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FRENCH PAINTERS 
 
 of the XVIIIth Century 
 
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FRENCH PAINTERS 
 
 of the XVIIIth Century 
 
 By LADY DILKE 
 
 AUTHOR OF "the RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE," " CLAUDE LORRAIN, SA VIE ET 
 SES CEUVRES," "ART IN THE MODERN STATE, OR THE 
 
 LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS 
 
 YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN 
 
 1899 
 
LANDSCAPE 
 ARCHITECTURE 
 
 CHISWICK PRESS : CHARLES WHITTINOHAM AND CO. 
 
 TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. 
 
 ?arrana 'GT?^ 
 
PREFACE 
 
 
 AvCt^TQl -ikCcJ 
 
 
 '/^ 
 
 IHA VE tried to put into this volume, and others now in course 
 of preparation, something of that which I myself wanted 
 to find when I began to look at the art of France in the 
 eighteenth century. I could get no work giving general 
 information, or even suggesting where one might look for it. 
 On the other hand, there were various magnificently illustrated 
 biographies and costly monographs. There were, in the first place, 
 those which we owe to the pioneer labours of the late Marquis de 
 Chennevieres and the two de Goncourts ; the admirable volume on 
 Boucher, by M. Paul Mantz ; the Fragonard of M. de Portalis, 
 not to mention M. Charles Blanc's " Peintres de I'Ecole Fran9aise " 
 — a work less firmly conceived than gracefully written — or the 
 innumerable little studies, more or less excellent, which have 
 appeared in series, such as that edited by M. Paul Leroi and M. 
 Eugene Muntz, the distinguished historian of the Renaissance. 
 Sculptors, if we except " La Sculpture fran9aise au Louvre," by 
 M. Gonse, have received less attention : as for decorators, they 
 have rarely enjoyed the honours, which have fallen to Pineau, of 
 separate consideration, and any fadts concerning them must be 
 sought out in a dozen different " colledlions." Architects are an 
 even more difficult matter ; handbooks contain vague comprehen- 
 sive statements, and references to Blondel's great work on " L'Archi- 
 tedture Fran9aise " usually result in the discovery that the build- 
 ings which appear to be the most typical in character no longer 
 exist, or exist like the Hotel de Toulouse or the Hotel de Noailles, 
 in a state of complete metamorphosis. 
 
 This is why I have spent several years in finding out what I 
 
 710 
 
Preface, wanted to know, and since everyone cannot have at hand the 
 necessary books, or even command the leisure to consult them, it 
 has seemed to me that there was room for an " ouvrage d'ensemble " 
 more detailed in character than that volume on "Art in the 
 Modern State," in which I have previously attempted to connect 
 the Renaissance in France with the eighteenth century. It is of 
 such a work that the present volume is an instalment. 
 
 It is true that the subjedt is so vast that the attempt to treat 
 it in this fashion may be likened to the child's effort to " put the 
 sea in yonder hole ; " yet it may be possible to sketch at least some 
 general lines, group the most remarkable works and the most 
 illustrious workers. Moreover, those who may glance through 
 this volume, or the others, on the Sculptors, Architects, Engravers, 
 and makers of beautiful furniture, by which I hope to follow it 
 up, will certainly find where they may look for further information 
 should they want it. 
 
 It must not, however, be supposed that I have devoted myself 
 to the task of mere compilation. I have described nothing, I have 
 criticised nothing that I have not seen for myself; and whilst I 
 willingly acknowledge my debt to my predecessors I must confess 
 that I have not invariably found them safe guides. 
 
 In the work of preparing the illustrations I have met with 
 so much generosity on the part of the owners of some of the finest 
 colle6tions, that it seems invidious to single out any for special 
 mention ; yet, whilst offering my thanks to all, and to the dire6lors 
 of the various museums who have facilitated my use of the treasures 
 in their care, I wish especially to mention, in England, Mme. la 
 Marquise de Lavalette, the Countess of Yarborough, Lord Wantage, 
 Sir Charles Tennant, Mr. Alfred de Rothschild, and in Paris, 
 Mme. la Viscomtesse de Courval, Mme. Jahan, Baron Edmond de 
 Rothschild, M. Leon Bonnat, and M. Jacques Doucet. I am also 
 most grateful to Count Seckendorf who obtained for me photographs 
 of works by Lancret and Chardin in the Prussian Royal Colleftions, 
 to the distinguished amateur, M. Gustave Dreyfus, for his help in 
 arranging the reprodu6lion of works in Paris, and to my friends 
 and colleagues on the staff of the " Gazette des Beaux Arts " for 
 many and valuable services. 
 
 EMILIA F. S. DILKE. 
 
 VI 
 
Fragment of a "Ronde d' Amours." By Boucher. 
 {Plafond, Fontainebleau.') 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Story of the Royal Academy 
 
 The contrast between the art of the eighteenth century, that of the Renaissance, and Contents. 
 the "Grand SiJcle." The situation of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture at the 
 beginning of the century. Relations with the Court and dependence on the Board of 
 Works. Women academicians : — Mme. Thcrbouche, Rosalba Carriera, Mme. Vallayer, 
 Mme. Guyard, Mme. Vigce le Brun. Protestants : — Boit, Lundberg, Schmidt, Roslin, 
 Rouquet. The influence of Mme. de Pompadour. Her uncle de Tournehem. The king 
 becomes Protecflor. Social importance of the Academy. The Honorary Amateurs : — 
 Baschi, de Caylus, Watelet, Gougenot, Mariettc, Turgot, Turenne. The aftivity of Marigny. 
 D'Angiviller entertains the officials magnificently. The Salon becomes a great social event. 
 The Hanging Committee. The Press. Libels on Women. Royal visits. The Royal 
 Academy persecutes the Academy of St. Luc, and closes a proposed exhibition at the 
 " Wauxhall des Champs Elysdes." The Academy attacks and destroys the " Ecole Royale 
 des Eldves proteges." The complete triumph of the Royal Academy brings about its down- 
 fall. The Academicians revolt against the officials. The Associates join in the revolt. The 
 Royal Academy and the Assemblde Nationale. Equal rights claimed for all. The triumph 
 of the revolutionary party. Fall of the "Bastille de la Peinture" . . . page i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Great Decorative Painters — Le Moine and de Troy 
 
 The French School of Painting in the early years of the century. Men were weary of 
 academic and historical painting. The inferior position of the painters of men and manners. 
 The influence of Antoine Coypel. The Gallery of the Palais Royal. ■ The Chancellerie 
 d'Orleans. The "Gloire" of the Chapel of Versailles. His son Charles- Antoine Coypel. 
 Illustrations of Don Quixote. The rivalry between Fran9ois le Moine and Jean Fran9ois de 
 Troy. "Tancrede rendant les armes k Clorinde." The choir of St. Thomas d'Aquin. 
 Le Moine in Italy. "Hercule et Omphale." De Troy in Italy. His wild conduft. His 
 return to Paris. His marriage. Imitates Lancret. " La Surprise." " La Conversation 
 galante." "La Peste de Marseille." The Royal Concours of 1727. The prize divided 
 between le Moine and de Troy. The two works now in the Museum of Nancy. De Troy 
 plots against le Moine in the Academy, and undersells his brother artists to get commissions 
 for the Gobelins. Le Moine paints the "Assumption of the Virgin," for St. Sulpice and 
 carries out his great decoration of the "Salon de la Paix," at Versailles, in four years. The 
 " rayon rose." Le Moine commits suicide. Le Moine closes the period of Boulogne's pupils. 
 The famous Salon of 1737. The new forces at work. De Troy, disappointed, retires to 
 
 vii 
 
Contents. Rome. The post of First Painter remains vacant. Boucher, Carle van Loo, and Natoire. 
 The work of Natoire at the H6tel de Soubise. Boffrand calls in Boucher also. Natoire's 
 decoration in the Cabinet des Mddailles. Natoire drops into the second place. Charles- 
 Antoine Coypel appointed First Painter. The chagrin of de Troy. He offends Marigny 
 and is recalled, so that Natoire may be despatched to fill his place. De Troy dies broken- 
 hearted after the arrival of Natoire. De Troy's great qualities. The virile charafter of his 
 best work page 24 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The Great Decorative Painters — Boucher and Fragonard 
 
 Jean Restout. Carle van Loo. His journey to Italy with Boucher. His altar-piece at 
 Besanjon. "Ivresse de SiUne." Nancy. " Halte de Chasse." He becomes First Painter. 
 Boucher succeeds him. His earlier works : — " Belle Cuisini^re," and " Aurore et C^phale," 
 the "Marchande de modes," "Naissance et Triomphe de V^nus," and other works at 
 Stockholm. Two works belonging to Baron Edmond de Rothschild and " Le R^veil " in the 
 colleftion of Mme. Jahan. Lundberg's portrait of Boucher. Designs for Beauvais and the 
 Gobelins. Scene painting for Versailles and the Opera. " Sujets Chinois." " La Balan^oire." 
 "Lever et Coucher du Soleil," Wallace colleftion. "Reunion des Arts," Mus^e d'Angers. 
 Work at Marly and at Bellevue. Intimacy with Madame Pompadour. Sir Joshua Reynolds 
 visits Boucher. "Apollo and nymph." "Vulcan giving to Venus armour for ^neas." 
 "La Fille au Manchon." Portraits of Mme. de Pompadour. Boucher's death. His 
 colleftions. His pupils. The ceiling by Deshayes now in the H6tel Menier. Boucher's 
 training. His decorations. The little Salon from Cr^cy. The Salon Demarteau. The 
 contrast between these and Fragonard's treatment of the Salon once in the Maison Malvilain 
 at Grasse. Fragonard's early successes. "Coresus et Callirhoe." His favourite subjefts. 
 Life-size portrait of la Guimard. Le "Cafe and Le Concert." "La Main chaude and Le 
 Cheval fondu." Aportraitof la Guimard in the colleftion of M. Jacques Doucet. Fragonard's 
 marriage. Works for Louveciennes. Other works in the Wallace colleftion. The 
 " Triumph of Venus " at Besan9on. " The Bathers." " The Fountain of Pleasure," in the 
 Wallace colleftion. Drawings of Landscape. Garden at Fontainebleau. Flesh painting. 
 " Les Hasards hcureux de I'Escarpolette." The Salon of the Maison Malvilain. Fragonard's 
 last days in Paris. The quality of his art. His colour scheme contrasted with that of 
 Boucher. The peculiar charm and charafter of the art of his day. The philosophy of 
 pleasure page 44. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Painters of Fetes Galantes — Watteau, Pater, Lancret 
 
 Watteau's early days. He competes for the Prix in 1709. His stay with Claude Gillot. 
 His work for Audran at the Luxembourg. The Rubens Gallery. His first pifture. La 
 Fosse and Pierre Crozat. Brief stay in the rue de Richelieu. Watteau's reception in 171 2. 
 His second manner. The "Danse champfitre " of the Mus^e Conde. "Denicheur de 
 moineaux," National Gallery of Scotland. " Pelerinage a I'isle de CythSre." Study of 
 Rubens and Veronese. The Italian Comedians. Watteau's use of broken tones. Repetition 
 of the same groups. "Assemblde dans un pare." "Gamme d'Amour." The charafteristics 
 of his execution are the same in early work, such as " La Recrue allant joindrc le Regiment," 
 and in the "Rendezvous de Chasse." His work from the nude. The "Toilet" of Mme. 
 de Courval. The "Toilet" Wallace Colleftion. The weakness in parts of his large work. 
 "Grand Gilles." Portrait of de Julienne. Sentiment and proportions of his personages. 
 His drawings. Landscape. Absence of passion in his work. Children. Works at Potsdam 
 and Berlin. His friends. Vleughels. Rosalba Carriera. Sirois. His health. He visits 
 London. The portraits of Watteau. His return to Paris. He paints " L'Enseigne Gersaint." 
 He dies. His relations to Pater. Pater's greed of money. His early works. Landscape. 
 
 viii 
 
"Soldats en marche." He draws rather than models his heads. The "Pleasure Barge." Contents. 
 The " Ladies Bathing." "De'sir de Plaire" or " La Toilette." His " Fete champfitre," and 
 other works at Potsdam. Pater and Lancret. Lancret expelled the Academy. He goes to 
 Gillot. The "Ball " and "Dance in a Wood." Lancret and Watteau. Lancret and the 
 revels of the Regency. The Duke d'Antin's commission. The "Dejeilner au jambon." 
 Works in Prussian Royal colleftions. Portrait of la Camargo. " Hake de Chasse." " Bal 
 champetre," " L'Oiseleur." "Divertissement dans un Pavilion " and " Moulinet." Works 
 at Stockholm. "L'Attache du Patin." Stiff and hard in large work. "Dejeilner au 
 jambon," Musee d'Orldans. " La Comedie Italienne." Not at his best in " Fetes Galantes." 
 Has a strength in which Pater is lacking, and great tenderness for children. "The garden- 
 party." " Le Montreur de lanterne magique " at Potsdam. Lancret's different styles of execu- 
 tion. His great vogue. He died poor ........ page 74 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Painters of Familiar Scenes: — Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, 
 Pierre-Antoine Baudouin, Jean-Baptiste Greuze 
 
 Chardin an artist of pure French type. He enters the Academy of St. Luke. Is en- 
 couraged by Jean-Baptiste van Loo, and received by the Royal Academy. His first success. 
 Both "La Fontaine " and "La Dame cachetant une lettre " were painted about 1732. Les 
 Tours de Cartes. Les Bouteilles de Savon. His works at Potsdam. The personal charadler 
 vkfhich he confers on inanimate objefts. "La Gouvernante " bought by Prince Lichtenstein. 
 The King purchases "La M^re laborieuse," and "Le Benedicite." Count Tessin sends 
 "La Toilette du matin " to Stockholm and the Crown Prince orders a "Gouvernante " and 
 a " Jeune el^ve dessinant." Various other works at Stockholm. "Les Amusements de la vie 
 priv^e," "L'Econome." Constant repetitions by Chardin of the same subjefts. Purchases of 
 his work by his brother artists. Chardin not a rapid worker. The remarkable quality of his 
 colour, especially of his whites. His pastels and drawings. His unconventional art, and love 
 of the simplest themes. His feeling for the pathos of human life in its humblest forms, con- 
 trasts with the sensual sentimentalism of Greuze and the suggestive license of Baudouin. The 
 gouaches of Baudouin. " Le Module honnete " and "Coucher de la Mariee." The subjefts 
 engraved after him. His brilliant faculties of observation and imagination atone for the 
 freedom of his pencil. The similarity between his work and that of Greuze. The dramas 
 of Diderot inspire Greuze. " L'Accordee du Village " " Le Mauvais fils puni." His single 
 figures. The most seduftive is " Le baiser jete." Greuze's vanity. Diderot's opinion of his 
 work. Wille's relations to him. He sends his son to him. Gifts from Wille to Greuze. 
 His portraits of Wille. Other portraits by Greuze. His pupils. His irretrievable ruin and 
 death page 112 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Painters of Portrait : — Rigaud, Largilliere, Nattier, Tocque, 
 RosLiN, Drouais, Latour, Perronneau, and others 
 
 Portrait-painting "sans reserve." Rigaud. Largilliere. Desportes. The official portraits 
 of Rigaud. His portraits of his wife and of his mother. His first will. His marriage. His 
 European celebrity. His autobiography, and the list of his sitters. His wife brought him 
 no fortune. Wille's visits to Rigaud and Largilliere. Largilliere's splendid living. He was 
 French by birth and Flemish by training. Like Rigaud, he owed much to le Brun. His 
 historical compositions. Their influence on his portrait-painting. He was the herald of the 
 eighteenth century portrait. His works at Chantilly and elsewhere. His colour. The 
 praftised habit of individualizing the sitter, shown in the work of Rigaud and LargilliSre. 
 Jean-Marc Nattier. The typical portrait painter of the age of Louis XV. He was com- 
 missioned with Watteau to draw the pictures in the colleftions of the King and the Regent. 
 His mannerisms. Nattier and Peter the Great. "Portraits histoiri^s." Marshal Saxe. 
 
 ix b 
 
Contents. Mile, de Clermont. Mile, de Lambesc and others. Superior to Jean Raoux whom he 
 succeeded at the Temple. Portraits of the Miles, de Nesle. Royal portraits. Nattier's 
 affairs and family. His son-in-law Louis Tocque. He returned from Russia during Nattier's 
 last years. His work shows the study of Largilli^re. His manner varied. Great skill and 
 reserve of means, but finally influenced by Nattier, to whom he was superior. Alexandre 
 Roslin less masterly and intelligent. Franjois-Hubert-Drouais. Had immense favour at 
 Court. Duplessis. Mme. Vigee le Brun. Masse and Hall. Mauricc-Quentin Latour. 
 His court portraits. His prices. His charafter. His portraits of women and of men. His 
 "preparations." Musee de St. Quentin. Fixing pastel. The consequent ruin of much of 
 his most brilliant work. Jean-Baptiste Perronneau. His wandering life. Portraits of Oudry 
 and Adam I'Aine. Visits to Bordeaux and Lyons. Stay in Holland. Visits Orleans, 
 Bordeaux, Abbeville. Death from fever at Amsterdam. His frequent absences cost him, 
 possibly, the support of the Paris public. Some of his finest works. The high quality of his 
 talent even compared to that of Latour. The position of pastel-painters in the Royal 
 Academy. Portrait-painters, like engravers, could not rise above the rank of "conseiller" 
 
 page 138 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Treatment of Landscape — Vernet and Lantara 
 
 The treatment of landscape by the painters of the eighteenth century. The backgrounds 
 of Oudry's " Chasses." Landscape in the hands of Watteau, Boucher, Huet, and Fragonard. 
 Claude-JosephVernet. His work for Mme. de Simiane. He leaves Avignon for Rome. Commis- 
 sions from the Due de St. Aignan. English patrons. The Queen of Spain. Frederick the 
 Great. Mme. de Pompadour. Successes at the Salon of 1756. Order for the " Ports de mer 
 de France." Vernet's journal. The conditions under which he worked. Rochefort. Brest 
 and St. Malo menaced by the English. He seizes the occasion to return with his family to 
 Paris. His life in Paris. His extraordinary vogue. Mme. Geoffrin. Garrick. Sir John 
 Thornhill. Vernet's "Livres de Raison." His love of music. " Souper des dames" on 
 New Year's Eve in the "Galeries du Louvre." Carle Vernet. Emilie Vernet. Her death 
 on the scaffold. Vernet's tender care of his wife. Vernet's brothers. Vernet's instindl for 
 decoration. Conception of landscape as a background for human interests. Returned too 
 late to France to see French landscape. Lantara. His love of light and delicate air. Hubert 
 Robert. An archxologist and decorator. Only treats landscape in unimportant sketches. 
 Lazare Bruandet. Taunay. Demarne. Loutherbourg. Casanova. A last word on the 
 painters of the eighteenth century ........ page 175 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 List of Works Exhibited at the Salon 
 
 By Baudouin, Pierre- Antoine ; Boucher, Fran9ois ; Chardin, Jean-Baptiste-Simeon ; 
 Drouais, Fran9ois-Hubert; Fragonard, Jean-Honor^; Greuze, Jean-Baptiste; Lancret, 
 Nicholas; Latour, Maurice-Quentin de ; Loo, Carle van; Nattier, Jean-Marc; Perronneau, 
 Jean-Baptiste ; Tocque, Louis ; Troy, Francois de ; and Vernet, Claude-Joseph page 1 89 
 
 INDEX page 217 
 
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 List of 
 Illustra- 
 To FACE tions. 
 BAUDOUIN. PAGE 
 
 Le Confessional (Gouache. Colledtion of Madame la Vicotntesse de Courval) 130 
 
 BOUCHER. 
 
 RoNDE d'Amours (Plafond, Fontainebleau) ... . . . vii 
 
 Le Peintre (Colle6tion of M. le Baron Edmond de Rothschild) . . . i 
 Portrait of Madame de Pompadour (Jones Bequest, South Kensington 
 
 Museum) ........ Photogravure plate 6 
 
 La Naissance et Triomphe de Venus (Mus6e National, Stockholm) . 38 
 
 La Marchande de Modes (Mus6e National, Stockholm) .... 48 
 
 Venus se preparant pour le jugement de Paris (Colledion of M. le 
 
 baron Edmond de Rothschild) .... Photogravure plate 50 
 Le Peintre (Drawing in red chalk, supposed to be a portrait of Boucher himself. 
 
