Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

47 x 58.4 cm

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Ein galantes Paar vor der Einschiffung nach Kythera

PROVENANCE

Vienna, Dorotheum, sale, June 22, 2010, lot 149: “Philippe Mercier . . . zugeschrieben. Ein galantes Paar vor der Einschiffung nach Kythera. Öl auf Leinwand. 47 x 58,4 cm, gerahmt / € 5.000 - 7.000 / US$ 6.400 - 8.900.” Bought in.

REMARKS

The direction of the composition suggests that it was based on the Crépy engraving. Although this is a generally faithful copy of the figural elements, the rocks at the left and the pine trees in the landscape strike a jarring note. They are not to be found in French fêtes galantes and suggest, instead, that the copyist was North European. That the painting first appeared publicly in Vienna perhaps reinforces this idea.  The painting certainly has nothing to do with Philippe Mercier.

This picture was paired with a copy after Watteau’s La Danse champêtre that was sold as lot 148—a painting with same measurements and also wrongly attributed to Philippe Mercier.

Bon voyage (copy 5)
Entered July 2016; revised April 2021

Caen, Musée des beaux-arts, inv. M 416.

Oil on panel

11.4 x 8.5 cm

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Conversation

Conversation dans un parc

PROVENANCE

Caen, collection of Pierre Philippe Mancelle (baker). This is suggested by the notation on the back of the painting, “fatus panier” (speaking of bread). This may have been written jokingly by Mancel’s son, the next owner of the painting.

Caen, collection of Pierre Bernard Mancel (1798-1872; bookseller); inventory after death, no. 46; donated to the museum in 1872.

 

EXHIBITIONS

Paris, Musée de la Monnaie, Pèlerinage (1977), cat. 173.

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Decauville Lachènée, Catalogue des tableaux (1897), cat. 60.

Ménégoz, Catalogue des tableaux (1928), cat. 60.

Debaisieux, Caen, peintures français (2000), cat. 103.

 

REMARKS

While this painting could be interpreted as a copy of the couple in the foreground of the Louvre or Berlin versions of the Pèlerinage, the fact that it shows just this seated couple makes it likely that it was based on Bon voyage. Moreover, because of the direction of the figures, it seems likely that the copyist was working from the Audran engraving. The perky little brimmed hat worn by the woman, with its large feather cockade, suggests that this copy was not made until the end of the eighteenth century.

The inventory of the Mancel collection drawn up in 1872 after the collector’s death listed the panel as “attribué à Watteau” but, after being transferred to the museum, its attribution was upgraded to Watteau himself. However, most Watteau scholars did not accept this and, in fact, the painting did not appear in any of the twentieth-century literature on Watteau. Within the museum it was considered to be an autograph study by Watteau for the Pèlerinage, but when the panel appeared in the 1977 exhibition in Paris, it was cited, reasonably enough, as a French eighteenth-century copy after Watteau, and it was so listed in the 2000 catalogue of the Caen museum’s collection.

Bon voyage (copy 6)
Entered July 2016; revised April 2021

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on panel

26 x 20

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Un Couple

PROVENANCE

Berlin, sale, Rudolph Lepke Kunst Auktions Haus, November 14, 1911, lot 119: “C. W. E. DIETRICH . . . Liebespaar. Ein junger Mann in Pilgerkleidung macht einer Dame in weissem Atlasgewand und rotem Überworf kniend eine Liebeserklärung. Landschäflicher Hintergrund. Holz. H. 26 cm. B. 20 cm. G-R. Abbildung auf Tafel 32."

 

 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ferré, Watteau (1972), cat. P22.

 

REMARKS

The attribution to Dietrich of a painting after Watteau is expectable in German-speaking lands, just as the same copy might be attributed to Pater in France. Ferré associates this work with derivatives of the Louvre and Berlin Pèlerinages, but he does not link it with Bon voyage.

For Bon voyage, CLICK HERE

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