A group of elegantly coiffured ladies, Cupid, a dog and an old man in the foreground

Born to Jean-Georges Wille (1715-1808), engraver and prolific draughstman, Pierre-Alexandre subsequently signed his drawings ‘P.A. Wille filius’, as shown on the present drawing. Between 1761 and 1763, Wille fils trained in his fathers close friend’s studio, Jean-Baptiste Greuze’s (1761-1763), whom largely influenced his drawing practice, and most particularly his red chalk têtes d’expression.

Pierre-Alexandre Wille developed his own independent style, in pen and ink rather than in red chalk, sometimes heightened with wash or watercolour. The present drawing illustrates this more idiosyncratic aspect of Wille’s style, and very early in his career since Wille was 20 years old in 1778. The sheet belonged to the famous collection of the Goncourt brothers in Paris. The Goncourts owned another drawing in pen and watercolour, signed and dated, ‘La Querelle’, in a private collection (see E. Launay, Les Frères Goncourt collectionneurs de dessins, Paris, 1991, no. 389, ill.; for a discussion on the drawing see L.-A. Prat, Le Dessin français au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 2016, p. 465).