 Collection of M. L^on Bonnat) 52 
 
 La Femme a l'eventail (Drawing in red chalk and lead pencil, Musee 
 
 National, Stockholm) .......... 54 
 
 Portrait of Madame de Pompadour (National Gallery of Scotland) . 56 
 
 La Naissance de Bacchus (Colleftion of M. le baron Edmond de Rothschild) 60 
 
 BRUN (VIGEE LE). 
 Madame la princesse de Talleyrand (Colleftion of M. Jacques Doucet) 158 
 
 CHARDIN. 
 La Dame Cachetant une lettre (Neues Palais, Potsdam) . . .116 
 La Blanchisseuse (National Museum, Stockholm) ..... I20 
 
 La Toilette de Matin (National Museum, Stockholm) . , . .122 
 La Pourvoyeuse (Mus^e du Louvre) . . . . . . . .124 
 
 Le Chateau de Cartes (Colledion of M. Jacques Doucet) . . .128 
 
 DESPORTES. 
 Portrait of himself (Musde du Louvre) 138 
 
 DROUAIS. 
 Marie Antoinette at the age of sixteen (Jones Bequest, South Ken- 
 sington Museum) ....... Photogravure plate 152 
 
 Portrait of Amelia, qth Baroness Conyers, at the age of ten 
 
 (Colledtion of the Countess of Yarborough) I54 
 
 Given only in the large paper edition. 
 Marie Antoinette en Hebe (Mus6e Conde, Chantilly) Photogravure plate 156 
 
 xi 
 
TO FACE 
 
 List of FRAGONARD. page 
 
 Illustra- La Triomphe de Venus (painted projed for a ceiling. Mus& de Besan9on) 
 
 tions. Photogravure plate 62 
 
 La Foire de St. Cloud (Colle(ftion of M. Leopold Goldschmidt) . . 66 
 
 Le Sacrifice au Minotaure (CoUedtion of M. Jacques Doucet) . . 64 
 
 L'Heureuse MiRE (in the possession of Messrs. Agnew) .... 68 
 
 Le Concours (Drawing in Indian ink, Colledion of Madame Jahan) . . 70 
 
 La Recompense (Drawing in Indian ink, Colledlion of Madame Jahan) . 72 
 The Terrace (Drawing slightly washed with colour; Print Room, British 
 
 Museum) . . . . . . . . . . . .178 
 
 The Herdsman (Drawing in red chalk; Print Room, British Museum) . 182 
 
 GREUZE. 
 
 L'Accordee de Village (Musee du Louvre) 132 
 
 La Belle Blanchisseuse (Colledion of Count Axel Wachtmeister) . . 134 
 
 Le Baiser Jete (Colleftion of Mr. Alfred de Rothschild) . . . .136 
 
 Given only in the large paper edition. 
 
 LANCRET. 
 
 Pastoral (Royal Museum, Berlin) xi 
 
 Le DijEUNER DE Jambon (Musee Conde, Chantilly) Photogravure plate 102 
 Le Colin-Maillard (National Museum, Stockholm) . . . . .104 
 
 L'OiSELEUR (Neues Palais, Potsdam) .... Photogravure plate 106 
 
 Given only in the large paper edition. 
 
 La Tasse de Th^ (Colledion of Lord Wantage) 108 
 
 Le Montreur de Lanterne Magique (Neues Palais, Potsdam) . . no 
 
 LARGILLIERE. 
 Portrait of Jean Forest (Royal Museum, Berlin) ..... 142 
 
 LATOUR. 
 
 Madame de Pompadour (Mus6e du Louvre) . . Photogravure plate 160 
 
 Madame de la Reyniere (CoUedtion of M. Jacques Doucet) . . . 162 
 
 Given only in the large paper edition. 
 
 Verzenobre (Mus^e de St. Quentin) 164 
 
 Nicolas-Charles Silvestre, MaItre a Dessiner du Roi (Musde de St. 
 
 Quentin) 172 
 
 LOO (C. VAN). 
 L'Intelligence (Drawing, in black and white chalk. Colleftion of M. L6on 
 
 Bonnat) ............ 12 
 
 Halte de Chasse (Musde du Louvre) 46 
 
 MOINE (LE). 
 Hercule ET Omphale (Musee du Louvre) 24 
 
 NATTIER. 
 
 Maurice, Marechal de Saxe (Musee de Dresde) 146 
 
 Mademoiselle de Nesle, Duchesse de Chateauroux en Point du jour 
 
 (Mr. A. Wertheimer) 148 
 
 Portrait OF Madame la Duchesse de Chartres en Hebe (Musee National, 
 
 Stockholm) Photogravure plate 150 
 
 NATOIRE. 
 
 Les Trois Graces (Mus6e du Louvre) 40 
 
 VInus et Vulcain (Mus6e du Louvre) 42 
 
 xii 
 
_ TO FACE 
 
 OUDRY. PAGE List of 
 
 Panth^re CouchjIe dans sa cage (Mus^e National, Stockholm) . '174 Illustra- 
 
 PATER. 
 
 Les Baigneuses (National Gallery of Scotland) ...... 98 
 
 Fete Champetre (Colleftion of Madame la Marquise de Lavalette) . , 100 
 F^TE Champ£tre (Jones Bequest, South Kensington Museum) . . .189 
 
 PERRONNEAU. 
 M. LE MAS DE Puysac (Colledlion of M. Jacques Doucet) . . . .168 
 La Jeune Fille au Chat (Mus^e du Louvre) 170 
 
 PORTAIL. 
 Le Concert de Famille (Drawing in red chalk. Colledtion of M. Jacques 
 
 Doucet) 8 
 
 RESTOUT. 
 Bebe sur une Chaise d'Enfant (Mus6e National, Stockholm) ... 44 
 
 RIGAUD. 
 
 Portraits of Marie Serre, Mere de Rigaud (Musee du Louvre) . 140 
 
 ROSLIN. 
 Portrait of the Painter 4 
 
 tions. 
 
 TOCQUE. 
 Portrait of the Marquis de Marigny (Mus^e de Versailles) . . 10 
 
 TROY (DE). 
 
 La Surprise (Jones Bequest, South Kensington Museum) . . . . 30 
 
 Le Dejeuner d'huitres (Musee Cond6, Chantilly) . Photogravure plate 32 
 
 La Conversation galante (Sans Souci) . 36 
 
 VERNET. 
 L'EntrIe du Port de Marseilles (Musde du Louvre) . . . .180 
 Paysage. Les Baigneuses (Mus^e du Louvre) 185 
 
 WATTEAU. 
 L'Embarquement pour Cythere (Altes Schloss, Berlin) Photogravure plate Frnts. 
 La vraie gaiete (Colledtion of Sir Charles Tennant) .... 78 
 
 Le Denicheur de Moineaux (National Gallery of Scotland) ... 80 
 Le Donneur de Serenades, or "Mezzetin" (Musee Conde, Chantilly) 
 
 Photogravure plate 82 
 
 La Collation (Royal Museum, Berlin) 
 
 Le Grand Gilles (Musee du Louvre) 
 
 Trois TItes de Ni;GRE (Drawing in red and black chalk. National Museum 
 Stockholm) ........... 
 
 A replica of this drawing, presumably a copy, is in the South Kensington Museum 
 L'AssE.MBLEE DANS UN PARC (Royal Museum, Berlin) . . . . 90 
 
 Les Comediens Fran^ais (Royal Museum, Berlin) 92 
 
 L'Enseigne Gersaint (Altes Schloss, Berlin) 94 
 
 Coin de Village (Drawing in red chalk. CoUedion of M. Leon Bonnat) . 176 
 
 84 
 86 
 
 88 
 
 Xlll 
 
ABBREVIATIONS. 
 
 G. B. A. = Gazette des Beaux Arts. 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page vii. Contents. Chapter II. Line 3 from bottom. 
 For " Salon de la Paix " read " Salon d'Hercule." 
 
 Page xiii. For "Nicolas-Charles Silvestre, etc.," read 
 '' Louis de Silvestre." 
 
 On block facing page 36 read " De Troy, has been at- 
 tributed to Carl van Loo." 
 
 Page 38, line 1 7 from top. Insert after " through " the 
 words " as well as his fine work." 
 
 Page 122, note i. For "M^re et sa Fille" read "La 
 Toilette." 
 
 . _g,_ ._j. ^ ..^ j/uL,i...ai..wii 111 uiit v^iiiuu. ucs n.Tzs [2i)zn July and loth August, 1899), 
 by M. Marc Furcy-Renaud, of " Chardin et la Diredtion g^nerale des Bdtiments 
 du Roy," furnishes additional information as to the low prices paid to Chardin, 
 and the tardy justice secured for him by Cochin in respeil to his works for Choisy 
 and Bellevue, as well as further details as to Mme. Chardin's situation after her 
 husband's death. 
 
 Page 155, note 5. For " E. F. Gruyer" read "F. A. Gruyer." 
 
 Page 1 64. The words " portrait of Jacques-Charles Dutilliere " to be omitted. They 
 were retained, by an oversight, when the reference to other works by Perronneau 
 in the collection of M. Jacques Doucet was transferred to another page. 
 
 Page 167. For " Louis-Fran^ais " read "Louis-Francois." 
 
 XV 
 
ABBREVIATIONS. 
 
 G. B. A. = Gazette des Beaux Arts. 
 
 M^m. in^d. = M6moires in^dits pr. servir a I'hist. des membres de A. R., &c., &c. 
 
 N. A. = Nouvelles archives de I'Art fran9ais. 
 
 A. de I'A. fr. = Archives de I'Art fran9ais. 
 
 P. V. = Proc^s-verbaux de I'Acad. Royale. 
 
 D'A. = d'Argenville, " Vies des plus fatneux Peintres." 
 
 C. L. = Correspondance litt6raire de Grimm et Diderot. 
 
 C. de G. = Catalogue, CEuvre de Watteau, Edmond de Goncourt. 
 
 M6m. = M6moires. 
 
 A. = AgriL 
 R. = Refu. 
 
 Mus^e Conde = La Peinture a Chantilly. Ecole Franfaise. F. A. Gruyer. 
 
 B. M. = Print Room, British Museum. 
 
 In. g6n. = Inventaire g6n6ral des richesses de la France. 
 
 Mon. r61. = Monuments r^ligieux. 
 
 Mon. civ. = Monuments civils. 
 
 Ex. = Exhibited. 
 
 Engd. = Engraved. 
 
 It. = livres tournois. 
 
 ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. 
 
 Pages 63, 67 note, 87, 90 note. For "Mme. Edouard Andr^" read "Mme. Edmond 
 Andr6." 
 
 Page 72. In the title to the illustration for " Le Recompense " read " La Recompense." 
 
 Page 90, note 3. For " Assemble dans une pare " read " Assembl^e dans un pare." 
 
 Page 94. For " Bal sous un Colonade " read " Bal sous une Collonnade." 
 
 Page 98, line 19 from top. Whilst going to press I learn that "The Bathers," by 
 Pater, at Hertford House, has been cleaned since my notes w^ere made. 
 
 Page 113, last line. For Sep. 27, 1725, read Sep. 25, 1728. 
 
 Page 119. On this page a reference to the valuable notes on " Les Commandes 
 Officielles des tableaux," by M. Engerrand, in the Chron. des Arts (4th April and 
 2nd May, 1898), should have completed note 3. 
 
 Page 125. The publication in the Chron. des Arts (29th July and roth August, 1899), 
 by M. Marc Furcy-Renaud, of "Chardin et la Diredtion g^nerale des Bitiments 
 du Roy," furnishes additional information as to the lovv^ prices paid to Chardin, 
 and the tardy justice secured for him by Cochin in respedl to his w^orks for Choisy 
 and Bellevue, as well as further details as to Mme. Chardin's situation after her 
 husband's death. 
 
 Page 155, note 5. For " E. F. Gruyer" read "F. A. Gruyer." 
 
 Page 164. The words "portrait of Jacques-Charles Dutilliere" to be omitted. They 
 were retained, by an oversight, when the reference to other works by Perronneau 
 in the collection of M. Jacques Doucet was transferred to another page. 
 
 Page 167. For " Louis-Franfais " read "Louis-Francois." 
 
 XV 
 
Le Peintre. By Boucher. 
 {Collection of M. k Baron Edmond de Rothschild.) 
 
FRENCH PAINTERS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE STORY OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY 
 
 A DISTINGUISHED French amateur once said to me. The Story 
 " L'art du dix-huitieme passionne les jeunes, pour celui p^*^^ 
 qui a vecu cela manque de profondeur." A harsh saying, Academy, 
 which, like most harsh sayings, is not wholly devoid of 
 truth. For the message brought to us by this charming art is 
 always of physical pleasure ; of those joys of the senses which found 
 their most graceful and most complete expression in the adorable 
 mirage of the " Fete galante." 
 
 The ideal of life which was thus embodied offers as sharp a 
 contrast to the ideal of the " Grand Siecle " as that type of noble 
 pomp presents to the aspirations which moulded the Renaissance, 
 and these three succeeding centuries shaped for themselves in the 
 national art of France a visible image of their desires and ambitions 
 such as we can find in that of no other country. 
 
 In that great day of renewal, which we call the Renaissance, 
 France, as I have elsewhere attempted to show, passionately pro- 
 claimed her delight in that world of art and letters which was 
 revealed by the Italian campaigns of her kings ; but the impulses 
 which began, with the movement of the Reformation, to trouble 
 the secret springs of life, assumed an essentially democratic charadler, 
 at war with the dominant forces of the national development. On 
 their destruction, arose the stupendous court which drew the 
 proudest in France to the foot of the throne. In the great web of 
 the central administration the arts were taken captive and illustrated 
 their dependence under the magnificent diredtion of le Brun. When 
 the brilliant reaftion in favour of freer modes of life set in under 
 
 I B 
 
The Story the Regency, it was, necessarily, leavened by the egotism bred in the 
 of the tyranny of the Grand Monarque, but the arts, in France, responded 
 Academy, to this call after a fashion that still gives unrivalled brilliance to the 
 annals of the century. 
 
 Now the marvels of the French Renaissance, the portraits 
 of the Clouet, the enamels of Limoges, the stained windows of 
 St. Gervais and Vincennes, the sculptured tombs of St. Denis, the 
 chateaux of Touraine, the illustrated books of Paris, of Rouen and 
 of Lyons, say little to us of personal luxury and much of the love of 
 beautiful things. The arts of France in the days of the Regency, 
 and in the reigns of Louis XV. and Louis XVI. speak to us of a 
 personal luxury to which things beautiful were as servants. 
 
 Yet, dissimilar as they are in charadier, the art of the Renais- 
 sance and the art of the eighteenth century have one claim in 
 common to our respeft and interest, a claim to which the art of 
 the " Grand Siecle " cannot pretend. The glories of the reign of 
 Louis XIV. were the produd: of a system, which having assigned 
 to each group of workers their proper fundlion in the State, bid the 
 artist make not things beautiful, of which he should have joy in the 
 making, and others in the possessing, but that which should present 
 an imposing show befitting the service of the king, and so, if we 
 turn now to those days, it is to study the great centralising system, 
 which was the cradle of all modern administration, rather than to 
 admire the academic excellence of le Brun and his assistants.^ The 
 men who succeeded them and who revolted from their rule, like the 
 men of the Renaissance, wrought those things that they and their 
 fellows loved and desired, and, working with delight, they still 
 delight us. Nay more, they show us the very hearts of men. 
 
 That is the one vital faft which can alone inspire us with deep 
 interest in any work of men's hands. That is why we can now love 
 the frail glories which neo-classicists, such as David, destroyed with 
 revolutionary zeal, believing them unworthy of a place in the treasure 
 house of a " free " nation. That is why this art, which the dead of 
 the eighteenth century have left to us, is justly dear in our eyes. It 
 is a genuine manifestation of human energy, and therefore, in spite 
 of its frivolity, its love of lightness, its often childish fidtions, it is to 
 be held sacred. 
 
 The absolute dependence on the State in which the Academies 
 found themselves at the close of the seventeenth century deprived 
 them of that natural spring of energy and resource to which their 
 origin and development had been due. Enervated by the magnifi- 
 
 * See " Art in the Modern State, or the Age of Louis XIV.," by the present writer. 
 
 2 
 
cent tutelage of le Brun, the impetus of which was communicated The Story 
 to his successors, the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture was ^^^^, 
 utterly unable to read: against the depressing conditions of the Academy, 
 closing years of the reign of Louis XIV. Indication of money 
 difficulties is given as early as March, 1702, on the 4th of which 
 month we find that the payment of the salaries of officials is thrown 
 on the funds of the Academy, two quarters of 1701 being yet due 
 from the Crown.^ The Salon dropped into abeyance, and though 
 men such as the sculptors Girardon and Coysevox, the painters 
 deTroy, Boulogne, Rigaud and Largilliere, took their turns regularly 
 in the work of teaching, yet the chronicles of the Academy during 
 the early years of the eighteenth century show no sign of those 
 widening interests and changes^ which enliven its proceedings in 
 later years, and which indicate a sense of responsibility deepening 
 under the pressure of the coming revolution. 
 
 As we turn over the pages in which equal record is kept of 
 every detail, trivial or important, which may concern the daily life 
 of the Society, we find that the incessant round of visits of etiquette 
 and compliment which le Brun had inaugurated was performed as 
 regularly as if Versailles had been still in building. In July, 1714, 
 Coypel was elefted Diredlor, and at once the Academicians proceed 
 to Marly to present him to the due d'Antin, then at the head of the 
 Board of Works.^ Having been politely congratulated by d'Antin 
 on their choice, they rush off to catch the king on his way to mass, 
 and find him — prompted by d'Antin — graciously approving. The 
 appetite for visits of this type was not satisfied with the obligations 
 of yearly ceremonies and official presentations, every possible occasion 
 was seized as a pretext for paying court. Whether Cardinal Dubois 
 becomes prime minister, or d'Antin gets the order of the Saint-Esprit, 
 the excuse is equally good for full dress and decorations.* 
 
 The only noticeable fadts are the fulfilment by the administration 
 of its often deferred promise to enable the Academy to open their 
 Life School without charge,* and the vigorous decision, taken in the 
 same year, not to receive women, in future, as " academiciennes." ' 
 Yet, in spite of this fixed determination, we find, a few years later, 
 that Rosalba Carriera made good her claims " sans neantmoins tirer 
 
 * See also "L'Academie de France a Rome. 1666-1792." — G. B. A. 1869. 
 
 ' P.V. May 25th, 1765; January 28th, 1769; August 3rd, 1771; November 8th, 
 1777. 
 
 ' P.V. July, 1 7 14. * P.V. September 3rd, 1722; February 5th, 1724. 
 
 ' P.V. August 28th, 1706. 
 
 ' P.V. September 25th, 1706. Strong feeling on this point is shown on the 
 eledHon of Marguerite Havermans (January 31st, 1722) ; she is described as "peinteresse 
 de fleurs, ou se donnant pour telle." 
 
 3 
 
The Story a consequence," and, with this proviso, exceptions continued to be 
 of the made.^ Of Vien's wife. Mile. Reboul, who presented, on July 
 Academy. 3°^^, 1 757, various objedts of natural history " peints a la miniature," 
 it is declared, that the Academy " I'a re9ue et re9oit academicienne 
 afin de jouir des honneurs, privileges et prerogatives attribues a cette 
 poste." ^ The terrible Mme. Therbouche, who arrived from Berlin, 
 and of whom Diderot has given a graphic account in his notes on 
 the Salon of 1767, was also welcomed without any guarding clause ; ' 
 next followed Anne Vallayer,* concerning whom Bachaumont writes 
 that the Academy of Painting and Sculpture — less exclusive than 
 the other academies — now and again gives the example, rare it 
 is true, but encouraging to the fair sex, of the admission of women 
 " dans son sein," " On the 28th of last July," he continues, " Mile. 
 Vallayer, aged about twenty-two or twenty-three, was presented to 
 that body and by it accepted and received the same day : her works 
 being paintings in the style of flowers, fruits, bas-reliefs and animals."® 
 To Anne Vallayer succeeded, in the same year. Mile. Roslin, the 
 wife of the distinguished Swedish painter of that name," but these 
 two incursions of women, rapidly following on one another, were 
 evidently regarded as dangerous, and the Academy took occasion to 
 record, that though they liked to encourage women by admitting a 
 few, yet such admissions, being in some sort foreign to their constitu- 
 tion, ought not to be multiplied, and thenceforth it was resolved 
 never to admit more than four. 
 
 Difficulties of another order arose, in connection with this 
 question, when Mme, Vigee le Brun claimed recognition, for her 
 husband, le Brun, was a picture dealer. The odium which attaches 
 to the dealing in works of art, especially in the eyes of those who 
 produce them, was just as strong then as now. Desene, a humble 
 Marseilles artist, had adlually been excluded from the Academy for 
 
 ^ P.V. Odtober 6th, 1720. Sixty years later (April 28th, 1781,) her diploma work 
 was lent to Mme. de Sabran. 
 
 " Mme. Vien is treated with much severity by Diderot in his Salon of 1767. 
 
 ' P.V. February 28th, 1767. Wille speaks of her in his Memoirs, September 7th, 
 1766, and Oftober 31st, 1767. Her diploma work is in the Louvre, No. 576. See 
 also Diderot. Salon 1767. C. L., vol. ii., p. 256, et seq. 
 
 * P.V. July 28th, 1770. See also the Memoirs of Wille. 
 
 ' Bachaumont, August 25th, 1770. She became the wife of a certain Sieur Coster. 
 Works by her are to be found in the Louvre and in various provincial museums, as at 
 Nancy. 
 
 ' P.V. September 28th, 1770. Mile. Roslin, in her maiden name, Susanne 
 Giroux, was a portrait painter in pastel. She died early, and on September 13th, 1772, 
 Wille writes "j'allay voir M. Roslin, peintre du roy et chevalier de I'ordre de Vasa, 
 pour lui faire mes compliments de condoleance sur la mort de sa femme." A portrait 
 by her of Dumont le Romain figured at the Exposition des Pastellistes Fran^ais in 
 1885. 
 
