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Lot Essay
Jean-Jacques Lagrenée is here depicted in one of the rooms of his lodgings either at the Louvre or in his house near Saint-Germain L'Auxerrois. He is seen sketching on a canvas the large composition of Lucius Albinius a picture commissioned by King Louis XVI for the Salon of 1777. Lagrenée had been among the few artiststo receive a commission from the Comte d'Angiviller to paint subjects from Ancient History in the hope of reviving La Grande Manière; Lagrenée reused on that occasion a composition which he had drawn and presented at the Salon two years earlier.
The present watercolour is one of the earliest depiction of an artist at work in his studio, a genre to become popular in the early years of the 19th Century. Although Lagrenée is not strictly working in his studio, he has lying at his feet the plaster cast of a head after the Antique and a drawing of it. He paints using a stick, a tool which was hardly ever needed before the picture was nearly completed. The artist is therefore shown in the most elegant light, wearing a hat.
It has been suggested that the present drawing was the work of a member of the artist's family rather than the artist himself.
The present watercolour is one of the earliest depiction of an artist at work in his studio, a genre to become popular in the early years of the 19th Century. Although Lagrenée is not strictly working in his studio, he has lying at his feet the plaster cast of a head after the Antique and a drawing of it. He paints using a stick, a tool which was hardly ever needed before the picture was nearly completed. The artist is therefore shown in the most elegant light, wearing a hat.
It has been suggested that the present drawing was the work of a member of the artist's family rather than the artist himself.