Follower of Jean-Antoine Watteau La Peinture

Follower of Jean-Antoine Watteau
Le Peinture

oil on canvas, unframed
41 x 33 cm.; 16⅛ x 13 in.

Condition Report:
The canvas has been lined and is providing a flat and stable support. Some losses to the extremities of the canvas. Mostly to the lower corners and left edge. The surface is slightly dirty and the varnish has yellowed. Overall the work presents well. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals a layer of uneven opaque varnish and retouching towards the lower left and upper right hand corners, further scattered spots elsewhere and to the extremities of the canvas.

Catalogue Note:
An engraving by Louis Desplaces (1682–1739) indicates that this painting is a copy after a work by Watteau with some minor variations to the background.1 The original painting (location unknown) was a pendant to La Sculpture, c. 1710, now in Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans.2

1 See for example the impression in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, no. 2012.136.249.

2 P. Rosenberg and E. Camesasca, Tout l'œuvre peint de Watteau, Paris 1982, p. 99, no. 66.