 4 
 
Alexandre Roslin. By Himself. 
 (In the Academy of Arts, Stockholm.) 
 
no greater crime than that his children had exhibited their father's The Story 
 two pictures of the Plague at Marseilles for money.^ In 1777, a ?^^^^. 
 stringent clause was incorporated in the statutes to which d'Angiviller Academy, 
 himself appealed three years later, calling on the Academy to put it 
 in force against a certain Martin, whom they had accepted but 
 whom he had heard to be a mere " marchand de tableaux." ^ In 
 this case, it was noted that, the Academy finding no sufficient proof 
 of " pidture-dealing," " n'a rien statue contre M. Martin," but it 
 was quite impossible to overlook the compromising husband of 
 Mme. Vigee le Brun. The Queen was therefore persuaded to 
 intervene, and d'Angiviller, to please her, got a dispensation from 
 the King in virtue of which — on the same day as that on which 
 " Madame Guyard, femme de M. Guyard, peintre de portraits," 
 was agr^e et regue — the wife of the pifture-dealer also became a 
 Royal Academician.^ 
 
 By a similar exercise of the royal prerogative, Protestants 
 were, from time to time, received into the ranks. The Regent, of 
 course, took a lenient view of heresy. We are told of the Stockholm 
 enameller, Boit, who became painter to the King of England, that 
 the Regent, " etant informe de son merite," ordered his reception 
 " quoique de la religion reformee." Bolt's case was cited as a prece- 
 dent for the admission of Lundberg,* the pastellist, also of Stockholm, 
 on the 28th January, 1741, and Orry wrote again from Fontainebleau 
 (3 May, 1742), to direil the reception of Schmidt, the celebrated 
 line engraver, Wille's fellow-pupil, who is to come in " a titre 
 d'etranger quoique de la religion pretendue refformee." ^ The same 
 reason is again given in the case of Roslin, the Lutheran portrait 
 painter from Malmoe,''and in that of Rouquet, the famous enameller." 
 As long as the members of the Academy made no demands on 
 the public purse, Orry was content to leave them to their own 
 devices. He had been elefted Protedlor in the place of Cardinal 
 Fleury in 1743, but his conception of the duties of the Board of 
 Works was by no means a liberal one, and did not include that of 
 " encouraging the Fine Arts." If matters were not quite as bad as 
 in the earlier years of the century, when Poerson wrote to d'Antin 
 from Rome, "J'ay soutenu I'academie dans des tems difficiles et 
 
 ' P.V. Odtober 30th, 1723. ' P.V. November 4th and 25th, 1780, 
 
 ' P.V. May 31st, 1783. See on this subjeft, "Les femmes artistes a rAcademie 
 Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture." (O&ve Fidiere.) 
 * P.V. December 6th, 1740. 
 
 ' P.V. May 5th, 1742. See the Memoirs of Wille. 
 ° P.V. July 28th, and November 24th, 1753, and December 23rd, 1754. 
 ' P.V. February ist, and December 31st, 1742, and March 22nd, 1766. 
 
 5 
 
The Story malheureux . . . ayant este souvent sans argent du Roy," * the 
 °f ^^^ financial situation was always one of more or less embarrassment. 
 Academy. The advent of Mme. de Pompadour brought about a revolu- 
 tion : 
 
 " Fu sempre I'oro a quelle Donne amico 
 Che poco han cara la lor honestade," 
 
 and the lady's love of luxury declared war on Orry's economical 
 habits, so that in a short time the unequal contest ended in his 
 dismissal, and the Board of Works fell under the diredlion of the 
 oldjermier genera/, Charles-Fran9ois-Paul LenormantdeTournehem, 
 the reputed father of the favourite, until such time as her brother 
 Abel Poisson — who had blossomed into the Marquis de Vandieres 
 — should be of fitting age to fill the post. Tournehem's energetic 
 and practical administration was marked by a sound sense of business.* 
 He established a tariff for portraits of royalties, according to which 
 all Academicians were to be paid alike,^ at the same time starting 
 a scheme for direct commissions from the Crown, and ordering ten 
 officials of the Academy each to choose a subjeft for a pifture of 
 specified size, whilst their brethren were told off to decorate the 
 new apartments at Versailles.* The modesty of the sum to be paid 
 for the pidlure — 1,500 fr. — was atoned for by the magnificence of 
 the blue morocco portfolio in which the order for the money was en- 
 closed ; — a delicate attention greatly appreciated, says the chronicler, 
 by all concerned.* Small details, such as these, seem to have had a 
 charm for Tournehem, who was not above presiding in person at 
 meetings in which the Academicians discussed the purchase of new 
 book-cases, or the arrangements to be made for carrying out a 
 Diftionary of Costume, to be compiled by Freret, and illustrated 
 by Careme.® 
 
 The King, on the death of Orry, was proclaimed Protedtor,^ and 
 the Academy, in obedience to the general movement of the century, 
 was brought more closely in conta6l with the lay world. It had 
 become fashionable with some to profess a taste for the arts, just as 
 
 ' "L'Acad. de France a Rome d'apres les lettres de ses direfleurs " (i 666-1 792). 
 G. B. A. 1869, pp. 62, 68, et seq. 
 
 ' M. Courajod's Introduftion to the " Livre-Journal de Lazare Duvaux" contains 
 an excellent account of de Tournehem's dealings with the Academy and the Arts. 
 
 ' A.N.O.' 1922 (1746) p. 156. ■* P.V. January 28th, 1747. 
 
 ' P.V. Oftober 7th, 1747. 
 
 fi P.V. July 1st, 1747. Ibid., May 27th, 1747. Freret was Secretary to the 
 Academic des Inscriptions, 1743-49. Careme, an artist of much talent, was expelled 
 the Academy for disgraceful conduit. P.V. November 28th, and December i6th, 
 
 1778. 
 
 ' P.V. December 2nd, 1747. 
 
 6 
 
Portrait of Madame dk Pompadour. I!v Voucher. 
 {Jones Bequest. South Keiisin^^ton Museum.) 
 
others turned curiously to the works of the Economists or the The Story 
 
 Encyclopasdists. Amongst the first eight free associates created to 9j **^® 
 satisfy this want, we find the name of M. Baschi,' the husband of Academy. 
 Mme. de Pompadour's sister-in-law, who had been summoned by 
 Tournehem, to keep house at the Sur-intendance. Caylus, under 
 whose auspices a considerable impulse was given to the study of 
 archeology, was also placed on the list, and in after years we find 
 Watelet, Gougenot, and Mariette qualifying as free associates for the 
 more honourable post of Honorary Amateurs,^ and even Turgot^ did 
 not disdain the title. When, indeed, the king himself, at Tourne- 
 hem's instigation, had accepted the title of Protedlor, the edifice had 
 been crowned by a social distinction which encouraged the adhesion 
 of those lesser personages, whom a much needed royal gift of chairs 
 and tables shortly after enabled the Academy to receive as its guests.* 
 As soon as the new furniture had arrived, the new " Constitution " 
 was officially recognised and the distinguished amateurs began to 
 enjoy their honours.* No attempt, however, was made to gratify 
 the desire, already growing amongst artists, for larger liberties. 
 Rather one may say that the aristocratic charafter of the Academy 
 was enhanced by this drawing closer of ties to the court and to 
 those whom the court delighted to honour. Their very existence 
 was bound up with that system of privilege and caste which the 
 nation was rousing itself to overthrow, and they took occasion, in the 
 regulations and statutes promulgated under d'Angiviller's direction 
 in 1777, to proclaim afresh the exclusively pre-eminent position 
 accorded to their society.® 
 
 D'Angiviller himself fostered their social claims by enter- 
 taining the official body from time to time in a style of royal 
 magnificence. " Madame la comtesse d'Angiviller," writes Wille, 
 "femme de M. le comte d'Angiviller, notre diredteur-general, 
 m'ayant fait I'honneur de m'inviter a diner, je me rendis en son 
 hotel avec d'autres officiers de notre Academie egalement invites, 
 et la nous fumes re^u le plus honnetement du monde par Madame 
 la comtesse qui a infiniment d'esprit.' Nous etions, si je ne me 
 trompe, au moins trente six a trente-huit a table. Le repas etoit 
 d'une magnificence extraordinaire, servi dans une argenterie 
 immense et des plus superbes . . . Mme. la comtesse fit les 
 
 ' Ibid., August 26th, 1747. "" Ibid., Odober 31st, 1767. 
 
 ' Ibid., May 5th, 1781. . * P.V. March 21st, 1750. 
 
 ' P.V. January 30th, 1751. " P.V. September and, 1777. 
 
 ' Deseine says of d'Angiviller, "Son epouse, femme tres-respedtable, s'etait en 
 quelque sorte emparee du gouvernement de son mari, pour favoriser ceux qu'elle 
 afFeftionnait, et leur faire obtenir des graces souvent aux depens de la justice." 
 "Notices historiques sur les Anciennes Academies, etc. Deseine, Paris, 1814." 
 
 7 
 
The Story honneurs de la table de la maniere la plus gracieuse, ayant soin d'un 
 
 of the chacun et parlant avec bonte a tous ceux qui v'etoient. Bref nous 
 
 Koyai ^A * ., , , ^ •' , . . 
 
 Academy. lumes tous, comme il me parut, des plus contents ; du moins je 
 
 I'etois singulierement en mon particulier." ' 
 
 The " Salon " too, had gradually become a great social event. 
 
 Tournehem is said to have been the first to arrange that it should 
 
 take place annually.^ This course was, hov^^ever, suggested by 
 
 Orry, — after the great success of the famous Salon of 1737, — to 
 
 Coustou, who was then Direftor,' and in June of the following year, 
 
 Coustou announced that '* la derniere exposition aiiant extremement 
 
 reussi, cela avoit determine le Roi a ordonner qu'il s'en feroit une 
 
 pareille cette annee dans le meme Sallon a commencer le 1 8 Aout 
 
 et continuer jusqu'au i Septre." * On the 30th of August he 
 
 brought another command from Orry to the effedl that " I'intention 
 
 du Roy etoit qu'il y eut tous les ans une exposition de tableaux 
 
 dans le grand Sallon."^ A question as to the fitness of the Grand 
 
 Salon, now called the " Salon Carre," for this purpose had been 
 
 previously raised, and the Academicians had begged hard to be 
 
 allowed to use a part of the Great Gallery instead, but the only 
 
 concession which they were able to obtain was the permission — 
 
 some years later — to use the " Grand Escalier " as a public entry 
 
 on " le jour de la St. Louis." ® The Academicians alleged that the 
 
 popularity of the exhibitions had then so greatly increased, that on 
 
 the opening day the crowd became " si tumultueuse pour voir ce 
 
 lieu consacre a la Peinture et a la Sculpture, qu'independamment 
 
 des insolences qui se commettent dans notre escalier par rapport 
 
 aux Dames, il est rare qu'il n'y ait toujours quelques particuliers de 
 
 blesse." ^ 
 
 The great innovation in the arrangements for the Salon, which 
 
 originated with Tournehem, was the establishment of a regular 
 
 hanging Committee. The old system had been to nominate some 
 
 one person who was wholly responsible for the work. Thus we 
 
 ' Mem. September 13th, 1787. 
 
 " Courajod. " Introdu6tion au Livre- Journal de Lazare Duvaux," p. cli. 
 
 ' P. V. August 1st, 1737. 
 
 * P. V.June 2ist, 1738. 
 
 ' P. V. August 30th, 1738. This Salon in the Louvre, first granted for the 
 purpose in 1737, continued to receive the annual exhibitions up till the days of the 
 Revolution. (Guiffrey, " Les Expositions du XVIIL Siecle," p. xvii.) 
 
 ° P. V. June 4th, 1746. 
 
 ' P. V. ibid. In 1765 Wille notes, on August 31st., that " le concours du 
 public pour voir le Salon est extraordinaire." This was the year in which he exhibited 
 his engravings of " Les Musiciens Ambulants," and Greuze his portraits of Wille 
 and of Caffieri. 
 
 8 
 
Le Concert de Famille. By Portail. 
 (Collection of M. Jacques Douce t.) 
 
find Stiemart — who died and was replaced by Portail ' whilst in the The Story 
 exercise of his funftions — nominated with full powers "pour of the 
 prevenir toute discussions." * Officers and Academicians were alike Academy, 
 referred to this official, and his instrudlions were simply to hang 
 the pidlures sent in according to the rank of their authors, as far as 
 the interests of " decoration " would admit.^ 
 
 Tournehem elaborated a plan according to which the Committee 
 was composed of all the chief officers of the Academy* and twelve 
 representatives of the whole body who were eledted to serve with 
 them.* This arrangement was fruitful in quarrels, and, a few years 
 later, we find Oudry writing letters to Chardin, as to the hanging 
 of two of his pictures, so insulting, that the indignant Committee 
 take down his canvases and forbid him the " Assemblees " of the 
 Academy.® 
 
 The liveliest account which we have of an opening day, is to 
 be found in the pages of Bachaumont, under the date of September 
 26th, 1763. "Yesterday," he writes "the opening of the Salon 
 took place with as great a crush as possible. . . The gathering this 
 year continues to give a good idea of the French School, the only 
 one now in Europe. It appears that the public has crowded most 
 eagerly round M. Van Loo's pifture representing ' The Three 
 Graces chained in flowers by Love.' The colouring is most 
 brilliant, the painting is ' fat.' The figures are considered a little 
 Flemish, one would have liked them better somewhat slighter. 
 ' The chastity of Joseph ' by M. Deshayes attracts much attention. 
 The marines of M. Vernet, his ' Four Hours of the Day ' and all 
 his pictures in general, are much sought after by amateurs. ' Filial 
 Piety' by M. Greuze is looked on with the greatest admiration. 
 To conclude ; the marble ' Prometheus ' of M. Adam and 
 * Pygmalion' by M. Falconnet carry off all suffrages in their division." 
 
 In earlier days, Tournehem had remarked that it would be 
 enough for the honour of the French school, that the number of 
 
 ' Portail (Jacques-Andre). R. 1746, as "flower-painter." He was "garde 
 des plans et des tableaux du roi." (A. de I'A. fr., vol. i., p. 257, and p. 386. See also 
 " Corresjwndance de Natoire," vol. ii.) His drawings are now much in request. The 
 finest is in the colledtion of M. Jacques Doucet, but several of some importance were 
 lately sold at the Vente Miihlbacher. 
 
 ' P. V. July 27th, and August 19th, 1741. 
 
 ' Notes relatives au decorateur du Salon de 1 776. (GuifFrey, " Expositions du 
 XVni. Siecle.") 
 
 * Le Direileur, Anciens Refteurs et adjoints a Redleurs. P. V. August 3rd, 
 1748. 
 
 ' These were on the first occasion : — Le Clerc, Van Loo, Boucher, Natoire, de 
 Vermondt, Oudry, Bouchardon, professeurs. Pigalle, Nattier, Slodtz, adjoints a 
 professeurs. Masse et Chardin, conseillers. 
 
 * See also Pierre's report to d'Angiviller on Caffieri's conduct. (GuifFrey, p. 55.) 
 
 9 c 
 
The Story works exhibited should be reduced to fifty. A sentiment which, 
 °f *^^ since that date, has been frequently echoed by others.^ The right 
 Academy, to exhibit, which had at first been regarded as an irksome obligation, 
 came to be upheld as an exclusive privilege. With great difficulty, 
 against the persistent opposition of the Royal Academicians, the 
 Academy of St. Luke succeeded in holding seven exhibitions, but 
 was then forced to close its doors/ and when an attempt was made 
 by Alexandre Lenoir to replace them at the Wauxhall des Champs 
 Elysees,' by a permanent establishment, at which young artists 
 should exhibit,* they at once interfered and the proposed Wauxhall 
 or Coliseum was ruthlessly condemned byd'Angiviller in May 1777." 
 Not satisfied with having secured to themselves a monopoly of 
 the exhibitions, the Academy now aspired to be exempt from 
 criticism. It was, they held, intolerable that their works should 
 be subje6l to the audacious and irreverent judgments of the press. 
 On more than one occasion, there seems to have been a general 
 outcry against the feebleness of the show. " The Salon this year," 
 writes Bachaumont on September 24th, 1769, "has suffered much 
 criticism and deserves it ; but the most cruel, the, most fair and the 
 most plain-spoken, is that which a joker has put about under the 
 following title, ' Lettres sur les peintures, gravures et sculptures 
 qui ont ete exposees cette annee au Louvre, par M. Raphael, 
 peintre de I'Academie de St. Luc, entrepreneur general des enseignes 
 de la ville, faubourgs et banlieue de Paris, a M. Jerome son ami 
 rapeur de tabac et raboteur.' ^ There is no doubt that gentlemen 
 of the Academy — usually very touchy about any criticism — will be 
 terribly upset by this." Contrary to expedtation, the sale of the 
 pamphlets was unchecked. Perhaps it was thought well to rouse 
 the Society from its somnolent condition. If so, the desired effisdt 
 was obtained. The pamphlet, ascribed in town variously to 
 Diderot, de Voisenon, d'Alembert, Marmontel and the cte. de 
 Lauraguais, wrought the Academicians to fury. They put up 
 Sedaine, their secretary, to reply in the character of "Jerome 
 rapeur de tabac," but the answer was really written by Cochin the 
 engraver,' and they stirred up Marigny — then their Diredtor — to 
 
 ' A. N. O' 1922. (1746) f. 156. 
 
 " "Expositions du XVIII. Siecle" and "Expositions de I'Academie de St. Luc." 
 (Guiffrey.) 
 
 ' Bachaumont, September 7th and 13th, 1769. 
 
 ' "Expositions du XVIII. Siecle," p. 34, 35. 
 
 " Arret du Parlement, August 30th, 1777. See also for the " Salon de Correspond- 
 ance," a sort of Exchange and Mart started by Pahin de la Blancherie. Bellier de la 
 Chavignerie, "Salon de la Correspondance," p. 16. 
 
 * Mem. Wille. March 8th, 1770. ' Bachaumont, November loth, 1769. 
 
 10 
 
Le Marquis de Marigny. By Tocqu£. 
 {Musk de Versailles^ 
 
intervene with such efFedt, that the police stopped the sale till omis- The Story 
 sions had been made which spoilt the point of Raphael's wit. The 2f *^® 
 next great sensation was caused by the distribution, in 1783, of Academy, 
 libellous couplets on the women Academicians, " les dames Guyard, 
 Coster, et Vigee le Brun." In a letter written by Mme. Guyard, 
 whose pretty portrait of the Countess de Flahault and her son was 
 seen at the Guildhall in 1898, she says, " On doit s'attendre a etre 
 dechire sur son talent . . . les tableaux sont la . . . s'ilssont bons; 
 ils plaident leur cause ; qui peut plaider celle des mceurs des 
 femmes ; le public saizi (sic) avec avidite tout ce qui est contre 
 elles." Her pathetic appeal was not without efFedt. " Le nomme 
 Cousin distributeur de ces couplets" was promptly arrested, but he 
 obstinately refused to give up the name of the author, of whom 
 Mme. Guyard says "je crains trop qu'il me touche de bien 
 pr^s." ^ 
 
 A striking proof of the increased popularity of the Salon is 
 given by the check put on the Dauphin's extraordinary practice of 
 transporting all the more interesting works, whether statues or 
 paintings, at the close of the exhibition, to Versailles, so as to save 
 himself the exertion of visiting them in Paris. It was not until 
 1765, that Marigny got courage enough to induce the prince to 
 forego this ruinous amusement.^ Thenceforth, he must be supposed 
 to have followed the example of other royal personages who usually 
 paid private visits to the exhibition before the opening date. 
 Madame EHzabeth and Madame la comtesse d'Artois thus disturb 
 the equanimity of Pierre, who, on the 28th August, 1783, is much 
 troubled at having to do the honours to the three Princesses, in the 
 absence of M. d'Angiviller.^ A private view then as now was 
 eagerly sought for, and special permissions were demanded on the 
 most various pretexts in order to obtain entrance before the general 
 public. Frequent applications were also made for the extension of 
 the right of exhibition to the authors of works of art other than 
 paintings, engravings and sculpture, but they were always received 
 unfavourably. Even when the due d'Aumont solicited for Gouthiere 
 the honour of showing two porphyry tables, the mounts of which 
 
 * GuifFrey, " Expositions, etc.," pp. 55-61. Her portrait of Pajou, which was her 
 diploma work, was her best. Her oil paintings, as, for example, " The Countess de 
 Flahault and her son,"(Colle6tion de M™. la M'". de Lavalette) have much of the pretti- 
 ness of work by Madame Vigee le Brun, but her portraits in pastel have more char- 
 adler. M. Roger de Portalis, writing of the Exposition des Pastellistes Francais, says, 
 " Mme. Guyard, ne Labille des Vertus, est une de celles qui s'y sont fait une belle place 
 par leur remarquable execution." (G. B. A., 1885.) 
 
 ' GuifFrey, " Expositions, etc.," pp. 28, 29. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 54. 
 
 II 
 
The Story had been chased by him in great perfeftion/ he was met by the 
 of the declaration that "le Sallon doit etre uniquement reserve pour les 
 Academy, ouvrages des Membres de I'Academie." 
 
