Jean-Antoine Watteau
(France 1684–1721)
- Title
- Study of three male figures
- Year
- circa 1713-circa 1714
- Media category
- Drawing
- Materials used
- red chalk
- Dimensions
-
19.7 x 15.5cm sheet; 35.0 x 30.5 x 4.0cm frame
- Signature & date
- Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Gift of James Fairfax AO 1993
- Accession number
- 487.1993
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
Despite the dissolving prettiness which is their signature quality, the paintings of Jean-Antoine Watteau are built on solid reality. Life-drawing and nature study were the necessary and pleasurable preludes to his painterly activity. His graphic style reflected the naturalism of the Italian Bolognese school, mediated through the tidier protocols of French academic drafting technique. Watteau kept his innumerable drawings in large folios as an aid to composition. Two of the figures in this sheet relate to his canvas, 'Love at the Theatre Francais'. The reclining man serves for the pose of Bacchus in the painting, while the bagpiper reappears unchanged. Coveted by connoisseurs even during the artist's lifetime, Watteau's chalk drawings have never fallen from favour. They epitomise the grace and intelligence central to the best of eighteenth century art, at the same time seeming to possess analytical and formal attributes we now think of as modern.
Art Gallery Handbook, 1999.
- Bibliography (17)
-
Pierre Rosenberg, Louis-Antoine Prat, Watteau: the drawings, London, 2011, 60 (colour illus.). cat.no.15
Andrew Grimwade (Australia) (Editor), Gerard Vaughan (Australia) (Editor), Great philanthropists on trial : the art of the bequest, Melbourne, 2006, 131.
Richard Beresford (England; Australia) (Author), Peter Raissis (Australia) (Author), The James Fairfax collection of old master paintings, drawings and prints, Domain, 2003, 206-9, 207 (colour illus.). cat.no. 59
Bruce James (Australia) (Author), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Director), Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, Domain, 1999, 81 (illus.).
Terence Maloon (Australia) (Editor), Peter Raissis (Australia) (Editor), Michelangelo to Matisse: Drawing the figure, Domain, 1999, 66, 162 (colour illus.). cat.no. 154
Pierre Rosenberg (Author), Louis-Antoine Prat (Author), Antoine Watteau, 1684-1721: catalogue raisonne des dessins, Milan, 1996, vol. I, 310, 311 (colour illus.). cat.no. 195
Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874) (Author), Great gifts, great patrons: an exhibition celebrating private patronage of the Gallery, Sydney, 1994, (illus.). no catalogue numbers
Art Gallery of New South Wales Annual Report 1994 1994, 1994, 10 (illus.), 44.
Ewen McDonald (Australia) (Editor), The Art Gallery of New South Wales collections, Sydney, 1994, 123 (colour illus.).
'U.S.A. News' by M. Morgan Grasselli, pg. 51-60, The Watteau Society Bulletin [vol. 3] 1994, 1994, 55.
Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874) (Author), The James Fairfax collection of old masters, Domain, 1992. no catalogue numbers
The drawings of Antoine Watteau, stylistic development and problems of chronology 1987, 1987, 36, 173, 175-6, 180-82, 193, 307. note 27, no. 72, fig. 171
Helmut Borsch-Supan, Watteau 1684-1721, Fuhrer zuz Austellung im Schloss Charlottenberg, 1985, (illus.). no. 39
Margaret Morgan Grasselli (Author), Pierre Rosenberg (Author), Watteau 1684-1721, Washington D.C., 1984, 75, 79, 80 (illus.), 81, 85, 93, 94, 98, 298 (illus.), 300, 337, 339 (illus.), 533 (illus.). cat.no. D19, referred to in cat.nos. D15, D20, D24, D30, D31, D34, illustration on page 298 is a detail
Metropolitan Museum of Art (United States of America), French drawings from American collections: Clouet to Matisse, New York, 1958. cat.no. 84
K.T. Parker (England, b.1895, d.1992) (Author), J Mathey (Author), Antoine Watteau, Catalogue complet de son oeuvre dessine, Paris, 1957, vol. 1, 13, (illus.). cat.no. 88
K.T. Parker (England, b.1895, d.1992), The drawings of Antoine Watteau, London, 1931, 30.
- Exhibition history (13)
-
French Painting, Rhode Island School of Design, 1931–1931.
French drawings and prints of the 18th century, Fogg Art Gallery, 1934–1934.
French drawings from American collections: Clouet to Matisse, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 03 Feb 1959–15 Mar 1959.
Watteau 1684-1721, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 17 Jun 1984–23 Sep 1984.
Watteau 1684-1721, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, 23 Oct 1984–28 Jan 1985.
Watteau 1684-1721, Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin, 22 Feb 1985–26 May 1985.
The James Fairfax collection of old masters, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 25 Apr 1992–14 Jun 1992.
Great gifts, great patrons, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 17 Aug 1994–19 Oct 1994.
Michelangelo to Matisse: Drawing the figure, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 20 Nov 1999–27 Feb 2000.
The James Fairfax collection of old master paintings, drawings and prints, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 17 Apr 2003–20 Jul 2003.
Watteau: the drawings, Royal Academy of Arts, 12 Mar 2011–05 Jun 2011.
French drawings from American collections: Clouet to Matisse, Musée de L'Orangerie, 1958-1959–1958-1959.
French drawings from American collections: Clouet to Matisse, Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen, 1958-1959–1958-1959.
