.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Descriptif du lot
At the Salon of 1769, this painting was exhibited with its pendant ‘Une allemande jouant de la Harpe’ ['a German woman playing the harp']. The pictures share the same format, each depicting a woman playing music while surrounded by men in elaborate costumes who listen intently. The painting prompted commentary from Denis Diderot, who noted ‘…un rendu précieux, des objects bein en perspective, un accord tranquille, quoique avec éclat, et puis les plus belles draperies’ ['…a delicate finish, objects rendered in perspective, a harmonious balance, yet with a certain brilliance, and of course the most beautiful draperies'], and was sketched by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin in his annotated catalogue of the exhibition, alongside its pendant and van Loo’s double portrait of the Marquis de Marigny and his wife, Marie Françoise Julie Constance Filleul (Paris, Louvre Museum), exhibited in the same year.
Van Loo belonged to a dynasty of painters, which included his father and teacher, Jean-Baptiste van Loo; his uncle, Charles-André van Loo, who served as First Painter to King Louis XV; and younger brothers, François van Loo and Charles-Amedée van Loo. The picture was presumably inspired by his uncle Charles’s paintings on the same theme, Spanish Reading (untraced) and Spanish Conversation (St. Petersburg, Hermitage Museum), both painted for Madame Geoffrin in 1754 with a reproductive engraving issued in 1769, the same year the present work was exhibited. Set within an architectural setting, men and women are shown enjoying leisurely pursuits in historical dress; however, whereas in Charles’s painting a single man is surrounded by a group of women, here the female musician is outnumbered by her male counterparts. The scenes are ultimately indebted to 17th-century Dutch genre painting, in which music-making frequently serves as a metaphor for love, and to Antoine Watteau’s interpretation of the subject matter in his fêtes galantes, where elegantly dressed men and women engage in leisure activities.
The title given to the painting in the 1769 Salon, ‘Une espagnole jouant de la Guitare’, does not necessarily allude to the nationality of the figures, but to their costumes. The ruffs, lace collars and slashed doublets they sport are an interpretation of 17th-century dress. Described in 18th-century France as ‘A l’espagnole’ it was equivalent to the fashion for ‘Van Dyck dress’ in England at around the same time.
A note on the provenance
The picture was presumably acquired by the Prince de Conti soon after its creation. One of the most ambitious and distinguished art collectors of the end of the Ancien Régime, his renowned collection of over 700 paintings was dispersed after his death in one of the great auctions of the century, meticulously catalogued and recorded in illustrations by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin. The 250 French paintings in Conti’s collection included some of the greatest masterpieces produced over the previous two centuries, among them Louis Le Nain's The Forge (Paris, Musée du Louvre) and Nicolas Poussin’s Achilles Among the Daughters of Lycomedes (Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts). Although when the painting was last offered in 2008 there was no documented provenance after 1777, recent research suggests that it was subsequently owned by Jacques Firmin Beauvarlet until his posthumous sale in 1798, and later formed part of the collection of the Crillon family at the Hôtel de Crillon by the 19th century, presumably remaining there until the property was sold in 1906 (see provenance and literature).
Van Loo belonged to a dynasty of painters, which included his father and teacher, Jean-Baptiste van Loo; his uncle, Charles-André van Loo, who served as First Painter to King Louis XV; and younger brothers, François van Loo and Charles-Amedée van Loo. The picture was presumably inspired by his uncle Charles’s paintings on the same theme, Spanish Reading (untraced) and Spanish Conversation (St. Petersburg, Hermitage Museum), both painted for Madame Geoffrin in 1754 with a reproductive engraving issued in 1769, the same year the present work was exhibited. Set within an architectural setting, men and women are shown enjoying leisurely pursuits in historical dress; however, whereas in Charles’s painting a single man is surrounded by a group of women, here the female musician is outnumbered by her male counterparts. The scenes are ultimately indebted to 17th-century Dutch genre painting, in which music-making frequently serves as a metaphor for love, and to Antoine Watteau’s interpretation of the subject matter in his fêtes galantes, where elegantly dressed men and women engage in leisure activities.
The title given to the painting in the 1769 Salon, ‘Une espagnole jouant de la Guitare’, does not necessarily allude to the nationality of the figures, but to their costumes. The ruffs, lace collars and slashed doublets they sport are an interpretation of 17th-century dress. Described in 18th-century France as ‘A l’espagnole’ it was equivalent to the fashion for ‘Van Dyck dress’ in England at around the same time.
A note on the provenance
The picture was presumably acquired by the Prince de Conti soon after its creation. One of the most ambitious and distinguished art collectors of the end of the Ancien Régime, his renowned collection of over 700 paintings was dispersed after his death in one of the great auctions of the century, meticulously catalogued and recorded in illustrations by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin. The 250 French paintings in Conti’s collection included some of the greatest masterpieces produced over the previous two centuries, among them Louis Le Nain's The Forge (Paris, Musée du Louvre) and Nicolas Poussin’s Achilles Among the Daughters of Lycomedes (Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts). Although when the painting was last offered in 2008 there was no documented provenance after 1777, recent research suggests that it was subsequently owned by Jacques Firmin Beauvarlet until his posthumous sale in 1798, and later formed part of the collection of the Crillon family at the Hôtel de Crillon by the 19th century, presumably remaining there until the property was sold in 1906 (see provenance and literature).