 The exclusive privilege of holding exhibitions was not the 
 only point in dispute between the Royal Academy and the Academy 
 of St. Luc. Courses of teaching for young students had been 
 opened by the maitrise which, as Cochin bitterly complains in a 
 letter seen by M. GuifFrey,^ were utterly wanting in the Academy. 
 They were supported by no mean artists, and encouraged by the 
 protedtion of the marquis de Voyer, son of the marquis d'Argenson, 
 Minister of War, who had adtually granted them the use of a room, 
 in the Arsenal, for three of their exhibitions;^ a matter of great 
 importance to them, as the common fund, from which they main- 
 tained the classes, was derived only in part from admission fees, and 
 depended largely on the takings at their doors. To stop the exhi- 
 bitions meant therefore a complete check to the teaching work of 
 the maitrise. Nevertheless, the Academy did not disarm. They 
 deliberately repulsed any seceders from the maitrise who ventured 
 to knock at their gates. It needed the adtual exercise of official 
 pressure, as in the case of a certain " Sieur Porlier, peintre dans le 
 genre de fetes galantes," before the Academicians could bring them- 
 selves to receive the hated maitre.^ 
 
 On this wise, by the middle of the century, the Academy had 
 established that monopoly of the arts for which all along it had 
 fought in the name of the dignity of the Crown. This monopoly 
 was now destined, by the disgust it excited in outsiders, to bring 
 about the destrudtion of the body by which it was maintained. 
 Occasionally, they had used this power in defence of just liberties," 
 but usually the attitude of the Academy was, as in other lands and 
 other times, that of a body engaged in narrowing down the common 
 freedom of the profession which it represented, whilst enlarging the 
 privileges which gave to itself social dignity and influence. The 
 officials fought not only for empty titles of honour,^ but for sub- 
 stantial advantages, such as the exemption of their pupils, not only 
 
 ' "Catalogue-Ventedu Ducd'Aumont,"No.3i8 : " Deux tables achetees pour la 
 Reine, 23,999/. 19^." See also GuifFrey " Expositions," etc., p. 33. 
 
 " " Expositions de I'Academie de St. Luc," p. 7. 
 
 ' Those of 1752, 1753 and 1756. In 1762 and 1764 the mattres took refuge in 
 the Hotel d'Alegre, and their final gathering was held in the Hotel Jabach, rue Neuve 
 St. Maury. See for the Exhibition of Oftober, 1762, C. L., vol. 3, p. 119. 
 
 * P. V. September 30th, 1752. 
 
 ' In the case of the " Eventaillistes." P. V, April 26th, 1760, and January, 
 1765. See also the case of the " enlumineurs" June 3rd, 1786. 
 
 ° P. V, August 5th, 1769, and November loth, 1770. 
 
 12 
 

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from serving in the " Milice," but also from contribution to the The Story 
 "achat des miliciens,"^ a privilege w^hich — though not unknown 2.^**^®. 
 in the present day — was held to be only less odious than that ex- Academy, 
 emption from taxation which de Tocqueville has justly described as 
 the most odious of all.'^ 
 
 They could not even tolerate the establishment of that " Ecole 
 Royale des Eleves Proteges " which had been planned to remedy 
 the shortcomings of their own system. It had long been the prac- 
 tice to grant a small allowance to students who — like Jean Duvivier 
 for example — were supposed to show great promise, but whose 
 poverty was a bar to their career.^ These " eleves " were, how- 
 ever, too frequently selefted by favour, and favour too often deter- 
 mined the choice of those sent on to Rome ;* in any case, the 
 Academy classes, overflowing with an increasing number of students, 
 were insufficient for the training of those on whom it was proposed 
 to confer the highest rewards. These were the evils which the 
 scheme, drafted by Coypel, was intended to redtify.*" The school, 
 which started in a house on the Place du Vieux Louvre, began to 
 do good service when Carle Van Loo succeeded Dumont le Romain 
 as Governor (April 5th, 1749). Van Loo, at the zenith of his 
 reputation, threw himself into the work with an energy fully repaid 
 by the zeal and attainments of his scholars.^ 
 
 Their successes aroused the jealousy of the Academy. The 
 spirit which had prompted the establishment of academic schools 
 in earlier days, like outposts from Paris all over France,'' which 
 had planned the " Ecole des Arts " and encouraged the " Ecoles 
 gratuites de Dessin "^ was giving way before theories incompatible 
 with the stridl discipline required by the highest training. In spite 
 of the powerful protection of Marigny and the self-sacrificing 
 devotion of Carle Van Loo and his pupils, the " Ecole Royale " was 
 doomed. It lost ground when Michel Van Loo succeeded his 
 
 ' P. V. February 23rd, 1742; February 25th, 1769; April 29th, 1775, and 
 March 27th, 1783. 
 
 " " L'An. Reg.," p. 157 and p. 219. 
 
 ' Courajod. " Hist, de rEnseignement des Arts du Dessin au XVIII. Siecle. 
 Ecole Royale des Eleves Proteges," pp. 8-1 1. 
 
 ' See "I'Academie de France a Rome " (1666-1792). G. B. A., 1869. 
 
 ' P. V. June, 1 748, for Coypel's letter of June 4th. See also Courajod, " I'Hist. de 
 rEnseignement, etc.," p. 13. 
 
 6 Ibid., pp. 32, 37, 38- . 
 
 ' Montpellier, Reims, Beauvais, Toulouse, Marseilles, Lyons, Poitiers, Bayonne, 
 etc., etc. P.V. August 30th, 1738; January 27th, 1748; November 29th, 1749; 
 September 5th, 1750 ; November 24th, 1753 ; January 29th, 1757 ; June 27th, 1772 ; 
 May 30th, 1779. 
 
 " Bachaumont, September 2nd, 1 765, and February 2nd and 1 7th, 1 769. 
 
 13 
 
The Story uncle in 1765.^ Pierre " le prince des sots" was then in power as 
 
 R^^\ pf'^f^i^f p^^ntre ; he was in touch with all the conceited amateurs 
 
 Academy, who were bent on the " liberation of the arts " and contrived, when 
 
 the school passed under Vien, to reduce the number of the students, 
 
 and transfer to the coffers of the Academy most of the savings thus 
 
 effedted by the State.^ 
 
 The story of this unfortunate school reminds us how impossible 
 it was that the Members of the Academy should escape the in- 
 fluences which the presence at their meetings of opulent millionaires 
 and busy amateurs brought amongst them. The current ideas of 
 the day — all tending to the reje<5lion of every form of authority— 
 the special pleading in favour of a " return to nature," which 
 involved escape from all the restraints of tradition, found ready 
 acceptance with the least accomplished artists, whilst men like 
 Pierre, with pretensions to birth, were led in the same diredtion by 
 their desire to take the line on which they could best identify 
 themselves with men of fashion. 
 
 It must, indeed, be admitted that the benefits of the Board of 
 Works, with its elaborate system of commissions, allowances, salaries, 
 and grants of lodgings in the Louvre, were accompanied by re- 
 stridlions often vexatious in character. As has been said of the 
 government of the day, and its treatment of the unfortunate peasants, 
 " C'est moins encore au mal qu'on faisait a ces malheureux qu'au 
 bien qu'on les empechait de se faire a eux-memes que I'oppression 
 se montrait,"^ and when we find that an Academician could not 
 leave the country, or undertake any work abroad, without special 
 permission from the Crown, we realize that his exceptional ad- 
 vantages were subjedt to exceptional exactions. In its turn, the 
 Academy tyrannized over everyone within its reach, till even the 
 liberties of models were closely restricted.* All these things worked 
 together to produce, within the corporation itself, an irritation 
 which ripened to revolt in 1789, and raged with violence thence 
 onwards till the doors were closed in 1793. 
 
 Never had the Academy, to outward seeming, been more 
 powerful than after its triumph over the "Ecole Royale" in 1764, 
 when its members succeeded in obtaining the use of the coveted 
 
 ' Courajod, Hist., etc., pp. 62, 63. 
 
 " "Lettre de Marigny a Pierre," avril 20th, 1771. Ibid.^ p. 103. The school 
 was finally extinguished during Necker's term of office in 1790. It had become a cheap 
 boarding house for favoured lads. 
 
 ^ De Tocqueville, p. 226. 
 
 * If they were wanted to sit for the " Prix," or for a " Concours," or by a mere 
 Academician, they could not excuse themselves on account of other engagements, such 
 as those in "petites ecoles particulieres." P.V. February 24th, 1789. 
 
" Galerie d'Apollon,"' and induced the Board of Works to erefl The Story 
 studios for the "eleves proteges" — whom they had dislodged — in p^*^^ 
 the back yard of their old home on the Place du Vieux Louvre. Academy. 
 The condition attached to this concession, that of opening in the 
 additional space a second class for the life-model, was readily com- 
 plied with ; for throughout all changes the Life-School, with its 
 model, who wore the royal livery,^ continued to be the chief boast, 
 if it were also the constant difficulty of the Academy. The King 
 of Denmark, "saluant tout le monde," after being condudled through 
 the rooms, is introduced, as a final treat, to the "Ecole du Modele,"^ 
 and the same honour had been previously shown to his excellency 
 " I'Ambassadeur Turque." The establishment of the second school 
 was, however, accompanied by new regulations, and a stri<5l in- 
 juncflion to the adling professor to remain in his class the whole 
 time. Increased surveillance had been rendered necessary by fre- 
 quent complaints as to the presence of pupils who were not prepared 
 to profit by the advantages of this class;* but other disorders crept 
 in, and in 1790 a determined stand had to be made in order to 
 prevent competitors for the Grand Prix introducing female models 
 into their loges. 
 
 At this date, the ferment of the Revolution had begun to work. 
 The Academy had, indeed, taken the earliest opportunity of hailing 
 the opening of the " Etats Generaux." Catalogues of the Salon 
 were solemnly presented to the Assembly on the 28th August, 1789. 
 " Les Academies," said the messenger, " n'etant pas nees lors de la 
 derniere tenue des Etats Generaux, les Arts n'avoient pas pu jouir 
 de I'heureux occasion d'offrir leurs hommages a I'auguste Assemblee 
 des Representants de la Nation. M. le Direfteur a pense qu'il etait 
 de la decence et du devoir de I'Academie de porter a I'Assemblee 
 Nationale les livrets en presens, tel qu'on le fait a toute la Cour."^ 
 
 This entry, on the Proces-Verbaux of the Company, precedes 
 the first trace of that disturbance within the Academy which 
 refle6led the agitations of public opinion. On the 15th September, 
 1789, Wille notes that Mme. Pajou has written to Mme. Wille: 
 *' La croyant apparemment en vie" (she died in 1785), asking her 
 
 * P.V. December ist, 1764. They at once imposed, as diploma work, the task of 
 painting compartments of this ceiling ; Fragonard and Durameau, P.V. May 31st, 
 1766 ; Taraval, June 28th, 1766 ; Greuze, January 9th, 1779, were thus employed. 
 
 " P.V. December ist, 1714. 
 
 ' P.V. November 6th, 1768; March 31st, 1742. Amongst other distinguished 
 visitors we find the "Margrave de Baden et Caroline Margrave de Baden, nee 
 Princesse de Hesse," who signed the register on August 31st, 17 71. 
 
 * This had been a difficulty from the first. P.V. November 24th, 1714. 
 
 * P.V. August 28th, 1789. 
 
 15 
 
The Story to send her jewels to the "don patriotique, and on the 22nd of 
 Roval *^^ same month he sent his own offering of twelve silver and twelve 
 Academy, gold ducats, but, on the 23rd, a letter was forwarded to d'Angiviller 
 repudiating, in the name of the corporation, all participation in a 
 certain print which had just appeared under the title of " Voeu des 
 Artistes." The whole body was now divided between the fear of 
 offending officials on whose favour they had learnt to depend, and 
 the instindls which drew them to the revolutionary movement. 
 They called and then adjourned a meeting, " projette relativement 
 a la contribution patriotique," and soon after came the first hint of 
 the struggle which wrecked the whole constitution, for " la classe 
 de Messieurs les Academiciens" — which, it should be remembered, 
 included every artist who satisfied by his diploma work the official 
 examination — demanded the reform of the statutes.^ 
 
 The year 1790 opened quietly, during a momentary truce, but 
 on the 30th January the engraver Miger^ presented the conclusions 
 arrived at as to the desired reforms, and it appeared that the malcon- 
 tent Academicians had already formed themselves into a society of 
 which David was president and Miger secretary. This roused the 
 susceptibilities of the official body, and they refused to treat. ^ Vien, 
 however, attempted a *' plan de pacification " by means of a mixed 
 committee,* when suddenly came the uprising of the agrees, or asso- 
 ciates, who demanded for themselves all the rights that were to be ac- 
 corded to Academicians. " Je me rendis," writes Wille (6th March, 
 1790), "a I'Academie . . . une deputation de M.M. les agrees 
 demanda audience . . . M. Robin a leurtete^ qui eut la permission 
 de lire un Memoire au nom de tous. Ce Memoire me parut avoir de 
 bons raissonnements." The view taken of these demands by Wille 
 shows how rapidly the malcontents, inspired by a passionate belief in 
 abstradt theories which they were resolved to put in practice, were 
 making converts to their cause. The strength and weakness of the 
 revolution are seen refledted in the disputes of this small and close 
 corporation. We find the same love for general theories, the same 
 contempt for adlual fadts, the same taste for everything new in 
 institutions, the same desire to remake all at once the whole consti- 
 tution in accordance with the rules of logic and on a complete plan.^ 
 
 ' P.V, December I2th, 1789. 
 
 ^ See Bellier de Chavignerie, " Biographic et Catalogue de I'CEuvre du graveur 
 Miger." 
 
 ' P.V. February 5th, 1790. * P.V. February 27th, 1790. 
 
 ° J. B. Claude Robin, ag. 1772. He painted the ceiling of the Theatre of 
 Bordeaux. Perronneau, the pastel painter, bequeathed his wife to him. See article by 
 Maurice Tourneux on Jean-Baptiste Perronneau. G. B. A., 1896, p. 306. 
 
 • De Tocqueville " L'Ancien Regime," p. 247. 
 
 16 
 
An Academy now grew up, within the Academy, which pro- The Story 
 ceeded to adt as if it represented the whole of that august body, for °^ *^^ 
 the malcontents, who were in a minority on the mixed Committee, Academy, 
 whenever they found themselves in force at special meetings seized 
 the opportunity to pass any resolutions which they dared not 
 bring before the official body.^ In this way, they sent a deputa- 
 tion to the National Assembly, which was instantly disavowed 
 when reported in the "Journal de Paris," by the Secretary of the 
 Academy,^ but the " soi-disant deputation de I'Academie," at the 
 head of which David had figured, were furious, and the breach 
 widened.^ 
 
 The mixed Committee, however, continued to meet, but their 
 discussions only gave rise to violent altercations;* Mme. Guyard, 
 Moreau le jeune, and Miger^ especially distinguishing themselves. 
 Vien found his position untenable^ and retired, in spite of a strong 
 appeal from Moreau le jeune, who spoke with so much resped: for 
 Vien, that the latter offered him his hand and " they kissed again 
 with tears." After so touching an incident it is sad that Wille 
 should have to record, "cependant M. Vien prit conge de nous."^ 
 
 The withdrawal of Vien might have been foreseen, for on the 
 very day after he had been solemnly invited to return, the Acade- 
 micians had again approached the " Assemblee Nationale" petition- 
 ing for a share in " les encouragements accordes aux Arts par la 
 Nation."^ This step was, of course, unknown to the officials, who 
 now also learnt that the associates had been called by the Acade- 
 micians to attend all future meetings, and given " voix deliberative 
 dans tous les cas."® The Director and his supporters then set forth 
 the reasons which made it impossible for them to adl any longer with 
 the Academicians. Mme. Guyard's tongue must have been trying,^'' 
 for they begin by protesting that it is not fitting that " des femmes 
 viennent s'immiscer dans un travail qui leur est etranger." Nine 
 academicians joined the twenty-four officials in this protest and in 
 the suggestion that each body should work apart, and submit the 
 
 ' P. V. March 27th, April loth, June sth and 17th, 1790. 
 
 ' P. V. July 3rd, 1 790. Wille writes : " II me fut impossible de me rendre a 
 notre assemblee." His absence was probably due to prudence. 
 
 ' P. V. July 31st, 1790. 
 
 * Wille, Mem., pp. 264, 265, and September 6th, 1790. 
 
 ' See lettre a M. Vien, " Biographie du graveur Miger," p. 52. 
 
 ' P. V. September, 1790. ' Wille, Mem., September 26th, 1790. 
 
 ' P. V. September 2Sth, 1790. ° Wille, September 23rd, 1790. 
 
 " She fought hard for the rights of women academicians, insisting (September 
 26th) that their numbers and privileges should be increased. The speeches as to 
 whether they should or should not be Councillors remind one of a debate in the House 
 of Commons on a Local Government Bill. 
 
 17 D 
 
The Story results of their deliberations on the necessary reforms "a qui il 
 
 ^^^\ appartient d'en juger." 
 
 Academy. On the 28th September the distracted Academy met once 
 
 more " par convocation generale." Ordinary business passed with- 
 out comment, but when the address sent to the National Assembly 
 on September 20th by the malcontent Academicians and the reply 
 to it, which they had received, were laid on the table, Vien at 
 once declined to enter them on the books. After a turbulent scene, 
 he left the chair, but the meeting continued to sit, and the secre- 
 tary, Renou, was forced to record its proceedings.' 
 
 The same evening, Vien sent for Renou to his lodgings in the 
 Louvre, and entered a dignified repudiation of responsibility for 
 these proceedings, which was met by equally strong protests against 
 the " assemblees particles " held in the rooms of the Academy.^ 
 The " progressive " party — strong in the secret support of David, 
 who prudently put forward Pajou as his instrument — now consti- 
 tuted themselves " purement et simplement en Academic Royale," 
 and further decorated themselves with the title, " Academic Cen- 
 trale;"3 but their meetings were not harmonious, for Wille admits 
 that " il y a constamment propositions, disputes, reclamations."* 
 Yet, oddly enough, the two contending parties met as usual on all 
 ordinary occasions and transacted current business, as if no divisions 
 disturbed the peaceful order of Academic routine. 
 
 " J'allay," writes the old engraver in his invaluable diary, " a 
 notre assemblee Academique ou tous ceux qui s'etoient separes 
 de nous se trouverent. II s'y passa peu de chose, mais nous nous 
 fimes force politesses." ^ And again on the 31st December he re- 
 turned to " notre Academic Academique y faire des embrassades, car 
 c'est la la principale occupation a la fin de I'annee." This was the 
 day very properly chosen, by the revolting members, for an attempt 
 at reconciliation. They had boldly dispatched their statutes to the 
 " Comite de la Constitution " of the " Assemblee Nationale " at the 
 end of November,^ but however sure they might be of the approval 
 and support of this body they could not but be very doubtful as to 
 the kind of reception that they were likely to get from d'Angiviller 
 before whom they would certainly come in due course. It was 
 clearly desirable, under these circumstances, to make more friends, 
 if possible, in the official body. Mme. Guyard, in days of happier 
 
 * P. V. September 25th, 1790. ' P. V. Oftober 2nd, 1790. 
 
 ' They afterwards added " Gravure et Architefture." Wille, M6m., November 
 25th, 1790. 
 
 ' Wille, Mem., Odlober 2nd, November 15th, 1790. 
 ' Hid., Odober 30th, 1790. ' P. V. November 29th, 1790. 
 
 18 
 
^' 
 
 union, had painted a portrait of Vien, in the character of " restau- The Story 
 rateur du bon gout de la peinture," this had been engraved by p^*^®, 
 Miger, who announced in a pathetic speech, the offering which he Academy, 
 desired to make to the Academy of several proofs of this interesting 
 portrait. Vien was so touched, we are told, that he could only 
 reply, " par une emotion." Pajou, Barbier, and Moreau followed 
 suit, and the Academy, with a generosity, possibly foreseen by 
 Miger, bought the plate which he had engraved, paying for it on 
 the estimation of Wille, Miger's friend and ally.^ 
 
 Miger was, indeed, the only person who made anything by 
 this little scene. Vien was intradtable and d'Angiviller declined 
 to have anything to do with the statutes and articles drawn up by 
 the Academicians.^ His letter to Vien on the subjeft seems, to a 
 certain extent, to have been accepted as final, for though we are 
 told by Wille, as usual, " qu'il y eut quelques disputes," we do not 
 find any further mention of " Assemblees deliberantes " in his 
 journal. The officials had their great day early in the following 
 month, when Vien, after demanding that d'Angiviller's letter — 
 repudiating the work of those represented by Pajou — be read a 
 second time, proceeded to read the statutes approved and signed 
 by the official forty and one, concerning which the Academy 
 declared " qu'elle regarde ce travail comme seul emane d'elle." ^ 
 
 To the last, although conscious that their position was being 
 steadily undermined, and that the "progressive " party were adlively 
 working against them out of doors, the Academy persisted in afting 
 with dignified formality. They gave elaborate advice on the invi- 
 tation of the " Comite des pensions," as to the terms of a competi- 
 tion for the statue of Rousseau,* in a " convocation generale " which 
 had been solemnly sandlioned by d'Angiviller on the i6th April, 
 1 79 1. In July of the same year they were again consulted by the 
 " Comite des Monnoies " as to the desirability of a competition for 
 the vacant post of "graveur general des monnoies," which was 
 accorded to Dupre, and it is interesting to note that though the 
 Academy and the " Comite " felt themselves obliged to declare 
 that public opinion was always a safe guide, yet, in this case they 
 decided not to appeal to it, giving as a reason that it was " of slow 
 formation and the process usually accompanied by many mistakes." 
 
