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4 awfw ^ifjljtLintii \^Jfflti4rij THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART Succeeding the majesty of the Sun King's reign, the courts oi Louis XV and XVI turned artistic canons from splendid pomp to the quintessence of grace. Charming refinements ruled manners and tastes throughout the eighteenth cen tury until, with the monarchy, they were overthrown and re placed by the austere classicism of Napoleon's Empire. Eighteenth-century art ists, many of whom de pended upon royal pa tronage, were masters at recording and popu larizing the balls and banquets, the theatrical per formances, the hunts and picnics that were the daily distractions of a pleasure-hungry court. Highly creative and receptive to a wide range of subject matter these artists found inspiration as readily on OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Mount Olympus as in the shepherd's bower or the rococo drawing room. A shift in interest from the lives of gods and heroes to the pleasures of contemporary life, particularly the delights of the privileged classes, is evident in the estampes galantes, elaborately engraved after designs by Moreau Le Jeune, Baudouin, and Lavreince. They are the most illuminating documents of aristocratic manners, of costume, and of the decoration of houses and palaces. These documents of not acquire original drawings. And reproduc worldly pleasures were complemented by a tions of paintings were produced by skilled pro vigorous academic tradition concerned with fessional engravers to meet the demands of an large-scale historical and mythological paint increasingly avid public. ing, splendidly exemplified in this exhibition Etching, a process more rapid and free by Carle Van Loo's large drawn model for a than engraving and in many ways akin to picture painted for Frederick the Great of drawing, provides some of the most interesting Prussia (no. 33). footnotes to the century's artistic production. The painters of this period were almost Boucher picked up the etcher's needle to inter all prolific and talented draughtsmen. Indeed, pret Watteau's lively sketches (no. 56). Fra- draughtsmanship continued to be the foundation gonard, Boucher's heir and the outstanding on which a painter's art was built, since the peintre-graveur of the period, projected bril elaboration of a picture called for detailed liantly in etching his facile line, vitality, and studies of individual figures as well as wit. Gabriel de Saint-Aubin no doubt embar sketches made in search of a whole com rassed his fashionable brother Augustin with position. In addition, painters were fre his impulsive etched scrawls, but their inde quently called upon to supply elaborate pendent verve delights us now (nos. 93-95). designs intended to be reproduced as prints. No more than ten impressions of each are The only great painter of this period whose known today. drawing style is still very much a mystery is The drawings and prints in this exhibition, Chardin, although he is represented in this exhi have been drawn largely from the collections bition by reproductive engravings that testify to of the Metropolitan Museum, and the exhibition the vogue of his paintings (nos. 61-65). has been remarkably enriched by splendid loans A new artistic phenomenon that charac of drawings from Robert Light, Mr. and Mrs. Don terizes this century in France is the production ald Stralem, Mrs. Herbert N. Straus, Emile E. of large-scale, highly finished drawings intend Wolf, and the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decora ed to be framed and hung like pictures. The tive Arts and Design, Smithsonian Institution. scene of classical history by Boucher's son-in- law, Deshayes, in its contemporary mount and Linda Boyer Gillies *51 frame (no. 16) is a brilliant example of this new Assistant Curator, Department of ^ fashion, which also extended to printmaking. Drawings ^^ Technical innovations in color printing by Colta Feller Ives Demarteau, Descourtis, and Debucourt (see Assistant Curator, Department of nos. 66-71) made imitations of chalk and water- Prints and Photographs C. color drawings accessible to those who could oo tuurmif* PIERRE-ANTOINE BAUDOUIN (1723-1769) FRANCOIS BOUCHER (1703-1770) '• Bedroom Scene: Morning. Gouache. 25.9 x 4. Diploma of the Freemasons of Bordeaux. 20 cm. Gift of Ann Payne Blumenthal, Brush, gray and cream oil paint, on heavy 43.163.19 paper. 