JEAN-ANTOINE WATTEAU
1684-1721THE CENTRAL FIGURE IS A STUDY FOR THE WOMAN
seated at the right foreground in the Embarkation for Cy-
thera. Minor differences in detail between this figure in
the two versions of the painting put the study on the Mu-
seum's sheet closer to the one in the Louvre. For example
the bit of drapery at the figure's bottom right being
pulled in the Louvre version by a child reflects the same
detail in the drawing but is changed considerably in the
later painting in Berlin. This figure also was used for a
lost painting by Watteau, the Bon Voyage, known
through an engraving by Benoît Audran.^1 The woman
standing at the right in the Museum's drawing was used
in Watteau's painting Assembly in a Park (Louvre), where
she appears with only minor changes in the left fore-
ground. She also appears in engravings by Jean Audran^2
and Gilles Demarteau.^3 Only the frontal figure at the left
on the Museum's sheet cannot be connected to a known
painting. The drawing seems surely to date from circa
1716, given the usual dating of 1716-1 7 for the Assembly
in a Park and of 1717 for the Louvre Embarkation to
Cythera.- E. Dacier and A. Vuaflart, Jean dejullienne et les graveurs de
Watteau au XVUle siècle (Paris, 1921), no. 35. - Figures de différents caractères, de paysages et d'études dessinées
d'après nature par Antione Watteau (Paris, 1826), vol. 2, pi. 205. - P. Mantz, Antoine Watteau (Paris, 1892), p. 37.
l8 6 FRENCH SCHOOL • WATTEAU78 Studies of Three Women
Red, black, and white chalk; H: 26.8 cm (io^9 /i6 in.); W:- 7 cm (i2^7 /8Ín.)
86.GB.59Ó
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom left corner, un-
identified collection mark.PROVENANCE: Jules-Robert Auguste, Paris and Rome
(sale, J. Lemaître-Lauguettrie, Paris, May 28, 1850, lot
loi or 102); Baron L. A. de Schwiter, Paris (sale, Hôtel
Drouot, Paris, April 20-21, 1883, lot 157); M. Larroque;
H.-A. Josse, Paris (sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris,
May 28, 1894, lot 46); Jacques Doucet, Paris (sale, Galerie
Georges Petit, Paris, June 5 , 1912, lot 55); M. Feral; Don-
aldson collection, London; Walter S. M. Burns, London;
Mortimer L. Schiff, New York (sale, Christie's, London,
June 24, 1938, lot 54); Lord Wharton, Dublin and Swit-
zerland; by descent to his heirs, Switzerland; art market,
London.
EXHIBITIONS: European Masters of the Eighteenth Century,
Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1954-55, n°-^2 77;
Christie's Bi-Centenary Exhibition, Christie's, London,
January 1967, no. 57.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. de Concourt, Catalogue raisonné de
Voeuvre peint, dessiné et gravé d'Antoine Watteau (Paris,
1875), p. 366; G. Dargenty, Antoine Watteau (Paris, 1891),
p. 47; K. T. Parker, The Drawings of Antoine Watteau
(London, 1931), p. 45, no. 53; E. Michel, R. Aulanier,
and H. de Vallée, Watteau: L'embarquement pour Vile de Cy-
thère (Paris, 1939), vol. 2, p. 13; H. Adhémar, L'embarque-
ment pour l'île de Cythère, Watteau (Paris, 1947), fig. 12;
K. T. Parker and J. Mathey, Antoine Watteau: Catalogue
complet de son oeuvre dessiné (Paris, 1957), vol. 2, p. 315,
no. 606; M. Grasselli and P. Rosenberg with the assis-
tance of N. Parmantier, Watteau 1684-1721, exh. cat.
(National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1984), pp.
385-86, under no. 56; 400, 406, under no. 61.