Nicolas Lancret

Nicolas Lancret (Paris 1690-1743) La Récréation Champêtre oil on canvas 25½ x 32 in. (64.8 x 81.3 cm.) The rediscovered Récréation Champêtre has been considered lost since the 18th century, but its composition has been known through Joullain's engraving. The print reproduced Lancret's painting in reverse, its publication announced in the Mercure de France in May 1734. It is likely, however, that the painting predated Joullain's engraving by some years. In subject matter and style, La Récréation Champêtre is a work that derives from the gallant imagery of Watteau, an artist who cast a life-long influence over Lancret, but whose impact was felt most powerfully in the paintings that Lancret made in the years preceding and just following his acceptance into the Académie in 1719. Mary Tavener Holmes has proposed a dating of the mid-1720s for La Récréation Champêtre, noting that its somewhat slick finish is found in several other large-scale paintings by Lancret in that period. A composite sheet of four figure studies in various chalks by Lancret in the Morgan Library (inv. I, 280) supports this dating. It includes a quite finished drawing of a seated man in beret and fancy dress that is executed in a style characteristic of Lancret's draftsmanship in the early 1720s, superimposed over an earlier sketch for the standing guitarist in the present painting. This underdrawing is faint, but one can clearly distinguish the head and beret, guitar and spread-eagle stance of the figure as seen in the finished painting (see Grasselli, op. cit.). Lancret brought to the new genre of the fête galante a somewhat broader sense of humor than is typically found in the works of Watteau, his earthier sensibility perhaps inspired by the comic streak of Claude Gillot, the teacher whom he and Watteau once had in common. The sylvan setting, evocative statuary, and theatrically attired young couples of La Récréation Champêtre are all familiar from the repertory of elements that Watteau had previously established for the genre. Nevertheless, the cautious skepticism of the young woman in blue toward the bold entreaties of her suitor, and the comic-opera look of head-shaking disappointment from the girl whose young man would rather play his guitar than pursue his seduction of her, exemplify the fresh and down-to-earth outlook that would make Lancret's pictures so popular. A copy of the present lot by Charles Collignon (1731-circa 1790) -- one of a group of copies after Lancret -- is in the Salon Lambrissé at the Hôtel de Créhange-Pittange, Thionville (ref. IM57001948, Inventaire Général du Patrimoine). Another copy, formerly Château de Saint Aignan, La Romieu, France, was sold, Christie's, New York, 1-3 October 2007, lot 951, as 'Follower of Bonaventure de Bar' (see M. Eidelberg, 'Defining the Oeuvre of Bonaventure de Bar, Part II,' New York, 2011, cat. no. X37, p. 22, as a copy after Lancret). We are grateful to Mary Tavener Holmes for having examined the present lot in person and confirming its attribution to Lancret.

LOT 74 NICOLAS LANCRET PARIS 1690 - 1743 A STANDING LADY, WITH SEPARATE STUDY OF HER HEAD LAID DOWN ON JAPAN PAPER. SOME SLIGHT DISCOLOURATION AT EDGES. OTHERWISE REASONABLY GOOD AND FRESH. SOLD IN AN ATTRACTIVE CARVED AND GILDED FRAME. Red chalk with touches of white heightening, on pale buff paper 183 by 135 mm; 7 1/4 by 5 1/4 in

Lot Description Nicolas Lancret (Paris 1690-1743) The young dancer oil on canvas 31¼ x 25 7/8 in. (79.4 x 65.7 cm.) Lot Condition Report I confirm that I have read this Important Notice and agree to its terms. View Condition Report Provenance Miss Bullar, London. with Perdoux, Paris, 1929. Exhibited Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Five Centuries of European Painting, 1933, no. 23. Houston, Allied Arts Association, Masterpieces of Painting Through Six Centuries, 16-27 November 1952, p. 41, no. 33. Tokyo, Matsuzakaya, Masterpieces of European Arts, January 1974, pp. 10-11. Caracas, Museo de Bellas Artes, Cinco siglos de arte francés, 24 May-24 June 1977, no. 22. Tokyo, Wildenstein, Le Bonheur de vivre: la peinture et l'art français au XVIIIe siècle, 12 February-11 April 1987. View Lot Notes › Although it deploys many of the conventions of the fête galante -- the garden landscape, a rustic youth playing a pipe and a little girl gathering blooms in her apron -- this charming painting is no doubt a portrait. We no longer know her identity, but the central prominence of the dancing girl and the individualized characterization of her face denote her as a real person. Lancret made a number of paintings which might be called 'conversation pieces', in which he imbedded portraiture into fête champêtre or genre settings, including the various versions of La Camargo Dancing (National Gallery of Art, Washington and elsewhere), the so-called Bourbon-Conti Family (Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, Illinois), the so-called Luxembourg Family (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond), and the Portrait of the Actor Grandval (Indianapolis Museum of Art), among others. Like the last-mentioned painting, the present work appears to date from late in the artist's career when he more regularly painted large-scale figures that command their setting. Here, Lancret has looked, as he often did, to the precedent of Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) for his inspiration. La Jeune Danseuse derives from Watteau's famous Portrait déguisé, Iris, or The Dance (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin), which Lancret might himself have seen (its provenance is obscure before 1766 when it was acquired in Amsterdam by Frederick the Great), but would certainly have known from Cochin's engraving, which was published before 1729. As Lancret would do in La Jeune Danseuse, Watteau situated his hesitant young sitter (also unidentified) in a park, surrounding her monumental form with flower girls and flute-playing boys; like Iris, Lancret's adolescent model stands at the precipice of adulthood, pausing for a beat before she begins her dance.

Nicolas Lancret, style of, 19th century A pair of gallant scenes with young people enjoying music in a park. Unsigned. Oil on panel. C. 24 x 32 cm each. (2). Provenance: The collection of chief physician Torben Severin Nielsen. Note In need of cleaning. Minor crackles.

Nicolas Lancret (Paris 1690-1743) A lady with her page oil on canvas 28 3/8 x 23 5/8 in. (72 x 60 cm.) THIS LOT IS SOLD WITHOUT RESERVE Provenance Waterford collection, Ireland. with Georges Wildenstein, Paris; confiscated in France by the Nazis, and recovered by the Allies after the War. Lot Notes Our thanks to Mary Tavener Holmes for confirming the attribution on first-hand inspection of the painting. Dr. Holmes believes that the present lot is one of Lancret's rare portraits, perhaps of an actress in the artist's circle of friends, and she dates it to the 1730s.