European Drawings - 1, Catalogue of the Collections

(Darren Dugan) #1

JEAN-MICHEL MOREAU THE YOUNGER


81 Have No Fear,


My Good Friend!


Pen and brown ink and brown wash; H: 26.7 cm (loVz
in.); W: 21.6 cm (8 z/2 in.)
85.00.416
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom left corner,
signed and dated JM. moreau lejeune. 1775 in black ink;
on mount, at bottom right corner, unidentified collec-
tion mark stamped twice.
PROVENANCE: King Lud wig 11 of Bavaria; (sale, Lepke's
Kunst-Auction-Haus, Berlin, May, 1891); M. Morgand,
Paris; Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Paris; Earl of Car-
narvon, London; Irwin Laughlin; by descent to Mrs.
Hubert Chanler, Washington, D.C.; sale, Sotheby's,
London, June io, 1959, lot 39; Mr. and Mrs. DeaneJohn-
son, New York; sale, Christie's, London, April 10, 1985,
lot 121; art market, London.
EXHIBITIONS: Picturesy Drawings, Etc. of the French School
of the Eighteenth Century, Burlington Fine Arts Club,
London, 1913, no. 53. Exhibition of French Art 1200—
1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1932, no. 835.
France in the Eighteenth Century, Royal Academy of Arts,
London, 1968, no. 478.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: R. Nevill, French Prints of the Eighteenth
Century (London, 1908), p. 185 ; H. Cohen, Guide de
Vamateur de livres a gravures du XVIII siecle (Paris, 1912),
col. 358, no. 16; M. von Boehn, Moreau undFreudenberg:
Trois suites d'estampes (Berlin, 1920), p. 17; J. Widener,
French Engravings of the Eighteenth Century in the Collection
of Joseph Widener (London, 1923), vol. 4, pp. 523-524;
C. Dodgson, "Moreau lejeune," Old Master Drawings 2,
no. 6 (September 1927), p. 24.

THIS IS THE FINISHED PREPARATORY STUDY FOR THE
fourth illustration in the second series of Monument du
costume, engraved by I. S. Helman in 1776 in the same
direction as the drawing (Widener 1923, vol. 4, no. 16).
This series consists of three sets of twelve prints illus-
trating the childhood and early married years of a young
man. Throughout, these vignettes reflect the social and
moral behavior of the time, but they are also important
for their representation of contemporary fashion and
taste. In this scene a young woman named Cephise sits
between two friends who are trying to assuage her fears
as she is pregnant with her first child. The young abbe at
the left turns to her and tells her to have no fear, the basis
for the title of the print. The graphic style of the drawing,
with its brilliantly observed textures and great delicacy
of handling, is fully in accord with both theme and set-
ting. It is exemplary of the artist's most refined and ac-
complished manner.^1

i. Studies in trois crayons for the two lateral female figures were
sold from the collection of Lucien Guiraud, Hotel Drouot,
Paris, June 14-15, 1956, lots 58, 59.

182 FRENCH SCHOOL • MOREAU
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