.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
It is a testimony to the great charm of this drawing that the Venetian painter Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734) decided to copy it while he was visiting Watteau's studio. Ricci's red and black chalk drawing - once part of Consul Smith's collection and now in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle (inv. RL6996; Blunt and Croft-Murray, op. cit., no. 351) - is far from a slavish copy as, while keeping the individual heads, it rearranges their mis en page. The date and circumstances of Ricci's meeting with Watteau are well documented: in a letter to the Venetian pastellist Rosalba Carriera dated 16 December 1716, Pierre Crozat (1661-1740) - the greatest French collector of his time and a wealthy financier - mentioned 'M. Vateau est un jeune homme chez qui je menay il Sig. Sebastiano Rizzi'. The date of the letter is of importance as it gives a terminus ante quem for the present drawing, which was probably executed not long before as it is most likely that Watteau showed to Ricci and his patron Crozat his most recent production.
Watteau's drawing contains five studies of what appear to be two different children: the left and right sketches on the upper level are of the same young girl resting her folded arms on a tabletop; the child in the centre - a small boy - reappears bottom left without his hat, and probably in the final sketch as well, though his hair is parted differently and his costume is left undefined. Malcolm Cormack (op. cit.) has suggested the sitters may have been children of the Sirois family whith whom Watteau stayed on many occasions. Watteau seems to have drawn the same models in a few other drawings. The little boy reappears wearing a cap in two sheets also dated circa 1716 (Rosenberg and Prat, op. cit., nos. 408-9), while the young girl is drawn again with her arms on a table top in a drawing in a private collection (op. cit., no. 450).
The amusing central sketch of the smiling boy in a cap was used by Watteau for one of his figures in Les Champs-Elysées, a painting dated circa 1716 in the Wallace Collection (Fig. 3). The boy resting his head on his arm lower left in the present drawing was etched in the same direction by P.C. Trémolières for Les figures de différents caractères (no. 168; Fig. 2). There exists a counterproof - probably cut from a larger sheet - of the figure of the girl top right (Rosenberg and Prat, op. cit., fig. 440a, p. 730; Fig. 1). The same figure was copied in a sheet now in the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam (op. cit., fig. 440e).
The drawing, once part of the Groult Collection which included some of Watteau's greatest sheets, has long been admired. Alan Wintermute (exh. cat. New York, 1999-2000) praised it for 'bearing several of Watteau's most charming and well-observed studies of children', while Rosenberg and Prat underlined its 'mélange de puissance expressive et de délicatesse, sa maîtrise de la lumière, le charme encore un peu gauche de cette évocation savoureuse.'
Watteau's drawing contains five studies of what appear to be two different children: the left and right sketches on the upper level are of the same young girl resting her folded arms on a tabletop; the child in the centre - a small boy - reappears bottom left without his hat, and probably in the final sketch as well, though his hair is parted differently and his costume is left undefined. Malcolm Cormack (op. cit.) has suggested the sitters may have been children of the Sirois family whith whom Watteau stayed on many occasions. Watteau seems to have drawn the same models in a few other drawings. The little boy reappears wearing a cap in two sheets also dated circa 1716 (Rosenberg and Prat, op. cit., nos. 408-9), while the young girl is drawn again with her arms on a table top in a drawing in a private collection (op. cit., no. 450).
The amusing central sketch of the smiling boy in a cap was used by Watteau for one of his figures in Les Champs-Elysées, a painting dated circa 1716 in the Wallace Collection (Fig. 3). The boy resting his head on his arm lower left in the present drawing was etched in the same direction by P.C. Trémolières for Les figures de différents caractères (no. 168; Fig. 2). There exists a counterproof - probably cut from a larger sheet - of the figure of the girl top right (Rosenberg and Prat, op. cit., fig. 440a, p. 730; Fig. 1). The same figure was copied in a sheet now in the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam (op. cit., fig. 440e).
The drawing, once part of the Groult Collection which included some of Watteau's greatest sheets, has long been admired. Alan Wintermute (exh. cat. New York, 1999-2000) praised it for 'bearing several of Watteau's most charming and well-observed studies of children', while Rosenberg and Prat underlined its 'mélange de puissance expressive et de délicatesse, sa maîtrise de la lumière, le charme encore un peu gauche de cette évocation savoureuse.'