 In spite, however, of the determination to adhere to their 
 regular routine, the general excitement prevented steady work. It 
 soon became doubtful whether it would be possible to open the 
 
 * P. V. January 8th, 1791. " P. V, February 26th, 1791. 
 ' P. V. March sth, 1791. 
 
 * Decreed by the National Assembly on December 21st, 1790. 
 
 19 
 

 The Story Salon. A circular sent to all those entitled to exhibit,* received so 
 ^*^^ little response that the matter ended in the colledion of works 
 Academy, which had already been before the public, and, although the schools 
 were supposed to go on as usual and meetings had been held at 
 which a more liberal education for the students had been advocated,^ 
 breaks in their daily course were of frequent occurrence, for besides 
 the usual holidays we find, now and again, entries such as " lea 
 ecoles vaqueront le jour de la Fete de la Federation," or " II n'y 
 aura point d'ecole le lundy, jour de la translation de Voltaire a St. 
 Genevieve." No wonder that the students, at last, sent in a deputa- 
 tion "a I'effet de travailler les jours de fete."^ 
 
 The revolutionary party, after their apparent defeat, devoted 
 their energies to the work of bringing such outside pressure to bear 
 on the Society as might insure the final triumph of their views. 
 The result of this course of a6lion was apparent in the decree of 
 the National Assembly of the 1 6th December, which embodied a 
 considerable portion of their programme. The first article, which 
 allotted a sum to be yearly devoted to the Arts of Painting, Sculp- 
 ture, and Engraving,* implied that recognition of an equal status for 
 engravers, which had been the means by which the support of 
 Wille, Miger and others of their profession had been obtained. 
 Commissions, it was enacted, should no longer be a matter of 
 royal favour. They were to be distributed amongst artists dis- 
 tinguishing themselves at the yearly Salons, by a committee, con- 
 taining, it is true, some members of the Academy, but composed, 
 as to the remainder, of twenty non-academicians to be chosen by 
 the exhibitors themselves, two members of the Academy of Sciences, 
 and two of that of " Belles Lettres." Finally, it was agreed that 
 to put an end to any distindlions between members of the Academy, 
 the associates should all be " appeles a ce jugement."® 
 
 This law, which was temporarily suspended, about a month 
 after its enadlment,® encouraged the attacks of the non-officials and 
 outsiders on the constitution of the Royal Academy. The artists 
 who were non-academicians carried their protests once more to the 
 
 ' P.V. March 28th, 1791. 
 
 ^ By the Academicians. See Wille, Odlober ist, 1791. 
 
 ' P.V. November 3rd, 1791. 
 
 * j^70,ooo to historical painting and sculpture ; ^^30,000 to genre painting and 
 engraving in line and of gems and medals ; /i 0,000 to be applied in the current year 
 to the continuation of Joseph Vernet's " Ports de France." P.V. September 3rd, 
 1791. 
 
 " P.V. September 3rd and December 21st, 1791. 
 
 ' On Odlober 19th; see "Decret du decembre 3." P.V. December 21st, 
 1791. 
 
 20 
 
National Assembly; the academicians, in their turn, decided to The Story 
 follow suit. Their address was received, Vien said, " with trans- °^ *^® 
 port," and it was decided to call a great special meeting to inform Academy, 
 even associates of this success. On the 8th November they all met, 
 as Wille says, to reunite the broken bonds of their old good fellow- 
 ship,^ but no sooner had they come together than irreconcilable 
 division of opinion appeared. Disputes broke out afresh and ran 
 to a gr€at height of violence, and the resolution in favour of print- 
 ing the address was finally only carried by the casting vote of 
 Vien himself.^ 
 
 This triumph of the officials, such as it was, was the last. On 
 the 24th December Vien, in obedience to a letter from Cahier — 
 then Minister of the Interior — called all the members and associates 
 of the Academy together to hear the decree of December 7th, 
 which enabled that " all the exhibitors were to meet to name forty 
 jurors from amongst themselves, 'au scrutin de liste.' " To these, 
 were to be added five " outsiders " to be named by the " Dire6loire 
 du departement ;" and by a popular jury, thus constituted, the whole 
 republic of the arts was to be governed, for by them the painters, 
 sculptors, architects, and engravers who desired encouragement 
 were to be selected. ^ 
 
 There was nothing left but to endure the stri6l application 
 of the principles of liberty and equality which were destined to 
 destroy the close fraternity that had had its origin in common 
 sacrifices for the " bien des Arts." It was useless any longer to 
 fight against fate. In February, 1793, the malcontent Acade- 
 micians, accompanied by a horde of unqualified artists, invaded the 
 Academy, shouting, " La voila, done, enfin renversee cette bastille 
 academique," * and the proof of this complete overthrow is given 
 when on April 28th David was informed by the secretary that it 
 was his turn to profess during the month of May. To this com- 
 munication David curtly replied "Je fus autrefois de 1' Academic. 
 David, Depute de la Convention Nationale." ^ 
 
 After this, all the " Salles de I'Academie " were demanded by 
 the Minister of the Interior for the use of the " Commune des 
 Arts."® Vainly the Academy protested that their treasures were 
 their own, that their rooms were wanted for schools ; in vain they 
 
 ' Mem., November 8th, 1771. 
 
 ^ P.V. November 8th and December 2 ist, 1791. 
 
 ' Article 2. See P.V. December 24th, 1791. 
 
 * Deseine, " Not. Historique," p. 64. 
 
 ' A. de I'A. fr., vol. i., p. 192. 
 
 ° P.V. July 6th and July 13th, 1793. 
 21 
 
The Story oiFered the " Galerie d'Apollon " which they had themselves de- 
 of the corated. Their premises were in the hands of their enemies, they 
 Academy, could not lodge their models/ nor pay the expenses of their schools 
 since the circulation of " assignats a face royale " was prohibited. 
 Their story ends with an entry in their register " en marge du verso 
 du folio 119," under the date of the 8th August, 1793, "a cette 
 ^poque," we read, " I'Academie a ete supprimee par Decret de 
 I'Assemblee Nationale." 
 
 There is no commentary on these last days, only the bare 
 statement of the fa6ls. So absolute is the reserve maintained that 
 it is with something like surprise that we find a guarded note in 
 Vien's handwriting which occurs on a letter received by him in 
 May, 1792, from La Porte, the Intendant of the Civil List, con- 
 cerning the Royal Commissions to be given in view of the next 
 Salon. At the end of August, writes Vien, '* all this was arranged 
 at the end of May .... and put off, like other matters .... the 
 day of the loth of August supervened and has swept everything 
 regarding it away." " 
 
 All men now hastened to make away with those distindlions 
 to obtain which they had previously descended to every sort of 
 baseness and intrigue. With many it seemed, as in the case of 
 Wille, that there entered into this emotional revival something of 
 that passionate aspiration after simpler and nobler life, which dic- 
 tated to the disciples of Savonarola the sacrifice of things beautifully 
 alluring to the senses. The dull old German, on the fatal 21st 
 January, 1793, coolly enters in his diary that he is not feeling very 
 well and therefore had not gone out, but had watched, from his 
 windows, the battalions of the diflferent sedlions, passing on their 
 way to the " place de la revolution (cy-devant Louis XV,) oil 
 Louis XVL fut execute avant midy." The man who saw this and 
 every other a6l of the great tragedy, with never a word of com- 
 ment, is as eager as any to divest himself of his now despised 
 honours. He tells how he has placed on the bureau of the " Com- 
 mune des Arts," the letters patent of his membership of the 
 Academy of the Arts and Sciences of Rouen, as well as those of the 
 Academy " cy-devant Royale " of Painting at Paris, and adds how 
 he, at the same time, promised to send in all those which he had 
 received from foreign bodies,^ Unable to attend in person, he 
 despatches Choffard — the marvellous engraver of the vignettes to 
 the " Fermiers-generaux " edition of the " Contes de la Fontaine " 
 
 ' P.V. August 3rd, 1793. 
 
 ' Guiffrey " Expositions du XVIII. Siecle," p. 132. 
 ' Wille, Mem., August 7th and 9th, 1793. 
 22 
 
— to bear to the Commune the patents conferred on him by the The Story 
 Imperial Academies of Augsbourg and Vienna ; his nomination as °*^ *^® 
 engraver to the King of Denmark, and his patent from the Academy. 
 Academy of Berlin, in order that they, like the two previously 
 destroyed, may be " aneanties." 
 
 Thus, if possible, the very name of that famous institution 
 which had been built up by the self-sacrifice and devotion of French 
 artists, which, for a hundred and fifty years had been the glory of 
 French art, was to be erased from French annals. Those who 
 owed their very existence to her cares compassed her destru6lion, 
 and the lawless " Commune des Arts " rose triumphant on the 
 ruins of " all academies." 
 
 23 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE GREAT DECORATIVE PAINTERS- 
 LE MOINE AND DE TROY 
 
 The Great 
 Decor- 
 ative 
 Painters. 
 
 L 
 
 AMENTABLE is the pidlure drawn by Haillet du Couronne 
 of the sufferings of French painters during the opening 
 years of the century. " If we except M. Lemoyne," he 
 says, " M. de Troy and a few portrait painters, all the rest 
 lived in poverty. No commissions from private people, rarely any 
 church orders, and the price of those for Notre-Dame only 400 
 francs a piece. ^ There was not even any means of attracting public 
 attention. The Salon had been discontinued, and only re-opened 
 its doors, in 1737, out of deference to express orders, which had to 
 be repeated two years later, in peremptory terms, in order to insure 
 obedience.* Everybody was weary of academic art, weary of that 
 " historical " painting the claims of which were imposed by a 
 venerable tradition, but the rank which the French School had 
 taken in Europe under the generalship of le Brun, had given it 
 supreme authority, and the precepts of Versailles were still accepted 
 as law. In England, at a far later date — in spite of the witness 
 borne by Reynolds and Gainsborough — it was held that to adopt 
 any branch of art other than the historical, was to choose an inferior 
 path. In social life, the historical painter always took rank far above 
 his fellows. 
 
 In France, this feeling was so strong that the pifture-dealer, 
 Gersaint — who ought have known better — asserts that it was to 
 
 ' Eloge de Chardin, Mem. ined., vol. ii., p. 429. The " Mais " of Notre-Dame 
 are mostly in the Louvre. They have been catalogued by Gueffier — "Description 
 Hist, des Curiosites de Paris," 1763. See also N. A. de I'A. fr. 1880, and "Cabinet 
 des Singularitez., Florent le Comte, vol. i., p. 79. 
 
 " P. V. July 27th, 1737, and May 30th, 1739. 
 
 24 
 
Hercule et Omphale. By le Moine. 
 {Musee du Louvre^ 
 
have been wished that the first studies of Watteau had been " dans Le Moine 
 le genre historique," for then, he adds, " il est a presumer qu'il ^"4p 
 serait devenu un des plus grands peintres de la France." ^ ^* 
 
 D'Argenville echoes the same sentiment, and says " C'est peut-etre 
 une perte pour le public que Watteau, entraine par I'esprit extra- 
 ordinaire de Gillot, son premier maitre, ait imite sa maniere et n'ait 
 pas traite I'histoire dont il paroissoit fort capable."^ Even Gillot — 
 from whom Watteau is said to have derived his taste for the 
 grotesque — persisted in painting a " Christ qui va etre attache a la 
 Croix " as his diploma work, although amongst those on which he 
 was " agree " is " Don Quichotte a la Veille de ses Armes." The 
 great Rigaud, too, who owed his reputation to the successes which 
 he won, without exception, by portraiture — was received " sur le 
 talent de I'histoire . . . sur la promesse qu'il fait de fournir 
 incessamment un tableau de ce dernier genre." 
 
 Fifty years later, Greuze, " agree " immediately after his great 
 success with " I'Aveugle Trompe " (1755), indignantly declined to 
 be received as a " peintre d'un genre particulier." After fourteen 
 years' consideration, he presented the Academy with that unfortunate 
 composition, " Severe et Caracalla," now in the Louvre, which, 
 so far from vindicating his claims as an historical painter, incurred 
 the biting criticisms of his partial friend Diderot and brought down 
 on him the formal censure of the Academy. "Monsieur," said the 
 Director, " I'Academie vous a refu, mais c'est comme peintre de 
 genre. Elle a eu egard a vos anciennes productions, qui sont ex- 
 cellentes, et elle a ferme les yeux sur celle-ci, qui n'est digne ni 
 d'elle ni de vous." ^ 
 
 This incident — by which Greuze felt himself so humiliated 
 that he never again exhibited at the Salon until the Revolution had 
 thrown open its doors to all (1804) — shows the persistence of a 
 sentiment — pervading the brilliant flippancy of Diderot's sarcasms 
 and animating the dry report of the proceedings of the Academy — 
 a sentiment of the inferiority of work such as that produced by 
 Greuze, no matter how good, to that of the so-called historical 
 painter. French painters have always balanced their shortcomings 
 in the quality of colour — the special means of expression in painting 
 — by the quality of composition. This has always been the vital 
 principle of the French School, as it was the vital principle of the 
 Roman School, and this power and knowledge of what may be 
 
 ' A. B. C. Dario, Mariette, Ed. 1859, P- '34' 
 ^ " Vies des Peintres," vol. iv., p. 407. 
 
 ' P. V. July 23rd, 1769. See also " Lettre a Mile. Voland." CEuvres de 
 Diderot, ed. 1841, vol. ii., p. 170. 
 
 25 E 
 
TheGreat called the "stageing" of the subje<5l, justifies and explains the 
 Decor- tendency of the school, in the main, towards historical work. The 
 Painters, original feature of the situation, in the eighteenth century, was, 
 that in spite of the persistent prejudice in favour of Academic 
 work, in spite of the contempt for " genre," the attractiveness of 
 the aspedt of current life was such that the number of painters of 
 "genre" and of small pictures increased so steadily that, in 1789, 
 d'Angiviller met a proposed redudtion in the annual number of 
 royal commissions by the objeftion that the pictures executed for 
 the Crown were almost the only historical paintings sent to the 
 Salon. Without them, as he said, there would have been nothing 
 but easel pi6tures.^ 
 
 In vain might Haillet de Couronne protest against the decay 
 of painting ; in vain Academicians pretended to look down with 
 contempt on the painters of men and manners, the revolution in 
 the world of art which originated with Watteau was irresistible. 
 It was in harmony with the social revolution which declared itself 
 at the death of the great King. The revolt against the pressure of 
 a system the social forms of which were irksome to a pleasure 
 loving generation inevitably gained ground. Ease and liberty were 
 the aspirations of the hour, and the brilliant art of Watteau, with 
 its splendid protest against the restraints and conventions of academic 
 work, was welcome to eyes weary of old and well-worn formulas. 
 Men asked for all that could give an impression of gaiety to the 
 senses, for light and air, for movement and bright harmonies of 
 colour, for pure whites laid so as to heighten the beauty of the fair 
 woman, who now, as in the days of Venice, saw her hour of triumph. 
 If there were no other indication of the source whence the artists 
 of the eighteenth century drew the chief of their inspiration, this 
 treatment of white and the blonde delicacy of their flesh tints, 
 would suffice to betray them. They might visit Italy and delight, 
 like Coypel and le Moine, in the " freshness and graces " of Guido 
 and Carlo Maratti, or turn with de Troy to the " beautiful works " 
 of Luca Giordano and Solimena,^ but they soon deserted the Italian 
 mannerists to follow in the footsteps of Watteau and tread the 
 gallery of the Luxembourg, where Rubens had set a glorious pat- 
 tern which, long neglefted, was, as it were, rediscovered by the 
 men of the eighteenth century. 
 
 The influence of Antoine Coypel,^ first painter to the King, 
 
 ' GuifFrey, Expns. XVIII. Siecle, p. 125. See also Thore, Salon, 1844, p. 4. 
 
 " D^Argenville, "Vies des Peintres," vol. iv., p. ill. 
 
 ' 1661-1722. R. 1681. Direftor of the Academy, July 7th, 1714. First 
 painter to the King, 1716. P. V. January loth, and July 4th, 1722, and N. A. de 
 I'A. fr. 1880, 1 88 1, pp. 202, 203. 
 
 26 
 
and Dire6tor of the Royal Academy (1714), must be reckoned on Le Moinc 
 the side of tradition. It was opposed by Jean-Fran9ois de Troy ^"4p 
 and Francois le Moine. Coypel, standing nearly thirty years 
 nearer to the days of le Brun than his younger rivals, had come 
 early into contaft with Jouvenet, whose remarkable force of ex- 
 pression and powerful efFe<5ls of light and shade ^ he has striven to 
 emulate in the " Gloire " of the chapel at Versailles. Unfortu- 
 nately, in attempting to rival the strength of his model he has only 
 shown his own weakness. In his hands any attempt at the heroic 
 becomes a mere joke. " II frappait fort au lieu de frapper juste." 
 Beloved of the Regent, who as a young man, is reported to have 
 persuaded him to give up a proje6led establishment in England,^ 
 Coypel executed in the Great Gallery of the Palais Royal (1705) 
 and in a house looking into the gardens (1708), afterwards occupied 
 by cardinal Dubois, his principal works of decoration.^ His suc- 
 cess at the Palais Royal — where he had followed the example set 
 by Mignard, and introduced into his pifture of Olympus portraits 
 of the favourite ladies of the Court — seems to have induced the 
 due d'Antin to give him employment at Versailles,* where his 
 work shows a certain aptitude for voluptuous expression and a 
 pra(5lised skill in the arrangement of his composition, which carries 
 off much of that theatricality and exaggeration of aftion and 
 expression which is insufferable in his easel pidlures, such as 
 " Susanne accusee par les Viellards " or " Esther en Presence d'Assu- 
 erus," which are amongst the more favourable specimens of his 
 talent now preserved in the Louvre. Coypel's best pupil was his 
 son Charles Antoine,^ of whom in 1723, the year after his father's 
 death, the due d'Antin ordered, for his own use, the well-known 
 
 ' "Les Vendeurs chassis du Temple" (Musee de Lyon) is a fine example of , 
 Jouvenet's virile and learned art. 
 
 ' D'Argenville, "Viesdes Peintres,"vol. iv., p. 341. "Vies des Premiers Peintres," 
 vol. ii., pp. 22 and 24. 
 
 ' D'Argenville, " Vies," etc., vol. iv., p. 342, and " Vies des Premiers Peintres," 
 vol. ii., p. 24. This " Salon de la Chancellerie des dues d'Orleans " was rehandled 
 under Louis XVL and restored when Sandoz established in it his "Magasin de Bronzes." 
 De Champeaux, " L'Art decoratif dans le Vieux Paris," Thirteenth Article, G. B. A., 
 1893. I* '^ "°^ occupied by the society called "Reunion des Arts decoratifs." 
 
 * " Vies des Premiers Peintres," vol. ii., p. 26. 
 
 ° 1694-1752. R. 1715. Painter to the King and Director of the Royal 
 Academy, 1747, (see " Documents nouveaux sur les Coypel." N. A. de I'A., 1877, 
 also N. A., 1874 and 1875. I do not know where the originals of his amusing 
 "L'Art d'Aimer," engraved by Lepicie in 1730, or of his beautiful portrait of a 
 woman known as "Mile, de . . . en habit de Bal," engraved by Surugue in 1746, 
 are now to be found. Lepicid has also brilliantly recorded a vulgar specimen of Coypel's 
 talent in " Jeux d'Enfants," a composition in which children, with various suggestions 
 more or less indecent, are engaged in dressing up in the fine clothes of their elders. 
 
 27 
 
TheGreat series of illustrations of Don Quixote, which were executed at the 
 Decor- Gobelins, and bought in 1727 by Louis XV. from the Duke. The 
 Painters, cartoons are now at Compiegne, and appear to have owed a con- 
 siderable debt to those by whom they have been brilliantly inter- 
 preted — whether in tapestry or by engraving.^ Antoine Coypel 
 himself has left us nothing half so popular. He passed away with- 
 out having exercised the slightest influence on his contemporaries, 
 having in fa6l shown by his treatment of the " Gloire " in the 
 vault of the chapel at Versailles, that, like his successor, Louis de 
 Boullogne, he either did not, or would not understand that the great 
 problem of the century was to be " la decoration claire." 
 
