Lot Essay
These two drawings are related to the two pictures, of approximately the same size, formerly in the Bergeret Collection and now at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Besançon (F. Soulié-François in Fragonard et le voyage en Italie, exhib. cat., L'Isle-Adam, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire Louis-Senlecq, 2001, p. 65, illustrated).
The two Besançon pictures were painted in 1742 as part of a set of ten to be woven into tapestries by the Manufacture de Beauvais. Eight of the pictures, excluding the two to which the present drawings relate, were exhibited at the Salon of 1742 as no. '21 Huit Esquisses de différens sujets Chinois, pour être executez en Tapisseries à la Manufacture de beauvais; désignes sous le même numéro'. They were subsequently owned by Bergeret, bought at his 1786 sale by P.-A. Pâris and left by Paris in 1819 to the library in Besançon. The pictures, all of small format, were enlarged by Jean-Joseph Dumons de Tulle and were woven by Beauvais in 1742-46.
A similar composition as the first drawing was engraved by François-Antoine Aveline in 1748 (Jean-Richard 202) and variations of La curiosité chinoise were engraved by Pierre Aveline in 1740 (Jean-Richard 230, L'air part of a set on the four elements) and John Ingram (Jean-Richard 1209).
La pêche chinoise and Le mariage chinois from the Beauvais set are prepared by drawings, close in handling to the present ones, respectively in the National Galery of Scotland and formerly in the Wolf Collection (A. Ananoff, op. cit., 1976, nos. 228/4 and 231/1, figs. 688 and 697).
The two Besançon pictures were painted in 1742 as part of a set of ten to be woven into tapestries by the Manufacture de Beauvais. Eight of the pictures, excluding the two to which the present drawings relate, were exhibited at the Salon of 1742 as no. '21 Huit Esquisses de différens sujets Chinois, pour être executez en Tapisseries à la Manufacture de beauvais; désignes sous le même numéro'. They were subsequently owned by Bergeret, bought at his 1786 sale by P.-A. Pâris and left by Paris in 1819 to the library in Besançon. The pictures, all of small format, were enlarged by Jean-Joseph Dumons de Tulle and were woven by Beauvais in 1742-46.
A similar composition as the first drawing was engraved by François-Antoine Aveline in 1748 (Jean-Richard 202) and variations of La curiosité chinoise were engraved by Pierre Aveline in 1740 (Jean-Richard 230, L'air part of a set on the four elements) and John Ingram (Jean-Richard 1209).
La pêche chinoise and Le mariage chinois from the Beauvais set are prepared by drawings, close in handling to the present ones, respectively in the National Galery of Scotland and formerly in the Wolf Collection (A. Ananoff, op. cit., 1976, nos. 228/4 and 231/1, figs. 688 and 697).