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Lot Essay
An early study for the figure to the left in Greuze's The Two Sisters formerly in the collection of the Marquise Landolfo Carcano and last recorded in her sale, Paris, 31 May 1913, lot 156 (E. Munhall, Greuze the Draftsman, exhib. cat., New York, Frick Collection, and elsewhere, 2002, fig. 142). In the painting the pose and expression of the model are retained but rather than appearing as a water nymph she is joined by another partially-clad figure in a bedroom interior, a composition full of suggestive possibilities. The painting had once hung in the bedroom of the twelfth Earl of Pembroke (1791-1862) in the Place Vendôme.
A drawing in red chalk of the two figures, both naked, in which the relationship between the present drawing and the figure to the right is clearly evident, was sold at Sotheby's, London, 7 July 1999, lot 142. Edgar Munhall considers that a drawing in pen and ink and wash in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon (E. Munhall, op. cit., no. 59), is the first compositional study for the painting, which he dates to the 1770s. Dr Munhall suggests the possibility that the two naked girls may be Greuze's daughters Anne-Geneviève and Louise-Gabrielle, citing a reference to a picture which may have been Lord Pembroke's in the inventory of Anne-Geneviève's effects (E. Munhall, op. cit., under no. 59).
A drawing in red chalk of the two figures, both naked, in which the relationship between the present drawing and the figure to the right is clearly evident, was sold at Sotheby's, London, 7 July 1999, lot 142. Edgar Munhall considers that a drawing in pen and ink and wash in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon (E. Munhall, op. cit., no. 59), is the first compositional study for the painting, which he dates to the 1770s. Dr Munhall suggests the possibility that the two naked girls may be Greuze's daughters Anne-Geneviève and Louise-Gabrielle, citing a reference to a picture which may have been Lord Pembroke's in the inventory of Anne-Geneviève's effects (E. Munhall, op. cit., under no. 59).