 It was reserved for Francois le Moine^ to make the first 
 attempt in this dire6lion on a large scale. The rivalry which arose 
 between him and Jean-Fran9ois de Troy is a striking feature of 
 the early years of the eighteenth century, and it is worth attention, 
 if only on account of its influence on the development of the French 
 school of painting at a critical moment. Le Moine, eight years 
 younger than de Troy, had passed through the schools of the 
 Academy with Lancret, and his sympathies were to a certain extent 
 with the tendencies then developing amongst his own pupils. Yet, 
 in his chief work, the decoration of the Salon de la Paix, he re- 
 mained content with conventional types, even whilst he gave 
 evidence by his scale of colour that he clearly saw the line of that 
 re-adtion which was about to declare itself against the school of 
 le Brun. Unlike Coypel and those who, with Louis de Boullogne 
 and Jouvenet's nephew, Jean Restout, had " plus travaille pour les 
 eglises que pour les cabinets," le Moine made no pretence to great 
 seriousness of purpose. His celebrated early work, " Tancrede 
 rendant les Armes a Clorinde " (1724),^ is a graceful fantasy in a 
 golden key still retaining much of that attradlion on which his 
 admirers were never tired of insisting. " No one," writes d'Argen- 
 ville, " ever came up to him for the freshness of his brush and the 
 lightness of his touch." * 
 
 His first essay in decorative work on a large scale was the 
 ceiling of the choir of St. Thomas d'Aquin (once the " maison de 
 noviciat des Jacobins"). He began this in 1723, before his six 
 
 * Miintz, " Tapisserie," p. 312, and Gerspach, "Gobelins," p. 42, They served 
 not only for the Gobelins, but were also used at Beauvais. A magnificent specimen 
 wreathed in flowers on a ground of lemon yellow, was lately in the hands of a dealer 
 in Paris. 
 
 " 1688-1737. R. 1718. First painter to the King, 1736. 
 ' Musee de Besanfon, No. 326. 
 
 * " Vies des Peintres," vol. iv., p. 436. 
 
 28 
 
months' visit to Italy ,^ and finished it after his return in 1724. The Le Moine 
 subjeft is the Ascension. At the base are the bereaved apostles ; ^"^ 
 far above rises the figure of the Saviour, and interspersed in the ^' 
 
 clouds are groups of cherubs and angels. The movement is full of 
 life and lightness, the colour may once have been pretty and " taking " 
 in quality, but is now deteriorated by the smoke which has reached 
 it from the candles of the altar, so that it no longer contrasts with 
 the architeftural framework which supports the emblems of the 
 four evangelists on either side. 
 
 Prudent in condudt and of unsleeping ambition, le Moine 
 was hard pressed by Jean-Francois de Troy,^ a man of greater 
 natural gifts than himself, who was supported by Coypel, and of 
 whom no less a man than Rigaud had said, that if his capacity for 
 work had equalled his genius the art of painting had never known 
 a greater illustration. He came of a good stock, being the son of 
 that Francois de Troy^ whose portraits were not to be despised even 
 if they did not deserve the unqualified admiration of Mariette, who 
 asserted that he had seen some " dignes d'entrer en paralelle avec 
 les ouvrages des plus fameux de Van Dyck et du Titien." The 
 close friend of Rigaud and Largilliere, Franfois de Troy had no 
 sympathy with the irregularities which marked the career of his 
 brilliant son, and which, now and again, reduced him to strange 
 expedients, such as those which enlivened his adventures in Italy.* 
 It was in vain that his father cut off his supplies, the son lived on in 
 Pisa, at the cost of an " honnete gentilhomme," who ministered to 
 all his needs, whether for study or pleasure, whilst de Troy made 
 love to the Signora Joanna, the young wife of an old judge, " qui 
 le laissoit paisiblement jouir d'un bien auquel I'age I'avoit contraint 
 de renoncer."^ After de Troy's return to Paris, " ami des amis du 
 plaisir, de quelque etat qu'ils fussent ;" reputed " un beau joueur ;" 
 even in the house of Samuel Bernard,^ he used his opportunities to 
 
 ' Mariette, A. B. C. Dario and d'Argenville, vol. iv., p. 419. He painted two 
 piftures in Italy, one of which, " Femme au bain," is in the Hermitage ; the other, 
 " Hercule et Omphale," is in the Galerie La Caze, Louvre. See also " In. g^n. Mon. 
 rel.," Paris, vol. i., p. 245. 
 
 " 1680-1752. R. July 28th, 1708; Adjt. a Professeur, July 24th, 1716; Pro- 
 fesseur, December 30th, 17 19; Direfteur de I'Academie de France a Rome, 1738; 
 Prince de I'Academie de St. Luc. 
 
 ' 1645-1730. 
 
 * De Troy was unsuccessful in the competition for the Grand Prix, and was sent 
 to Italy at his father's expense. 
 
 ' "Mem. in6d. des Membres de I'Acad. Roy.," vol. ii., p. 257. "II etait age de 
 vingt-sept ans lorsqu'il revint d'ltalie a Paris. II y avait fait un long sejour et s'y 6tait 
 fort r6joui ; deux choses qui d^plurent fort a son pere." (Mariette.) 
 
 ' In 1728, de Troy decorated an apartment in the h6tel of Samuel Bernard. 
 
 29 
 
The Great set on foot intrigues against le Moine and to trick himself, under 
 Decor- pretence of drawing-lessons, into a rich marriage with Mile. Trouit- 
 Painters. Deslandes, a girl of half his age: "la jeune Deslandes se trouva 
 heureuse d'epouser un homme qui avoit le double de son age, dont 
 elle faisoit la fortune et qui ne lui presageoit pas une fidelite bien 
 exadle. Elle fut neanmoins assez heureuse, les premieres annees, 
 et maitresse paisible pendant les dernieres." 
 
 Anxious to make money,^ in order to provide for his lavish 
 expenditure in dress and entertainment, de Troy was attradted by 
 the vogue then enjoyed by the painters of" Fetes galantes," and, 
 inspired by the popularity of Lancret, he began to paint a series of 
 small pi61:ures in imitation of his style which not unfrequently 
 show also a very close likeness to his execution. One of the best 
 examples of this class is the famous " Dejeuner d'huitres,"^ at 
 Chantilly, which he executed for the king, and which justifies by 
 its firm handling and strong character Mariette's shrewd remark 
 that de Troy worked with greater conscience on trifles than he 
 displayed in the treatment of vast compositions. The " Conversation 
 Galante," at Sans Souci,^ in which he has depifted a gay group of 
 smart men and women pretending to flirt on the steps of a terrace, 
 shows, like the " Dejeuner d'huitres," and the " Halte de Chasse " 
 at Hertford House,* a master's hand in the treatment of scenes of 
 every-day life, skilled, but unsoftened by the sentiment or the arti- 
 ficial grace with which some of the imitators of Watteau succeeded 
 in investing their work. Another, and a fine example of the same 
 class, is furnished by " La Surprise," the subject of which is the sepa- 
 ration of an amorous couple at the warning of the maid who keeps 
 watch for them. When this canvas came into the Museum of South 
 Kensington it bore, on the left-hand corner, the obviously false sig- 
 nature of Watteau, which disappeared at the touch of a sponge and 
 a little spirit, whilst the signature of its real author and the date 
 " 1723 "^ was to be read plainly printed on the stones of the fountain. 
 The subjedl recalls the saying of one of his biographers, the Chevalier 
 de Valory : " I'habitude de vivre avec des femmes decentes, quoique 
 sensibles, influait sur ses tableaux," and its execution reminds us that 
 the same critic has said that " I'imitation juste de la nature etoit 
 
 ' Mdm. in^d., vol. ii., p. 262. ' No. CX. Mus^e Cond6. 
 
 ' This work has been reproduced by Braun, and is engraved as " Die Liebeserklar- 
 ■ ung " (pp. 58-59) in Dr. Seidel's " Friedrich der grosse und die franzosischen Malerei 
 seiner Zeit." It is signed and dated "de Troy, 1731." 
 
 * No. 455 Beth. Green. Probably the " Dejeune de Chasse." Ex. Salon, 1737. 
 At the same Salon de Troy exhibited the " Toilette " and " Deshabille de Bal," well 
 known by the engravings of Beauvarlet. 
 
 " Here is a facsimile of the signature: "I. DE TROY 1723." 
 
 30 
 
La Surprise. By de Troy. 
 {/ones Bequest. South Kensington Museum.) 
 
son talent particulier." The linen, the stuffs, the broideries are all Le Moine 
 
 handled with the precision that shows, no less than the delicacy of ^"^ 
 
 the flesh-painting and the expressive character of the heads and ^' 
 
 hands of the two principal personages, the "fond d'etude" which 
 
 de Troy really possessed. A double interest attaches to this pidture 
 
 because it was painted immediately after the execution by de Troy 
 
 of his vigorous composition of the "Plague at Marseilles,"^ well 
 
 known by the admirable engraving of it made by Thomassin in 
 
 1727. This work, which de Troy produced in 1722 — the very 
 
 year in which the death of Antoine Coypel threw open the coveted 
 
 post of first painter — showed le Moine that his rival, who was apt 
 
 to proclaim Rubens and Veronese his masters,^ could, on occasion, 
 
 profit by their teaching, for the energy and dignity displayed by 
 
 de Troy in this considerable work — with which may be coupled his 
 
 " Premier chapitre du Saint Esprit" — justifies the liberal praise of 
 
 Rigaud, and, better than his father's portraits, deserves to be placed 
 
 "en paralelle" with Van Dyck. The execution by le Moine of 
 
 the plafond of the choir of St. Thomas d'Aquin was the reply to this 
 
 challenge, and the struggle for mastery between the two men began. 
 
 The Royal Concours of 1727, whether suggested by the 
 friends of le Moine, or by the partisans of de Troy, had the result 
 of placing them in diredt antagonism. It was, it is said, expedled 
 that le Moine would triumph, and triumph after a fashion so 
 decided as to leave no doubt on the public mind that he alone could 
 be worthy heir of the honours which at Coypel's death had been 
 conferred on the aged Louis de Boullogne. The competition was 
 therefore to be decisive, and so great was the popularity enjoyed by 
 le Moine, that it, no doubt, would have been so, had not de Troy 
 exerted his talent for intrigue,^ " Le faveur vint a son secours and 
 lui fit (malgre la mediocrite de son tableau) partager le prix avec 
 Fran9ois le Moine." ^ 
 
 In the Museum at Nancy, not far from le Moine's " Conti- 
 nence de Scipion," there now hangs the rival " Repos de Diane " 
 
 ' Mus^e de Marseille, see " Le Chateau Borely," by Leon Lagrange, " G. B. A., 
 i860," pp. 157-158. This article is illustrated with an etching of the "Pest," by 
 Flameng, but it does not render the charadter of the composition as well as the engraving 
 by Thomassin. 
 
 ^ Caffieri, " Supplement a la vie," etc., etc. Mem. in^d., vol. ii., p. 281. 
 
 ' De Troy painted in this year his " Suzanne au bain " and " Bethsabe au bain " 
 (Hermitage. Engd. Laurent Cars). These he repeated in 1 742, at Rome, for La Live 
 de JuUy, for whom he executed at the same time " Loth et ses filles." As " Loth et 
 ses filles " is also at the Hermitage, it is probable that the two other works came from 
 the same colledion, in which case they must be the repetitions painted at Rome. 
 
 * D'Argenville, " Vies des Peintres," vol. iv., p. 367 ; and Mem. in^d., vol. ii., 
 p. 264 and p. 411. 
 
 31 
 
The Great by Jean-Franfois de Troy, and as we now look at these two works 
 Decor- [^ seems difficult to realise all the bitterness of the war that raged 
 Painters, ^bout their respedtive merits. The de Troy shows great prettiness 
 of colour, but the drawing is slovenly, and, on the whole, it is an 
 uninteresting performance ; whereas, the work of le Moine — who 
 was said to have none of the celerity of his rival — strikes one as 
 slight but amusing, in virtue of a certain attradtive freedom of 
 touch, coupled with the dawn of that " rayon rose " with which 
 he endowed his followers. The explanation of the height to which 
 feeling ran on both sides can only be found, as has been suggested,^ 
 in the fadl that this " concours," the apparent object of which was 
 " to revive the arts," was secretly contrived to justify the appoint- 
 ment of le Moine as premier peintre by giving him an oppor- 
 tunity of showing his superiority over his fellows. 
 
 If this were so, the scheme was in a measure defeated by the 
 influence of de Troy's alliances, for, although le Moine eventually 
 obtained the coveted distindtion,^ the division of the prize, on the 
 occasion of this Royal Concours, not only cut at the root of le 
 Moine's ambition to follow in the footsteps and attain the supremacy 
 of le Brun, but gave renewed vigour to the attacks made on him 
 by the hostile fadtion in the Academy — attacks to which de Troy 
 was no stranger. The whole Academy was troubled to such a 
 point that the members began to ask themselves whether the 
 works of the unsuccessful competitors, Cazes and Noel Coypel, 
 had not been the most really deserving of the prize, De Troy's 
 position became more and more precarious. At last, relying on 
 his wonderful sleight of hand, he resorted to an expedient by 
 which he incurred the just resentment of all his colleagues — under- 
 bidding them in order to get commissions for the Gobelins,^ " Cela 
 fit beaucoup crier," remarks Mariette, " mais M. de Troy n'alla 
 pas moins son train." The series of his " Story of Esther " were in 
 hand at the Gobelins shortly after 1737,* and in the following year 
 we find a proof, if any were wanted, of Mariette's statement in a 
 
 ' M6m. in6d., vol. ii., p. 264. 
 
 " His immense work in the Salon de la Paix was uncovered September 26th, 
 1736. It was then that the King rewarded le Moine by naming him premier peintre 
 in place of Louis de Boullogne, who had died in 1733. 
 
 ' In the " Classement des modeles des Gobelins " fait par le jury des Arts et 
 Manufadures en 1 794, we find the four subjedts from the " Story of Esther," and the 
 five from the "Story of Jason and Medea," all by de Troy, rejedted "sous le rapport 
 de I'art." Gerspach, " Manufacture Nat. des Gobelins," p. 256. The Cartoons for 
 the Esther series figured at the Salons of 1737, 1738, 1740 and 1742. Those for the 
 series of Jason and Medea were all exhibited in 1748. 
 
 * Letter of Oudry, May 2nd, 1748. Lacordaire, "Notice historique," etc., 3rd 
 edition, 1855, P- 79- 
 
 32 
 
m 
 
 ,K DlijEltNICU d'huIiRKS. IJv I)k 'I'kOY. 
 
 {Musir Cii/idc, Cliaiililly.) 
 
letter written to Orry by Charles Coypel. " Que ne m'est il Le Moine 
 possible, Monseigneur," he writes, " de vous faire des remerciments ^"^ 
 de I'ordonnance que je viens de recevoir pour le tableau de la ^ '^°^' 
 destruftion du palais d'Armide ? . . . j'aurois beau vous dire tout 
 le mal que je pense de mes ouvrages, je ne vous persuaderois jamais 
 qu'une ordonnance de 2,ooolt. pu estre regard^e, comme un paye- 
 ment avantageux d'un tableau de 1 9 pieds de long qui est I'ouvrage 
 d'une annee."^ The price of such work had been fixed at 3,ooolt., 
 but after de Troy's offer to take 2,ooolt. not all the credit which 
 Charles Coypel enjoyed, both with Orry and his successor de 
 Tournehem, was sufficient to re-establish " a un taux convenable le 
 prix des modeles pour la manufadlure des Gobelins." 
 
 Meanwhile, le Moine had carried out his " Assomption de la 
 Vierge," in the " Chapelle de la Vierge" at St, Sulpice^ (1730), 
 and six years later achieved the great success of his life by the 
 " Apotheose d'Hercule ; " the renowned performance which he 
 himself, in the space of four years, carried through in the " Salon 
 de la Paix " at Versailles. 
 
 If we would now be fair to this remarkable work, and realize 
 the effed: which it produced in its original state, we must recall the 
 terms in which men spoke of it when first revealed to an admiring 
 Court. " All the figures were in movement," they said ; " the sky 
 was of the softest blue, the atmosphere deceptively airy, and the 
 flesh of a purity that suggested rather the clear tints of fresco than 
 the grosser medium of oil."^ Le Moine had embodied the ideal of 
 the hour. Not a word is said of the decorative fitness of the com- 
 position. Le Brun and his scholars, although they had revelled in 
 effedts of illusive painting, had at least taken as the necessary point 
 of departure for their decorative designs the architedlural framework 
 by which they had been enclosed ; to do this had been with them 
 an article of faith. All such trammels were now to be thrown 
 aside. To effed:s of full relief all other considerations were to be 
 sacrificed. Even Largilliere had been heard to boast, " Je ferai, 
 quand je voudrai, passer votre vue a travers le mur"* — a pleasantry 
 in his mouth, but one which represented the chief ambitions of 
 those now to be charged with great works of decoration. 
 
 ' Lacordaire, "Notice Historique," 1853, p. 89. 
 
 " This work was restored by Callet in 1763. Pierced by a shell during the siege 
 of Paris, it was again restored by Charles and Theodore Maillot, with the aid of le 
 Moine's esquisse then preserved in the presbytere. This esquisse has since been lost, 
 together with fifteen other works given to the church in 18 n, (See " In, g^n.Mon. 
 rei.," vol. i., pp. 263, 269, 270, and 273. 
 
 ' D'Argenville, " Vies des Peintres," vol. iv., p. 423, 
 
 * M^m. in6d., vol. ii., p. 300. 
 
 33 F 
 
The Great The achievement of certain novel efFedls of stage decoration, 
 
 decor- coupled with an amusing touch and attradtive colour, gave to le 
 Painters. Moine's great work, which, in spite of the cruelties of restoration 
 and negledt, is still a great work, the reputation of being the 
 masterpiece of painting in France during the reign of Louis XV. 
 Accustomed to the monotonous tones and heavy handling of le 
 Brun, the general feeling of the Court was expressed by cardinal 
 Fleury, who exclaimed, on entering the great " Salon " for the first 
 time after its decoration by le Moine, " J'ai toujours pense que ce 
 morceau la gateroit tout Versailles."^ Nor could M. de Julienne 
 find a nobler gift for the King than the " esquisse du plafond," now 
 in the Louvre.^ 
 
 It was suggested by le Moine's contemporaries that the 
 choice of key and colour was determined by his liking for the 
 work of the Venetian, Sebastian Ricci — received by the Royal 
 Academy in 171 8 — and by the influence of Pellegrini who, in 
 1720, painted the " Plafond de la Banque" (now the Bibliotheque 
 Nationale),^ which has long since disappeared. This is possible, 
 but we have to reckon with his visit to Venice, with evident 
 reminiscences of Veronese, and also, perhaps, with influences which 
 he found nearer home. He invented, it is said, " le rayon rose,"* 
 to which, indeed, his pupil Boucher gave a brilliance which makes 
 his master's work look pale and gray. On the stairs of Hertford 
 House, where we have four noted examples of le Moine hanging 
 with seven works by Boucher, two of which are of great excellence, 
 this efFedl of grayness in the colour of le Moine is striking ; yet 
 the charafteristic of his " rayon rose," if seen under less trying 
 circumstances, is that it is not rose, but rather an interchange of 
 pink with blue, as if his fancy had been caught by the azure and 
 rose-red shot silks with which Watteau loved to play, and which 
 we find repeated so frequently, only in a poorer harmony, in the 
 work of le Moine's early comrade, Nicolas Lancret. That which 
 le Moine's public loved, perhaps even better than his colour, was 
 the deceitful air of ease and apparent absence of effort which gave 
 charm to his touch, and the unrestrained facility of his composition, 
 which atoned for that lax drawing with which even his admiring 
 contemporaries reproached him. His group of " Junon, Iris, et 
 
 ' D'Argenville, "Vies de Peintres," vol. iv., p. 421. 
 
 ' See " Extrait du Catalogue du Vente, etc.," M6ni. Wille, April 2nd, 1 767. 
 
 ' See Ldpicie, "Additions, Vies des Premiers Peintres," also Mariette, A. B. C. 
 Dario. The Regent bought that half of the Palais Mazarin which, on the death of 
 the cardinal, became the hotel de Nevers, in order to establish the " Bank " in it, but 
 after the fall of Law he made use of the building for the Bib. Nat. 
 
 * See Paul Mantz's admirable study, " Boucher." 
 
 34 
 
Flore" (Louvre), his "Continence de Scipion " (Nancy), and his Le Moine 
 coquettish " Hercule et Omphale,"^ show these characteristics'"^ 
 accompanied by that pretty surface modelling — noticeable in the 
 bust of Omphale — which rarely fails to please us in his drawings,^ 
 and which, in spite of the injuries of time or the untender mercies of 
 cleaning and restoration, still attracts us in his great decorative works. 
 
 The " Apotheose d'Hercule," passionately admired for a day, 
 was soon forgotten. The " Salle de la belle Cheminee " vanished 
 before Mme. de Pompadour's theatre ; the " Galerie d'Ulysse " at 
 Fontainebleau, where le Moine walked with Mariette " temoin 
 des eloges sans fin qu'il croyait devoir donner a un ouvrage le mieux 
 execute, selon lui, que nous eussions," was ruthlessly swept away.^ 
 The work of le Moine himself was left to perish of negleft, and 
 within a few years of its completion Mariette laments the forlorn 
 and tarnished state of the " beau plafond peint par Le Moyne dans 
 le Sallon d'Hercule." 
 