39.1 x 27 cm. Inscribed on bande This and no. 2 formed part of a set of four roles: POST TENEBRAS LVX; LOGE DE gouache drawings representing Morning, Noon, LAMITIE tic). Rogers Fund, 61.127.1 Evening, and Night that were engraved by Design for an engraved Freemasonic diploma Emmanuel de Ghendt. The present whereabouts executed by Pierre-Philippe Choffard in 1766. of the drawings of Noon and Evening is unknown. Provenance: Purchased by the Metropolitan Mu Provenance: Mme Lancret, Paris (according to seum in Paris, 1961 the Goncourts); G. M'dhlbacher, Paris; Muhl- Bibliography: Bean, 100 European Drawings, bacher sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, no. 58, repr. May 15-18, 1899, no. 70; Mr. and Mrs. George Blumenthal, New York 5. The Continence of Scipio. Brown chalk, Bibliography: Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, brush and brown wash. 48.2 x 28.4 cm. L'Art du dix-huitieme siecle, I, Paris, 1880, Rogers Fund, 66.106 p. 213; Rubenstein-Bloch, Blumenthal Collec No painting by Boucher representing this scene tion, pi. X, left of ancient history has survived, but three other preparatory drawings testify to the artist's in 2. Garden Scene: Night. Gouache. 25.9 x 20 cm. terest in the subject. One is in the Musee des Gift of Ann Payne Blumenthal, 43.163.20 Beaux-Arts at Quimper; the other two were Provenance: M. Saint-Julien (according to formerly on the New York art market. Bocher); G. Miihlbacher, Paris; Miihlbacher Provenance: Paul Suzor, Paris; sale, Paris, sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, May 15-18, H3tel Drouot, March 11, 1964, no. 41, pi. 1; 1899, no. 73; Mr. and Mrs. George Blumenthal, sale, Paris, HStel Drouot, March 16, 1966, New York no. 2 (in both sales as "La Famille de Darius Bibliography: Bocher, mentioned under no. 35; aux pieds d'Alexandre"); purchased by the Rubenstein-Bloch, Blumenthal Collection, Metropolitan Museum in New York, 1966 pi. X, right Bibliography: Alexandre Ananoff, L'Oeuvre dessine de Francois Boucher, Paris, I, 1966, no. 1013, fig. 166 (as "La Famille de Darius EDME BOUCHARDON (1698-1762) aux pieds d'Alexandre"); Roseline Bacou, "Quimper: Dessins du Musee des Beaux-Arts," 3. River God. Red chalk. 40.6 x 43.2 cm. Revue de l'Art, XIV, 1971, p. 103 Inscribed in pen and brown ink at lower right, Bouchardon lecit. Private collection 6. Two Children Gardening: Allegory of Earth. Black chalk, heightened with white chalk, on 185174 brown paper. 83 x 65.6 cm. Louis V. Bell CLAUDE MICHEL, called CLODION (1738-1814) Fund, 64.281.1 This and no. 7 may well be designs for two in a 10. Two Putti, One Holding Aloft a Bunch of series of representations of the Four Elements Grapes. Black and white chalk on beige painted for Mme de Pompadour's apartments at paper. 23.3 x 28.9 cm. The Elisha the Chateau de Bellevue. Whittelsey Collection, 59.104 Provenance: F. Bbhler, Paris; Bohler sale, Provenance: Loys Delteil; Delteil sale, Paris, Paris, Hotel Drouot, February 23, 1906, no. 7; November 13, 1917, no. 15; Marius Paulme purchased by the Metropolitan Museum in Paris, (Lugt 1910); Paulme sale, Paris, Galerie 1964 Georges Petit, May 13, 1929, no. 46, pi. 30; Hon. Irwin Laughlin, Washington, D.C.; 7. Two Children Playing: Allegory of Air. Laughlin sale, London, Sotheby's, June 10, Black chalk, heightened with white chalk, on 1959, no. 13, pi. 13, purchased by the Metropoli brown paper. 83.7 x 66 cm. Louis V. Bell tan Museum Fund, 64.281.2 Bibliography: Bean, 100 European Drawings, See no. 6. no. 61, repr. Provenance: F. Bohler, Paris; Bohler sale, Paris, Hotel Drouot, February 23, 1906, no. 6; purchased by the Metropolitan Museum in Pans, CHARLES-NICOLAS COCHIN le jeune (1715- 1964 1790) 8. Reclining Female Nude (fig. 1). Black and red chalk, heightened with white, on blue 11. The Virtues and Occupations of the Dauphin. paper. 22.2 x 31.4 cm. Lent by Mr. and Red chalk. 29.7 x 19.7 cm. Inscribed in Mrs. Donald Stralem red chalk at lower margin, C. N. Cochin Exhibition: London, Royal Academy, 1968, tilius delin. 1761. Rogers Fund, 61.136.4 no. 99, fig. 120 The drawing was engraved by Gilles Demarteau, and the print (no. 67) bears the same date, 1761. Provenance: M. Guyot de Villeneuve, Paris; LOUIS CARROGIS, called CARMONTELLE sale, Paris, Hotel Drouot, May 28, 1900, no. 6 (1717-1806) 9. Seated Woman Embroidering, and Standing CHARLES-ANTOINE COYPEL (1694-1752) Boy. Watercolor, over black and a little red chalk. 33.3 x 20.3 cm. Lent by Mr. and Mrs. Donald Stralem 12. Allegorical Figure of Painting Appearing to a Winged Youth. Black, white, and touches of red chalk, on beige paper. 39.4 x 29.1 cm. Lent by Emile E. Wolf Study for a painted allegorical composition of BARON DOMINIQUE-VIVANT DENON uncertain significance, which is now in a private (1747-1825) collection in Paris. The attribution to Charles- Antoine Coypel of this drawing and of no. 13, and 15. a) The Head of Jean Ferraud (or Feraud, the relationship of the three is due to Pierre 1764-1795), a Deputy at the Convention, Rosenberg. Carried on a Bayonette, May 21, 1795. Pen and brown ink, over black chalk. 13. Allegorical Figure of Painting. Black, 15.2 x 20.1 cm. b) Replacements in the white, and touches of red chalk, on blue Parisian Guard Playing Cards.