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Lot Essay
Portail's drawings reflect the elegance of French society during the reign of King Louis XV. Using red, black and white chalk, sometimes with touches of graphite or watercolor, these studies of courtiers and pages, musicians and ladies reading and sewing were rooted in observation of the world around him.
In contrast to the Enlightenment taste, which admired Portail's more finished compositions, 19th-century critics preferred those works in which he came closest to the style of Watteau. The Marquis de Chennevières, who was instrumental in the revival of interest in Portail’s art, aptly wrote that he used 'Watteau's chalks in an original way, with a special touch that is almost lighter and livelier than in a Lancret or Pater. He did not invent from his imagination as Watteau did, rather Portail's figures are directly derived from the people of the court that surrounded him [...] and better than anyone else he translated their attitudes and frivolous feelings' (P. de Chennevières 'Les dessins de maîtres anciens exposés à l'Ecole des Beaux- Arts en 1879', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1880, p. 96).
Elegant figures playing music were often the subject of Portail’s compositions: another sheet with two musicians playing together was sold at Artcurial in Paris in 2016 (Salmon, op. cit., no. 33), and several drawings of single musicians are known (ibid., nos. 34 and 36). A replica of the present drawing is at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow (inv. 7191; N.N. Vodo, Le dessin français des XVIe-XVIIIe siècles, Moscow, 1977, no. 132, ill.).
In contrast to the Enlightenment taste, which admired Portail's more finished compositions, 19th-century critics preferred those works in which he came closest to the style of Watteau. The Marquis de Chennevières, who was instrumental in the revival of interest in Portail’s art, aptly wrote that he used 'Watteau's chalks in an original way, with a special touch that is almost lighter and livelier than in a Lancret or Pater. He did not invent from his imagination as Watteau did, rather Portail's figures are directly derived from the people of the court that surrounded him [...] and better than anyone else he translated their attitudes and frivolous feelings' (P. de Chennevières 'Les dessins de maîtres anciens exposés à l'Ecole des Beaux- Arts en 1879', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1880, p. 96).
Elegant figures playing music were often the subject of Portail’s compositions: another sheet with two musicians playing together was sold at Artcurial in Paris in 2016 (Salmon, op. cit., no. 33), and several drawings of single musicians are known (ibid., nos. 34 and 36). A replica of the present drawing is at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow (inv. 7191; N.N. Vodo, Le dessin français des XVIe-XVIIIe siècles, Moscow, 1977, no. 132, ill.).