 The younger Coypel, in replying to de Caylus, when he read 
 his life of le Moine at the sitting of the Academy on July 6th, 
 1748, attributed the suicide of the unfortunate painter, which had 
 taken place in the year following the completion of his chief work, 
 to that unmeasured and disappointed ambition, " qui dans tous nos 
 emules nous ofFre des sujets de haine."^ The circumstances pre- 
 ceding his death were painful enough to need no such com- 
 mentary. Frightfully overworked by his labours on the " Salon 
 d'Hercule," broken hearted by the loss of his wife, the sister of his 
 colleague Stiemart, le Moine was further disturbed through the 
 death of his powerful protestor, the due d' Antin, and his mind became 
 gradually troubled by the delusions of imaginary persecution. The 
 anxiety of his friends, who began to plan how they might best 
 place him under restraint, precipitated the final catastrophe. Fran- 
 fois Berger, the " ex-receveur-general des finances du Dauphine," 
 who had been in various ways of service to le Moine, carrying 
 him to Italy and pushing his claims to public recognition and 
 employment,^ made an appointment with him for the morning of 
 the 4th June, ostensibly that they might take a day in the country 
 together. Le Moine possibly suspected the real reason of the 
 engagement, for, when Berger came, he found his friend shut in 
 
 ' In the Galerie La Caze. 
 
 ' Such as the pastel head of a young girl crowned with flowers, B.M. 
 
 ' See note in the work of Zanotti on the paintings of Niccolo, in fol., p. 1 7, 
 apud Poisson, "Anciennes Ecoles de Peinture en France; ' also A. B. C. Dario, Sup- 
 plement, p. 331. 
 
 ■• See also "Vies des Premiers Peintres," vol. ii., p. 139. 
 
 ' Mem. inW., vol. ii., p. 264, and "Vies des Premiers Peintres," vol. ii., p. 115.' 
 
 IS 
 
The Great his bedroom, and, hearing him breathe with difficulty, he knocked 
 decor- on the door, crying, " Ouvrez-moi, mon cher M. Lemoyne, vous 
 Painters. VOUS trouvez mal." At last, le Moine opened his door and "lui 
 deposant," continues Berger, " a ete efFraye de lui voir le visage et 
 sa chemise couverts de sang, tout chancelant et tomber dans ce 
 moment a la renverse sur le cote gauche, nu tete et ayant sa culotte 
 et ses has noirs." Le Moine was dead, having given himself no 
 less than five wounds with his sword, and Berger closes his story 
 by adding, " qu'il ne peut attribuer le renversement d'esprit dud. 
 defunt, qu'aux derniers grands ouvrages qu'il a faits, auquels il a 
 employe I'espace d'environ cinq annees."^ 
 
 Joseph Dugit, one of le Moine's pupils — all of whom he, it 
 was said, purposely chose very young, lest their capacity should 
 give rise to any statements derogatory to his credit^ — now deposed 
 that although his master had for some time shown signs of trouble, 
 being constantly shaken by " les memes frayeurs," yet nothing led 
 those about him to suppose that the end was near. The night 
 before his death de Caylus was with him and watched him put 
 the finishing touches to the composition of " Le Tems decouvre la 
 Verite,"^ which had been long on his easel. " Je n'ai point oublie," 
 he says, " la complaisance avec laquelle il me la montra .... 
 assurement il ne paroit aucune alienation d'esprit dans cette ouvrage; 
 il est meme un de ses plus beaux ouvrages de cabinet,"* That 
 same evening le Moine, knowing probably that the dark hour 
 was upon him, had begged the company of his little relative, Marie- 
 Genevieve Lefranc, and for the moment the presence of this girl of 
 sixteen dispelled his terrors. He rose on the following morning at 
 seven o'clock, visited the studio at nine, gave his pupils their 
 "le9ons ordinaires," and coming down again, breakfasted with his 
 little companion ; Dugit, who was both servant and pupil, bringing 
 them bread and wine and water. The girl herself reported that, 
 before shutting himself into his bedroom, as he left the table, he 
 took her gaily by the hand, saying, " Allons, dansons ! " 
 
 Le Moine's work was then done. He had held the coveted 
 post of first painter barely ten months,^ but the part which he had 
 to play was accomplished when the doors of the famous " Salon 
 d'Hercule" were thrown open to the admiring Court. There, 
 
 ' Scell6, etc., June 4th, 1737, vol. iv., 2 s^rie, N. A. de I'A. fr. 1877, pp. 184-198. 
 ' " Vies des Premiers Peintres," vol. ii., p. 112. 
 
 ' Wallace Colin. Ex. Beth. Green, 1872, No. 403. Engd. by Laurent Cars. 
 In the same colledion we find the " Perseus and Andromeda," also engraved by Cars. 
 * " Vies des Premiers Peintres," vol. ii., pp. 1 16, 117. 
 ' P.V. Odober 2nd, 1 736, June 4th, 1 737, 
 
 36 
 
borrowing from the palette of Watteau those brilliant combinations Le Moine 
 of clear tints, which were invented by the painter of " Fetes ^"^ 
 galantes," and daring to transfer to " la grande peinture, les elements 
 He la peinture de genre," le Moine applied those principles of 
 " la decoration claire," which were to be further developed by his 
 brilliant pupil Boucher and transmitted by him with redoubled 
 impetus to Fragonard. Le Moine closes, as that sound critic, M. 
 Mantz, has noted,^ the period of BouUogne's pupils, but he opens 
 the door to Boucher, to all those " qui ont fait de la peinture 
 d'eventail," to the true representatives of the eighteenth century. 
 
 De Troy may have imagined that his own triumph was now 
 secure. If so, the illusion was short-lived. The famous Salon, 
 which opened in August, 1737,^ just two months after the death of 
 le Moine, showed the extent and power of the new forces at work 
 in the world of art — forces against which it was idle to contend, the 
 forces of the future. Hopeless of obtaining the predominant posi- 
 tion which alone would have satisfied his sense of his own value ; 
 set free, by the death of his aged mother, from one great tie 
 which bound him to Paris, he accepted, without hesitation, the 
 offer made to him, on Wleughels's death, of the post of Diredtor of 
 the School of France at Rome, and disappeared from the scene. ^ 
 
 The very names which figure in the entries on the register of 
 the Academy during the two months preceding that memorable 
 August, indicate the rapid change from old to new. On the ist of 
 June, Lepicie,* then newly ele(5led secretary, made his "debut" by 
 reading an account of le Moine's plafond in the "Salon de marbre," 
 on the same day la Tour, the famous pastellist, appeared, and was 
 bidden to execute as his diploma work portraits of le Moine and 
 Restout. On the 28th, la Tour again presented himself, and on 
 this occasion was desired to substitute a portrait of Jean-Baptiste 
 van Loo for that of the unfortunate le Moine, who had mean- 
 time died by his own hand. His post as professor was filled up on 
 the 6th July by his celebrated pupil Boucher, whilst another pupil, 
 Natoire, succeeded on the same day to a similar place, vacated by 
 the promotion of Charles-Antoine Coypel as " ancien professeur." 
 Then come the directions — given to le Moine's brother-in-law, 
 
 ' Mantz, Galerie La Caze, G. B, A.., 1870. 
 
 ' De Troy exhibited at this Salon not only his " Evanouissement d'Esther," but 
 also three genre pictures — " Un deshabille de bal," " Une petite liseuse," and " Une 
 toilette de bal." 
 
 ' P.V. January 25th, 1738. See also " Vien," Aubert. G. B. A., 1867, pp. 189, 
 283, 291. 
 
 * " Secretaire " and " Historiographe de I'Academie," May 4th, 1 737. 
 
 37 
 
TheGreat Stiemart — for the decoration of the Salon which was to be opened 
 
 Decor- on the i8th August, 
 
 Painters. -^^ ^^i^ famous Salon of 1737, the first which had been held 
 
 since 1704, " la nouveaute apparut triomphante" — the gifted young 
 Tremolliere,^ who died before he could complete " les quatre ages 
 pour estre executes en tapisserie " — a commission which the public 
 voice had extorted from the Crown ;^ Boucher; Natoire ; Carle 
 van Loo, with whom Boucher made his journey to Italy ;^ la 
 Tour;* all made their mark that year. Boucher, an artist of 
 extraordinary versatility, ultimately came very near to the realization 
 of his master, le Moine's unfulfilled ambition, and, if he had not 
 the same powers, filled as prominent a position under Louis XV. as 
 his great predecessor, le Brun, had occupied during the reign of 
 Louis XIV. He did not care, says Mariette, to acknowledge that 
 he had been a pupil of le Moine. The time which he had passed 
 with him had, indeed, been short ; but the influence of le Moine, 
 and the influence of a greater than le Moine, is visible in every 
 line that Boucher drew. His "Venus commandant des armes a 
 Vulcain" (Louvre), dated 1732 — the year after his reception by 
 the Academy — is a work inspired, as are also " La Naissance " and 
 " La Mort d'Adonis," by the master whom he chose to repudiate,^ 
 and we may infer from the air and bearing of the twelve figures of 
 " Les Cris de Paris" (le Bas and Ravenet, 1737), and from the 
 works executed by Boucher for the hotel de Soubise at about the 
 same date, that the series of engravings, after Watteau, which he 
 carried out at the instance of M. de Julienne, had a considerable 
 share in his artistic education. 
 
 For some years after the death of le Moine the struggle for 
 his succession was indecisive. Natoire,^ as his eldest pupil — having 
 also that good opinion of himself which enabled him to pass through 
 life pleasantly — thought himself entitled to fill the place left vacant 
 after de Troy had been got out of the way by his appointment to 
 the School of France at Rome. He was a formidable rival to 
 Boucher and Carle van Loo, and, as a student, had raised hopes of 
 a brilliant future, being chosen by Vleughels, Watteau's friend, to 
 
 * 1 703-1 739. He was a pupil of the elder Van Loo. See M6m. inW., vol. ii., 
 p. 442. 
 
 ' Mariette, A. B. C. Dario. 
 
 ' 1 705-1 765. Dandr6-Bardon. " Vie de Carle Vanloo." * 1704-1788. 
 
 ' Exhibited on the Boulevard des Italiens in i860. Both works were executed 
 previously to 1737, as the "Mercure" of April in that year announces the sale of 
 engravings after them by Scotin and Aubert. Both were in the cabinet of La Live de 
 Jully. See Mantz. "Boucher," p. 67. 
 
 ' 1700-1777, R. 1734; Diredlor of the School of France at Rome, 1751. 
 
 38 
 
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 v2 
 
work with Jeaurat and Delobel on the " dessus de porte" of the Le Moine 
 Palazzo Mancini, then in the occupation of the French School.^ ^"^ 
 There was certainly some delay as to his reception by the Academy, ^' 
 
 after Natoire's return to Paris, which goes to show that his too 
 facile brush had not continued to satisfy the exigencies of the elder 
 men, and the rather slovenly charadler of his diploma work, 
 " Venus demandant des armes a Vulcain,"^ the subje<5l of which had 
 already been treated by Boucher, though not in so clear a key, 
 justifies to some extent their hesitation. His remarkable powers as 
 a decorator, on the other hand, soon made themselves felt, and he 
 was already at work on the " Salon ovale" of the hotel de Soubise 
 when BofFrand, who had previously called Restout and Tremolliere 
 to his aid, decided to employ Boucher also.^ Stimulated by his 
 rival, Natoire seems here to have done his best work.* His series 
 of the "Story of Psyche" (1736, 1737, 1739) are still to be seen 
 in the Salon for which they were painted, and which has now become 
 the reading room of the Archives Nationales. No other works 
 from his hand enjoy this singular privilege. The four " dessus de 
 porte" executed for Marly — which are mentioned by d'Argenville 
 as in the apartment of Mme. Adelaide in 1762 — have been dis- 
 persed, one only, " Le repos de Diane," signed "Natoire, 1743," 
 having found its way to the Petit Trianon. Three other panels, 
 still preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, which formed, to- 
 gether with works by van Loo and Boucher, part of the decorations 
 of the " Cabinet des medailles," were torn from their framework, 
 during the reconstruction conducted by M. Labrouste, under the 
 Second Empire.* They all showed the wonderful instindl of the 
 born decorator, the quality which makes us forget everything, 
 
 * See Correspondence of Vleughels with d'Antin : " Etat de pensionnaires," etc. 
 G. B. A., 1867, p. 184. 
 
 " No. 379, Louvre. 
 
 ' The general decorative harmony attained at this date when the work of different 
 artists is brought together is remaricable. In the Cathedral of Besan^on four scenes 
 from the Passion by Natoire and de Troy are placed right and left of "The Resurre(5tion," 
 by Carle Vanloo, and the whole comes well together. 
 
 * M. Cldment de Ris notes " Bacchus and Ariadne " (Hermitage), by Natoire, as 
 having " &lat, charme, facility, precision de dessin." The last a quality not always 
 to be found in Boucher's work. The "Story of Psyche" has been prettily etched 
 by Gaujean in M. Paul Mantz's work on " Boucher." 
 
 ' Labrouste destroyed the "Cabinet" thrown, by Robert de Cotte, across the 
 rue de I'Arcade Colbert. He was persuaded to retain the paintings and four "dessus 
 de porte," by Boucher, with their mouldings — "I'Histoire," "I'Eloquence," "I'Astrono- 
 mie." (Engraved by Mongin in " Boucher," by Paul Mantz, and in colour by Thornley.) 
 These have now been put together in a room on the ground floor by M. Pascal. The 
 rest of the decorations were bought by Baron James de Rothschild. The " Rampe 
 d'cscalicr" is now at Hertford House. See Champeaux, G. B. A., 1893. 
 
 39 
 
The Great when we stand in the Salon Ovale, except the art with which the 
 Decor- painter has allied his work with the structural intentions of the 
 Painters, architedt, and the delicacy of every tint which gives a seduftive 
 charm to the general harmony. 
 
 In spite of this great gift, Natoire gradually dropped into the 
 second place. His drawing, often slovenly and slight,^ as sketches 
 from his hand will show, never improved, his colour became weaker 
 and yet weaker in tone. Still, year after year, he continued to exhibit 
 his so-called classical compositions, destined for the Gobelins or for 
 Beauvais, where a set of tapestries from his designs, representing 
 subjedls from " Don Quixote," were carried out from his com- 
 positions for Dufort, the "fermier-general."^ As long, indeed, as 
 the post of" premier-peintre" remained vacant — and an impecuni- 
 ous government seemed in no hurry to fill it — Natoire appears to 
 have believed that all was not lost. In 1745 he made a final and 
 ambitious but disastrous attempt to assert himself, painting a vast 
 St. Etienne, for St. Germain-des-Pres (Musee de Rennes), and a yet 
 vaster canvas, still hanging on the staircase of the Bishop's palace 
 at Orleans, concerning which it has been said, that in striving to 
 be great Natoire has shown us how little he was. 
 
 Suddenly, in 1747, Charles-Antoine Coypel, first painter to 
 the Duke of Orleans, was appointed " premier peintre du roi." His 
 father, who had been succeeded as first painter to the King by 
 Louis de Boullogne, had, in like manner, previously held a similar 
 post in the Regent's household. The promotion of the son, who 
 enjoyed great favour with the Queen, now upset everyone's calcula- 
 tions. Jean-Fran9ois de Troy, le Moine's old rival, had even pro- 
 posed to throw up his post at Rome, deluded by the expedlation 
 that, if his resignation were accepted, he would certainly be in- 
 demnified by a lodging in the Louvre, and the coveted appointment 
 of" premier peintre" now conferred on Coypel. His hopes having 
 been thus destroyed, de Troy now proceeded, by his own folly, to 
 provoke the ill-will of Marigny, who, as marquis de Vandieres, 
 visited Rome during his direftorate (1750), with his companions 
 Soufflot, Cochin, and the Abbe le Blanc.^ 
 
 De Troy was no longer shielded by the wife of whom it was 
 said that she knew how to palliate her husband's indiscretions, and 
 " lui conserver toujours cette dignite si essentielle a la place qu'il 
 
 ' See sketches in Print Room, B. M., and at the Louvre and Stockholm. 
 
 " M6m. in6d., vol. ii., p. 376. M. Mantz supposes that these were not worked 
 out, and adds that Natoire's designs from "Don Quixote" are now at Compiegne, 
 where are also those by C. A, Coypel. 
 
 ' Mariette, A. B. C. Dario. 
 
 40 
 

 PQ g 
 
 o ~~^ 
 2; 
 
 ►-1 
 
occupoit." Gossip avers that the young de Vandieres showed his Le Moine 
 
 admiration for a person in whom de Troy himself was interested, ^"*J_ 
 
 and that de Troy resented it with all the heat of his seventy years 
 
 of age. The all-powerful nephew of madame de Pompadour at 
 
 once decided that de Troy — whose mal-administration had become 
 
 a scandal ^ — should receive that permission to return to Paris which 
 
 he had already solicited without any real desire to receive it.^ Too 
 
 late, de Troy endeavoured to retrieve his position ; his resignation 
 
 afforded both the occasion for his own humiliation and a good 
 
 opportunity for getting rid of Natoire, who started for Rome 
 
 (September, 1 75 1 ) whilst de Troy yet lingered on irresolute. " Plus 
 
 M. de Troy," says Caffieri, who was an eye witness, " avoit de raison 
 
 de surmonter sa passion, plus elle devint violente en lui ; il refut 
 
 la nouvelle qu'on avoit nomme a sa place et qu'il falloit revenir en 
 
 France, lors qu'il n'etoit plus capable de faire aucun effort pour la 
 
 vaincre." ^ Natoire arrived in November, 1751, and on the 21st of 
 
 the next month writes to his friend Antoine Duchesne, prevot des 
 
 bdtiments du roi, " jevous diray sepandant que M. de Troy ait absolu- 
 
 ment occupe de son depart ; il a panse laisser partir M. I'embassa- 
 
 deur sans partir luy meme ; helas il et beau a son age daitre retenu 
 
 par des beaux yeux, voila un bonne hogure pour les Direfteurs de 
 
 voir que lair leurs est si favorable dans ce pays sy." * 
 
 M. le due de Nivernais, the ambassador of France at Rome, 
 had himself, at this time, requested leave to return to Paris. A 
 frigate had been sent off for him from Marseilles, and de Troy re- 
 ceived permission to join the ambassador's suite. Day by day and 
 hour by hour Caffieri recounts the torments endured by the old man, 
 who rejoices when the frigate is delayed on its way by a series of 
 unknown accidents, and trembles when the fatal news of its safe 
 arrival reaches him as he sits, at the play, with his mistress. Eight 
 days of anguish are next to be counted, till the Wednesday fixed for 
 departure is near. On the Tuesday evening, de Troy complains of 
 a cold, but gives orders that he shall be called early, so as to hear 
 mass before he leaves. On the following morning he is at death's 
 door. To the due de Nivernais, who would have reassured him, 
 he replied, "qu'il sentoit son mal et qu'il ne reverroit jamais sa 
 
 ' Marietta, and see the report of Abel Poisson to de Tournehem, 1750. 
 " Lettres de Mme. de Pompadour," 1878. 
 
 ^ " Pendant qu'il faisoit tant d'instance a la cour pour revenir en France, il forma 
 quelque liaison avec une dame romaine, jeune et pleine d'agrement." (Caffieri, M6m. 
 in6d., vol. ii., p. 285). 
 
 ^ M6m. in6d., vol. ii., p. 285. 
 
 * " Charles Natoire. Correspondance etc., communiqu^e par M. Duchesne ain6, et 
 annotde par M. Paul Mantz. Archives de I'Art Fran9ais," vol. ii., p. 266. 
 
 41 G 
 
The Great patrie." Five days later (January 24th, 1752) he was dead. 
 Decor- " Voila," says Natoire, " I'etat de la vie qui donne matiere a des 
 Painters, lugubre refledtion. Ainsy la plus part des choses brillantes ont 
 toujours a cote la masse dombre, frase de peinture." 
 
 What shall we add, after Natoire's comments, by way of fitting 
 epitaph ? Let us remember that we owe to de Troy one of the 
 finest pages of French art ; let us remember that whilst endowing 
 him magnificently as a painter, nature had been less kindly to him 
 as a man, and thus it came to pass " qu'on doit attribuer les inegal- 
 ites qui se rencontrent dans ses produftions bien plus au genre de 
 vie qu'il menoit qu'a I'instabilite de son talent." 
 
 If we put a specimen of le Moine at his best — say his 
 "Louis XV. donnant la paix a I'Europe"^ — face to face with de 
 Troy's great composition, " La Peste a Marseille," executed when 
 his courage and his hopes were at the highest, we shall see how 
 much fuller de Troy's work is of promise of renewal, how much 
 nearer he comes to the essential truths of nature and art. The 
 rolling sweep of this fine composition — answered by the movement 
 of the clouds above, and relieved with an amazing simplicity against 
 the sullen range of empty houses along the quays — is dominated 
 and interpreted by the mounted horseman (de Rose) in the centre 
 — for he rides as the very embodiment of life in this great pageant 
 of death. The simple gesture — not in the least theatrical — of this 
 central figure seems pregnant with that glorious human energy 
 which dares the terrors of the invisible. In weaker hands such a 
 subjedl would have sunk to the depths of horror ; in those of de 
 Troy it rises in grandeur till the whole dread scene is rendered 
 beautiful. It speaks not of yesterday only, but of to-day and of the 
 forever, whereas the work of le Moine — with all its brilliance, with 
 all its undoubted skill — does not rise in spirit above that which is 
 proper to an allegorical vignette by Cochin. In face of these two 
 works, one cannot help asking oneself whether the development of 
 the whole school of painting in the eighteenth century, at least as 
 regards great works of decoration, might not have taken on a more 
 virile charadler had de Troy — faithful to the claims of his magni- 
 ficent powers — succeeded in seizing the place to which they en- 
 titled him ? 
 
