JOSEPH-BENOIT SUVEE
1743-180 7
$7 The Invention of Drawing
Black and white chalk on brown paper (recto); H: 54.6
cm (2il/2in.); W: 35.5 cm (14 in.)
87.06.14 5
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) at bottom, in-
scribed J.B. SUVEE. A SON AMI VAN SPAEN-
DONCK MEMBRE DE L'INSTITUT NATIONAL
on attached strip in graphite by the artist.
PROVENANCE: Gerardus van Spaendonck, Paris (sale,
Paillet, Paris, July 15, 1822, lot 37); sale, Christie's, Lon-
don, December 13, 1984, lot 150; art market, Boston.EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: J.-F. Méjanès, in D. Coekelberghs and
P. Loze, éd., 1770—1830: Autour au néo-classicisme en Bel-
gique, exh. cat. (Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Ixelles, Brus-
sels, 1985), p. loi, under no. 63.THIS DRAWING DEPICTS DlBUTADE, A CORINTHIAN
maiden, tracing her lover s silhouette on the wall of her
father's studio so as to retain a remembrance of his ap-
pearance after his departure. In this composition Suvée
followed the precedent of David Allan, who showed the
two lovers embracing in his picture of 1773 (National
Gallery of Scotland), which Suvée might well have seen
in Rome. Suvée was commissioned to paint this theme
for the Société des Amis des Arts in 1791 and exhibited
the painting, now in the Groeningemuseum, Bruges, in
the Salon of that year. Two smaller versions were also
completed, one shown at the Salon of 1793 and another
confiscated from the house of Simon-Charles Boutin in
the same year (Méjanès 1985). Both of these works have
disappeared. In addition several drawings of this theme
by Suvée are recorded, including two in his sale of I8O7^1
and another, sold in 1902, dedicated to his friend L. E.
van Outryve (ibid.). The Museum's drawing was cer-
tainly made as a replica rather than as a preparatory study.
It demonstrates command of a highly refined Neoclas-
sical aesthetic with strong Romantic overtones. There is
a faint sketch of a leg bone in black chalk on the lining on
the verso of the sheet.i. Regnault and André, Paris, November 4-7, 1807, lots 41,
73-208 FLEMISH SCHOOL • SUVEE