79 Two Studies of a Flutist and
One of the Head of a Boy
Red, black, and white chalk; H: 21.4 cm (8^7 /i6 in.); W:
33.6cm (i3^3 /i6Ín.)
88.GB.3 (SEE PLATE 7)
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: None.
PROVENANCE: R. Brisart, Ghent; Andrew James, Lon-
don; by descent to his daughter, Sarah Ann James, Lon-
don (sale, Christie's, London, June 23, 1891, lot 33 5); Ste-
phan Bourgeois(?); Camille Groult, Paris; by descent to
J. Groult, Paris; by descent to Pierre Bordeaux-Groult,
Paris; private collection, Paris; art market, New York.
EXHIBITIONS: European Masters of the Eighteenth Century,
Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1954-55, n°-^2 $2;
Watteau 1684-1721, National Gallery of Art, Washing-
ton, D.C., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris,
and Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin, June 1984-May
1985, no. 82 (catalogue by M. Grasselli and P. Rosenberg
with the assistance of N. Parmantier).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Waagen, Galleries and Cabinets of Art
in Great Britain (London, 1857), p. 216; E. de Concourt,
Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, dessiné et gravé d'An-
toine Watteau (Paris, 1875), pp. 258-59, under no. 448;
288, under no. 609; P. Leroi, "La saison des ventes pu-
bliques à Londres et à Paris," L'art 51 (1891), p. 98, no.
335 , n. 4; P. Mantz, éd., Cent dessins de Watteau, gravés par
Boucher (Paris, 1892), p. 109; J. Mathey, "Documents
inédits: Aspects divers de Watteau dessinateur dans la col-
lection Groult," L'amour de l'art 10 (December 1938), pp.
375-76; H. Ascher, "Palette and Chisel," Antique Dealer
and Collectors' Guide 9, no. 6 (January 1955), p. 36; K. T.
Parker and J. Mathey, Antoine Watteau: Catalogue complet
de son oeuvre dessiné (Paris, 1957), vol. 2, pp. 331; 332, un-
der no. 693; 334, under no. 714; 341, under no. 743; 353
54 ; 359, no. 837, under no. 838; A. P. de Mirimonde,
"Les sujets musicaux chez Antoine Watteau," Gazette des
Beaux-Arts 58 (November 1961), p. 286, n. 9; P. Jean-
Richard, L'oeuvre gravé de François Boucher dans la collection
Edmond de Rothschild (Paris, 1978), pp. 42-43, under no.
71; F. Gétreau, "Watteau et la musique: Réalité et inter-
prétations," in F. Moreau and M. Grasselli, Antoine Wat-
teau (1684-1721): The Painter, His Age and His Legend
(Paris and Geneva, 1987), pp. 238-39; J.-F. Méjanès, in
Dessins français du XVIIIe siècle de Watteau à Lemoyne, exh.
cat. (Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1987), p. 79, under no. 105.
THIS is AMONG WATTEAU'S MOST COMPELLING Musi-
cal studies. With great spontaneity it shows an uniden-
tified musician playing the transverse flute, suggesting
that it was made while observing a concert. Though the
young boy at the left is a not entirely felicitous addition,
it has recently been suggested by M. Stuffmann that he
may have been a member of the audience.^1 He recurs on
at least three other sheets by Watteau (New York, John
and Paul Herring collection; Paris, private collection;
Paris, marquis de Ganay collection; Parker and Mathey
1957 , vol. 2, nos. 714 , 715, 743). The study at the right
was used for Watteau's painting Perfect Accord (London,
private collection), whereas the boy and the flutist in the
center were etched by François Boucher and Laurent
Cars, respectively.^2 While Perfect Accord may date toward
the end of the second decade of the century, Grasselli (in
Grasselli and Rosenberg with Parmantier 1984-85) pos-
ited a date of 1716-17 for the Museum's drawing, which
seems convincing.- Conversation with G. Goldner, March 1989.
- Figures de différents caractères, de paysages et d'études dessinées
d'après nature par Antoine Watteau (Paris, 1826), vols, i, pi. 88; 2,
pi. 232.
188 FRENCH SCHOOL • WATTEAU