / H.24-L.26,5 cm / 800 /1 200 €"

                       
REMARKS

Not atypical of the market place, there is no mention of the fact that this picture is merely a direct copy of the print after Le Bosquet de Bacchus. Instead, it’s origin is left in ambiguous, and the artist is described as a nineteenth-century follower of Watteau.

   

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 22)

Entered May 2019; revised April 2021

 

 

Whereabouts unknown 
 
Oil on canvas
 
32.5 x 46.2 cm
 

 

ALTERNATE TITLES

 La Fête champêtre

 

PROVENANCE

Paris, sale, Hôtel Drouot (Delon-Hoebanx), May 29, 2019, lot 10: “Jean-Baptiste François PATER  . . . dans le gout de, La fête champêtre / Huile sur toile non signé / Plaque sur le cadre J.B. Pater / Dim 32,5 x 46,2 cm / 500 / 600 €.”

                       
REMARKS

The reversed direction of the composition indicates that the painting was copied from Cochin‘s engraving. However, the guitarist in the foreground has been reversed so that he can strum his intrument with his right hand. Despite the attempted attribution to Pater, it remains just another anonymous copy.

 

           

 

 

 

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 23)

Entered March 2021

 

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

36 x 45 cm

 

PROVENANCE

Paris, collection of Madame Veuve B. Her sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, March 19-20, 1920, lot 45: “WATTEAU (Ecole de) . . . Le Bosquet de Bacchus. Toile. , Haut., 36 cent.; larg., 45 cent.” Sold for 1,200 livres,

 

REMARKS

Without a photograph or description to guide us, it is difficult to assess this copy after Le Bosquet de Bacchus. Its dimensions agree with our copies 3 and 6, but there is insufficient evidence to make the case for either of those copies.

   
   

 

Le Bosquet de Bacchus (copy 24)

Entered June 2021

 

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

68 x 83 cm

 

ALTERNATE TITLES

Assemblée dans un parc

 

PROVENANCE

Enghien-les-bains, sale, Hôtel des ventes d’Enghien, February 14, 2021, lot 71: “Ecole FRANÇAISE XIXe dans le goût d’Antoine WATTEAU / Assemblée dans un parc. /  Huile sur toile à vue ovale. (Rentoilage). 68 x 83 cm. Beau cadre en bois doré. 300 / 400€”

                       
REMARKS

This painting is not merely “dans le goût d’Anotine Watteau.” It is a relatively faithful copy of Watteau’s Bosquet de Bacchus as recorded in Cochin’s engraving. Both the figures and the landscape adhere to the original composition.

 

     

 

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