A seated lady with a lute, with two subsidiary studies of her hands and drapery

Sir Francis Watson seems to have been the first to suggest that the present drawing and the following lot were by Plattemontage, noting their kinship with works by Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne (1631-1681), of whom Plattemontage was a frequent collaborator. A drawing from the Baderou collection in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, shows a woman dressed in a very similar costume and seated in the same kind of chair, with her left arm leaning on a table, but the composition is in reverse and no lute is represented (F. Lanoë, Trois maîtres du dessin, exhib. cat., Port-Royal des Champs, Musée national, 2009, no. 111). The same old inscription 'Montagne' in pen and brown ink can be seen on a few other drawings by the artist (Lanoë, op. cit., nos. 108, 116, 127, 150, 156, 161-4, 171, 182) and Frédérique Lanoë suggests that it was put on the works during the valuation of Plattemontagne's studio in 1707 following his death on the Christmas's Eve of 1606 (op. cit., p. 20).

We are grateful to Madame Lanoë for having confirmed the attribution of the drawing from a photograph.

For a note on the collector, please see lot 163.