PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION (LOTS 101-2, 107-8, 110-1, 126-7, 128, 136, 149-50, 153-5, 157-9 AND 183)

Attributed to Niklas Lafrensen the Younger, called Nicolas Lavreince (Stockholm 1737-1807)

'L'amour frivole': A young man leaning through a window to lift the fichu of a sleeping girl

Details

Attributed to Niklas Lafrensen the Younger, called Nicolas Lavreince (Stockholm 1737-1807)
'L'amour frivole': A young man leaning through a window to lift the fichu of a sleeping girl
black chalk, bodycolour
11¾ x 8 7/8 in. (29.8 x 22.5 cm.)

Provenance

Pierre Decourcelle (according to a label on the back of the mount).
Albert Mayer.
Irma N. Straus; Sotheby's Parke Bernet, New York, 21 October 1970, lot 46.

Literature

Connaissance des Arts, June 1971, no. 232, p. 129.
T. Burollet, Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris, 1980, p. 136, under no. 64.
T. Burollet, Musée Cognacq-Jay, Les peintures, Paris, 2004, p. 197, under no. 72.

Brought to you by

Rosie Jarvie

rjarvie@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2257

Lot Essay

The drawing is connected to the painting of the same subject and composition, today in the Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris (Burollet, op. cit.), which was engraved by Jacques Firmin Beauvarlet (1731-1797). The painting and the present work were long thought to be by François Boucher (1703-1770) owing to the inscription on the print which stated his invention, but in the 19th Century it was attributed to his son-in-law Pierre-Antoine Baudouin (1723-1769). A note on the verso of the mount of the present drawing records that Pierre Decourcelle, who owned the drawing, showed it to Edmond de Goncourt (1822-1896), who re-attributed the composition to Lavreince.

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