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Lot Essay
This large sheet by Jean-Baptiste Greuze is executed in the artist’s most characteristic graphic technique. Having reappeared on the art market only a few years ago, the drawing represents an important rediscovery, particularly from an iconographic perspective. Renowned as a painter of sentiment and a master of genre scenes, Greuze produced relatively few works depicting mythological subjects. Together with the present March of Silenus and a small number of representations of Venus, Psyche and groups of Lovers, it is worth noting that Martin and Masson in their 1908 catalogue raisonné, record under no. 50 a Le Délire de Silène described as a composition de concours submitted to the Académie Royale in the late 1760s.
In this sheet, Greuze combines his typical graphic manner with brown and grey wash to skillfully render light and shade. The drawing may be compared to The Departure of the young savoyard in the Amsterdam Museum, dated 1750-1760 (Greuze the Draftsman, by E. Munhall, exh. cat., New York, The Frick Collection, Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2002, no. 56), but also to The Return from the wet nurse in the British Museum (inv. 1846,0509.152; P. Stein, French Drawings from the British Museum: Clouet to Seurat, exh. cat., New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, London, British Museum, 2005-2006, no. 55), A Savoyard with a Dancing Doll in the Albertina (inv. 12768; A. Lemoine, Y. Jackall , and M. Szanto, Greuze. L’enfance de la lumière, exh. cat., Paris, Petit Palais, 2025-2026, p. 26, fig. 4), as well as The Travelling household (or The Wet Nurse’s Break) in a private collection (Lemoine, ibid. p.125, fig. 3).
With its large scale and degree of finish, this drawing is very likely to have been made as a finished work of art for sale. Indeed, the importance of this sheet is further enhanced by its prestigious provenance. The earliest recorded owner of the drawing was the eighteenth-century French art dealer and painter Vincent Donjeux (d.1793). It subsequently entered the collection of the painter and engraver, Baron Charles de Vèze, who exhibited at the Salons between 1837 and 1839. At Baron de Vèze’s posthumous sale, in 1855, the drawing was acquired by the politician, scientist, and writer François Hippolyte Walferdin, who bequeathed his collection of 80 paintings to the Louvre. The March of Silenus, however, was one of fourteen drawings by Greuze sold by Walferdin at auction in Paris.
In this sheet, Greuze combines his typical graphic manner with brown and grey wash to skillfully render light and shade. The drawing may be compared to The Departure of the young savoyard in the Amsterdam Museum, dated 1750-1760 (Greuze the Draftsman, by E. Munhall, exh. cat., New York, The Frick Collection, Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2002, no. 56), but also to The Return from the wet nurse in the British Museum (inv. 1846,0509.152; P. Stein, French Drawings from the British Museum: Clouet to Seurat, exh. cat., New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, London, British Museum, 2005-2006, no. 55), A Savoyard with a Dancing Doll in the Albertina (inv. 12768; A. Lemoine, Y. Jackall , and M. Szanto, Greuze. L’enfance de la lumière, exh. cat., Paris, Petit Palais, 2025-2026, p. 26, fig. 4), as well as The Travelling household (or The Wet Nurse’s Break) in a private collection (Lemoine, ibid. p.125, fig. 3).
With its large scale and degree of finish, this drawing is very likely to have been made as a finished work of art for sale. Indeed, the importance of this sheet is further enhanced by its prestigious provenance. The earliest recorded owner of the drawing was the eighteenth-century French art dealer and painter Vincent Donjeux (d.1793). It subsequently entered the collection of the painter and engraver, Baron Charles de Vèze, who exhibited at the Salons between 1837 and 1839. At Baron de Vèze’s posthumous sale, in 1855, the drawing was acquired by the politician, scientist, and writer François Hippolyte Walferdin, who bequeathed his collection of 80 paintings to the Louvre. The March of Silenus, however, was one of fourteen drawings by Greuze sold by Walferdin at auction in Paris.