 Natoire had completed, before his departure for Rome, the 
 decorations of the chapel of the Enfants Trouves, said to have been 
 his most important work, and he left powerful friends behind him, 
 on whose influence he probably counted to secure his return at a 
 
 ' Brilliantly engraved by Laurent Cars. 
 42 
 
w 
 en 
 
 a 
 
 H 
 
 < 
 > 
 
 I 
 
 tt 
 
 > 
 
^f^^m 
 
favourable opportunity.* It was supposed that he would put an Le Moine 
 end to the disorders existing in the School, which had been so ^""^ 
 notoriously ill directed that, on the report of de Troy's death, 
 Mariette wrote, " II est facheux que M. de Troy soit mort, c'est 
 un habile artiste de moins, et Ton n'en a jamais de trop. Mais pour 
 le bien de TAcademie c'est ce qui pouvait arriver de plus ad- 
 vantageux." Natoire, however, in his turn, contented himself with 
 turning out vast quantities of insipid work, for which he always 
 found purchasers, whilst his pupils flourished under a system of 
 wholesome negledt, " il n'y avait pas un volume dans la maison," 
 says Lagrenee I'Aine, when describing, in 1780, the state of things 
 under Natoire's rule.^ On one occasion only does he appear to have 
 been roused to adtivity, and in the Bibliotheque Nationale we may 
 still find the " Memoire d'un Sieur Mouton, eleve de I'Academie de 
 France a Rome, contre le Sieur Natoire, direfteur de cette Ecole, sur 
 une contrainte exercee par ce direfteur envers plusiers eleves pour 
 leur faire faire des confessions et soumissions et en rapporter des 
 billets, 1768." ^ Mouton belied his name, he not only " refused to 
 say his prayers," but ended ^by obtaining a judgment in his favour 
 against Natoire, who was condemned by the Chatelet to pay him an 
 indemnity of 20,ooolt. Thereafter, Natoire exercised his authority 
 more soberly, retiring eventually to Castel Gandolfo, where he died 
 — having long outlived himself — in 1777. He really is most im- 
 portant historically as having been the master of Vien,* the fore- 
 runner of the pseudo-classicists, who in his turn trained their great 
 representative, Louis David, and he passes out of sight when, giving 
 way before Coypel, he started for Italy, leaving the field to van 
 Loo and Boucher. 
 
 ' See " Correspondance de Natoire A. de I'A.," vol. ii., p. 247, and N. A. de I'A., 
 1876, p. 377, for" Enquete de noblesse," February 2ist, 1755. Ibid., 1880-81, p. 322. 
 
 " "Lecoy de la Marche, L'Acad. de France a Rome, G. B. A.," 1867, p. 331. 
 
 ' Colin. Joly de Fleury, 5,208. 
 
 * 1716-1809. Joseph-Marie Vien, a prot6g6 of Caylus, when he returned from 
 Rome in 1754, disgusted the Academy by his turn for archaeology and a "correct" 
 style. Much of his work, as for example, " L'Enlevement de Proserpine " (No. 223, 
 Mus6e de Grenoble), has remarkable school quality. To this, Diderot refers, in 1767, 
 when he says of him " sans contredit le premier peintre de I'Ecole pour le technique 
 s'entend " ("Etat aftuel" etc., etc.). Boucher protected him, and seems at a later date to 
 have converted him successfully to the reigning taste, for the two canvases (Nos. 5 and 6), 
 exhibited by Vien at the Salon of 1773, " Les progres de I'amour dans le cceur des jeunes 
 filles " had a scandalous success, which procured them a place on the walls of the 
 principal Salon of Madame Dubarry's Pavilion de Louveciennes. Vien was further 
 rewarded by the appointment as Direftor of the School of France at Rome, whither 
 he went in 1775, taking David amongst his pupils. 
 
 43 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE GREAT DECORATIVE PAINTERS : BOUCHER 
 
 AND FRAGONARD. 
 
 The Great 
 Decor- 
 ative 
 Painters. 
 
 T 
 
 IHE official recognition . of a model academician, such as 
 Charles-Antoine Coypel, even if procured by favour, was 
 a success for the party of tradition, and its significance 
 does not seem to have been lost on Carle van Loo, who, 
 at about this date, became more and more regular in his attendance 
 at the sittings of the Academy. There, he still found men of 
 the old school, whose names take us back to the days of the 
 Grand Monarque — Rigaud, Coustou, and Largilliere (that 
 triumphant portrait-painter of middle-aged beauty) — were con- 
 stantly present, exercising immense influence over the councils of 
 their colleagues. Rigaud, prior to 1738, had been one of the most 
 punftilious in the discharge of academic functions, and, in that 
 year, he became Direftor, Chancellor, and Reftor of the Society ; 
 if he were ill his place was filled by Coustou, the sculptor of the 
 " chevaux de Marly," who had been his predecessor in these 
 offices. Amongst the more ad:ive men by whom he was surrounded 
 were Cazes, who became his successor, but who is chiefly remem- 
 bered as Chardin's master; and Jean Restout,i the pupil and 
 nephew of Jean Jouvenet, who also filled every academic post of 
 honour. Under the rule of this powerful group it was necessary 
 
 ' 1 692-1 768. R. 1720. His works, nearly all of vast size — altarpieces, ceilings, 
 designs for the Gobelins — were engraved by men in credit with the official world, 
 Cochin, Tardieu, Drevet, J. Audran, Levasseur, etc. His " Triumph of Bacchus and 
 Ariadne" (Neues Palais, Potsdam) is a masterpiece, full of life and spirit, wearing an 
 air of spontaneity rare in so learned an achievement. It was painted for Frederick the 
 Great at the same time as the " Iphigenia " of Carle van Loo. See Grimm, " Corre- 
 spondance Litteraire," Odober ist, 1757. 
 
 44 
 
Btst DANS UNE CHAISE d'ENFANT. By ReSTOUT LE JeUNE. 
 
 {Musk National, Stockholm.') 
 
that men like van Loo and Boucher, however great might be their Boucher 
 popular favour, should consolidate their position in the Academy, ^^ 
 if they would make good their claim to the place filled by Charles- nard. 
 Antoine Coypel, Both had been appointed to professorships in 
 1737; both were, as the registers of the Academy show, irre- 
 proachably assiduous in the discharge of their duties. Gradually, 
 however, Boucher's irregularities and love of pleasure threw into 
 relief the more solid qualities of his rival, who, like his elder 
 brother, Jean-Baptiste,' showed both in his charafter and work 
 traces of the Dutch blood which they inherited from their 
 grandfather, of whom Felibien writes as " le hollandais Vanlo." ^ 
 The early training which Carle van Loo^ had received at Rome, 
 under Benedetto Luti and the sculptor Le Gros, was completed 
 at Paris, for he accompanied his brother, Jean-Baptiste, when he 
 was called thither by the prince de Carignan. Carle was, in fadl, 
 twenty years younger than Jean-Baptiste, and was brought up 
 by him with his sons. From this training, the younger artist 
 derived singular advantages. Not only was Jean-Baptiste a painter 
 of excellent skill, as his " Endymion "* now in the Louvre still 
 testifies, but his methods of instrudlion were found worthy in the 
 eyes of the comte de Caylus,^ and his generosity towards his 
 pupils has been recorded by Chardin.^ Carle was swiftly ac- 
 climatized in the hotbed of Paris. At a date when the elder 
 brother, through loss of fortune by the " system," or from want 
 of work, as Mariette has it, was forced to try his luck in London,' 
 Carle, having returned with Boucher from a triumphant journey 
 in Italy,^ had not only been received by the Academy, but held 
 the post of assistant professor^ in virtue of which he took his 
 absent brother's place, and posed the model during his month of 
 September. 
 
 From this date the career of Carle van Loo was one of un- 
 interrupted success. By his remarkable facility and fire he dis- 
 tinguished himself from the other members of his family, and, 
 whilst cultivating close relations with his brothers of the Academy 
 and maintaining his pretensions as an exponent of " high art," 
 
 ' 1684-1737. See "MS. of Nicolas Pio communicated by M. Eugene Miintz 
 to the N. A. de I'A.," vol. 1874, p. 191, 
 
 ' Jakob van Loo, born at Lecluse, Flanders. 1614-1670. 
 
 ' 1705-1765. R. 1735. ■* Engraved by Levasseur. 
 
 ° Mem. indd., vol. ii., p. 443. ° Ibid., vol. ii., p. 432. 
 
 ^ P. V. January 30th, 1 736 ; November i oth and 24th, 1 742 ; and N. A. de I'A., 
 1878, p. 26. 
 
 ' P. V. August 28th and Oftober 30th, 1734. 
 
 * P. V. July 7th, 1736, and January ist, 1739. 
 
 45 
 
The Great by works such as his altarpiece " La Resurreftion de Jesus 
 Decor- Christ," in the Cathedral of Besanfon, he so skilfully caught the 
 Painters, popular taste, that he seemed to diredt it. He, and not Boucher, 
 was ultimately rendered responsible for the extravagances com- 
 mitted by their followers, and " vanloter," in the days of the pseudo- 
 classic reaction, was the synonym for careless drawing and riotous 
 colour — a reproach which is better deserved by painting such as his 
 brother Amedee has left us in the " Pleasure Barge " and " Picnic," 
 in the Altes Schloss at Potsdam, than by the work of Carle. 
 Occasionally Carle van Loo painted with admirable " verve," as in 
 the " Ivresse de Silene,"* which hangs in the gallery of Nancy, not 
 far from the replica of Boucher's famous " Aurore et Cephale." 
 The spirit and jollity of the rendering vivify the hackneyed theme. 
 Some passages, such as the flesh of the child, with lovely chestnut 
 hair, in front of the rollicking tipsy group, are given not only 
 with great skill but with a charm that implies the temperament of 
 a born painter. On the whole, though, it is by works such as his 
 "Hake de Chasse"'' (Louvre) — painted for the private apartments 
 of Fontainebleau in the noteworthy year 1737 — that Carle van 
 Loo will be best remembered, rather than by the classical subjedts, 
 such as the " Iphigenia " of the Neues Palais at Potsdam, in which 
 he strives awkwardly to reach a high-pitched correftion, or by the 
 religious themes in which his sentiment degenerates into affedtation. 
 His famous and ambitious " M"^. Clairon as Medea" ^ is an imposing 
 but intensely stagey performance, fine in parts only, such as the body 
 of the dead child and the head of the principal figure. His " Apollon 
 et Marsyas,"* " Enee portant son pere Anchise,"^ and " Mariage 
 de la Vierge," all three of which may be seen in the Louvre, have 
 little of the originality and charm which distinguish the " Halte 
 de Chasse," which was, nevertheless, cited in the catalogue, drawn 
 up on the 17th prarial, an. IL Qune 5th, 1794), as a pidlure not 
 worth preserving. It shows us, at least — as does the " Ledlure " 
 and " Conversation Espagnole " engraved by Beauvarlet — that had 
 he not thought it wiser to cultivate his reputation as a "serious" 
 painter, we might have had, in Carle van Loo, a brilliant if not 
 poetic interpreter of the life of his own day.® Court portraits, 
 
 ' Engraved by Lempereur. 
 
 ' Engraved by E. Hddouin. Another work of the same character, " Halte 
 d'Officiers," was engraved by Ravenet, but I do not know whether it now exists. 
 ' Neues Palais, Potsdam. 
 
 * Engraved by Miger. 
 
 * Engraved by N. Dupuis. 
 
 ' Under the date November ifth, 17S4, we find in the " Correspondance 
 Litt^raire " of Grimm and Diderot the following : " Tableau nouvcau. M. Carle 
 
 46 
 

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if we may judge from his prim Marie Leczinska ' (1747) — the Boucher 
 head of which was put in from La Tour's pastel — were certainly ^^ 
 not his strong point.^ The dryness and formality of the work is nard. 
 possibly due to the uneasy conditions under which it was produced, 
 but it was a success with the Court, and when Coypel died in 
 1752, the name of Carle van Loo was in everyone's mouth as that 
 of his probable successor. "Je m'imagine," writes Natoire to 
 Duchesne, Prevot des Batiments, from his exile in Rome, "Je 
 m'imagine entendre tous les discours de Boucher and ceux de van 
 Loo. Les voila tous deux dans une belle expeftative." ^ This 
 " belle expediative " was destined to be of some duration, for as the 
 post of first painter carried with it an allowance of 6oolt. a year, 
 the impecunious administration were in no hurry to fill it. "Je 
 crois," comments Natoire, again writing to Duchesne, " que I'archi- 
 tedte (Gabriel) ne ce soussierai pas que Ton remplit cette poste de 
 premier," and, in spite of Court favour, ten years were allowed to 
 elapse before Carle van Loo obtained the coveted distinction,* 
 which he only enjoyed for three. On July 15th, 1765, he died 
 suddenly of apoplexy at the " Ecole des Eleves proteges," ^ which, 
 as we have seen, he had for some time dire6led with considerable 
 success.^ Grimm, who makes entry of his death, says that van Loo 
 had been at the Comedie Italienne on the previous night, and adds 
 that the Academy has thus lost, within six months, its two greatest 
 lights, van Loo and Deshayes ; a statement which he hastens to 
 qualify by saying, " Personne n'a mieux prouve que Carle vanloo 
 combien le genie est different de I'esprit. On ne pent lui disputer 
 
 Vanloo a fait pour le cabinet de Madame GeoiFrin, un tableau qui a rduni les suffrages 
 de tous les connoisseurs, et qui est regard^ comme le meilleur ouvrage que nous ayons 
 du pinceau de ce peintre. Ce tableau ordonn^ par Madame GeofFrin et ex^cut6 sous 
 ses yeux, repr^sente une Comtesse flamande, veuve, qui tient un papier de musique et 
 qui chante. Derri^re son feuteuil on voit la soubrette qui tient le bras gauche de sa 
 
 m^re {sic) dans les siens. Devant la comtesse vous voyez son amant qui arrive 
 
 Dessin, coloris, composition, tout concourt a fairede ce tableau un morceau admirable." 
 
 ' Engraved by Larmessin and Lalauze. 
 
 ' At the Salon of 1759. Diderot says of van Loo's portrait of M™. de Pompa- 
 dour : " un autre de M"'^ de Pompadour, plus droit et plus froid ! Un visage precieux, 
 une bouche pincde, de petites mains d'un enfant de treize ans, un grand panier en 
 
 eventail, une robe de satin a fleurs Ce portrait a sept pieds et demi de hauteur 
 
 sur cinq pieds et demi de large." — C. L., vol. ii., p. 352-353. 
 
 Letters to Antoine Duchesne, July 5th, 1752, A. de I'A., vol. ii., p. 279. 
 
 * When he thanked the King and Royal Family on his appointment as premier 
 tntre, " Van Loo," said the Dauphin, "il y a longtemps que vous I'etes." 
 
 P. V.July 27th, 1765. He was succeeded by Michel van Loo, who, in turn, 
 succeeded by Vien. P. V. April 27th, 1771. See Mariette,_and also Dandre- 
 
 peintre. 
 
 was 
 
 Bardon, " Notice sur les van Loo," Paris, 1 765. 
 • See Chapter L, p. 13. 
 
 47 
 
TheGreat un grand talent ; mais il etait d'ailleurs fort bete, et c'etait pitie de 
 atfve'"' I'entendre parler peinture."^ The highest honours had, as usual, 
 Painters, ^^en bestowed on him when he was no longer capable of dis- 
 charging their obligations ; for although van Loo made an admir- 
 able master, his powers of produdtion had long failed him, and 
 Wille, in his curious Memoirs, dismisses the event of his death 
 with the curt mention : — " 17 Juillet, 1765, j'allais a I'enterrement 
 de M. Carle van Loo." 
 
 Boucher had meanwhile, in spite of official prejudice, attained 
 an exceptionally brilliant position, and, long before the death of 
 Carle van Loo left him in undisputed possession of the field, he 
 had practically established a supremacy such as no other artist had 
 enjoyed since the days of le Brun. It must, however, be admitted 
 that at the moment when Boucher reached the height of power and 
 received the official consecration of his position as premier peintre^ 
 he, too, was completely worked out. The double life which he 
 had early begun to lead, exhausting himself alternately by his 
 devotion to pleasure and to work, had destroyed the precision and 
 taste which he had once devoted to the rendering even of the 
 humblest objedts, such as the accessories of his " Belle Cusiniere," 
 the engraving of which by Le Bas was published in 1735. His 
 " Aurore et Cephale " — of which the Musee de Nancy boasts a 
 brilliant variation — his "Naissance de Venus," ^ and "Diane sortant 
 du bain,"* are typical works of Boucher at his best. The " Aurora" 
 — exhibited at the Salon of 1739^ — wasone offour "dessusdeporte" 
 painted for the hotel de Soubise ; the three others — amongst which 
 was the " Venus descendant deson char," in which the beautiful body 
 of the goddess becomes the centre of light — had appeared at the 
 
 ' " Carle Vanloo ne savait faire que des beaux tableaux : il ne savait ni lire ni 
 dcrire ainsi il ne se melait d'aucune detail de sa place : il en avait les honneurs et le 
 titre, et Cochin, Secretaire perpetuel de I'Acaddmie de Peinture, en exer^ait les fondions. 
 Boucher, successeur de Vanloo, infirme et caduc, laissa les choses sur le meme pied ; 
 mais le roi vient de nommer son premier peintre M. Pierre, premier peintre de M. le 
 due d'Orl&ns et celui-ci se trouve fort en 6tat d'exerjer, sans le secours de M. Cochin, 
 toutes les fondtions attachees a sa place." — C. L., June 15% 1770. 
 
 " P.V. Aug. 23rd, 1765. He was elefted Diredtor by the Academy on the same 
 day. C.L., vol. iv., p. 348. 
 
 ' Engraved by E. Hedouin, A variation was engraved by Daulle as "Naissance 
 et Triomphe de Venus." 
 
 * No. 24, Louvre. 
 
 ' Engraved by Monzies. See Paul Mantz, " Boucher." In 1739 Boucher painted 
 " La Peche du Crocodile," which was engraved in 1773 by P. P. Moles " des Academies 
 de St. Ferdinand et St. Charles." He dedicates the engraving " a la Real Junta Particular 
 y Consulado de Comercio, Fabricas y Agricultura de Principado de Cataluna," whose 
 pensioner he had been in Paris. The work itself seems to have been the companion 
 to " La Chasse au Tigre," engraved by Flipart. 
 
 48 
 

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 L- ^ 
 
 ',-.4 
 ' ' i ' 
 
 
 
 La Marchande de Modes. Bv Boucher. 
 {Musee National, Stockholm.) 
 
Salon of the previous year. The " Naissance de Venus," now at Stock- Boucher 
 holm, was bought at the Salon of 1740, by the comte de Tessin,^ p^aeo- 
 ambassador to the King of Sweden, who became the purchaser in nard. 
 1 74 1 of the graceful ** Leda et le Cygne,"^ which also hangs in 
 the Swedish National Gallery. Tessin was in close relations with 
 Oudry^ and his name is connedled, by contemporary gossip, with 
 that of Mme, Boucher, for it has been suggested that Tessin in- 
 strudled Boucher to prepare illustrations to his now forgotten 
 romance " Faunillane," as a means of approach to the pretty wife.* 
 To Stockholm, also, we must look for other excellent works from 
 Boucher's hand,^ for there, too, is one of the " Quatreheures du 
 jour," the " Marchande de modes," dated " F. Boucher, 1746,"^ of 
 which there is a small version at Hertford House.'^ In the same 
 year Boucher also executed " La toilette de Venus," which, after 
 adorning a doorway in the Royal Palace, has found a place in the 
 same gallery together with the smaller and less important " Venus et 
 les Graces au bain," which had previously served a similar purpose. 
 " Pense-t-il aux raisins," the sixth of this remarkable series, bought 
 by Tessin on his own account or on that of the Queen Louise- 
 Ulrique was engraved by Boucher. It is a pretty thing, but resembles 
 many another tiresome and conventional " Pastoral," such as those 
 in the Louvre, and looks commonplace in contrast to the brilliant 
 " Naissance de Venus," or to the " Leda," the pearl-like quality 
 and purity of the flesh, in this example, having a rare charm. 
 
 * For "le fameux comte de Tessin" see de Chennevieres, G. B. A., 1888. His 
 letters to the Prince Royal of Sweden were translated into French. See C. L., 
 Nov. 15th, 1755. 
 
 " Engraved by Ryland, 
 
 ^ There are eight canvases by Oudry in the National Museum at Stockholm, all 
 either ordered by Tessin for himself or for the King. Amongst them are one or two 
 subjefts from his illustrations to La Fontaine's Fables. 
 
 * A. de I'A. fr., vol. vi., p. 62. These cuts, given by Tessin to Duclos, reappeared 
 in "Acajou et Zirphile," 1744. They are only noteworthy because Boucher did so 
 little work of this class. They were preceded by " Livre d Etudes d'apres les dessins 
 de Blomart ; " " Images du Breviaire de Paris ; " " Quatre Recueils de Pastorales ; " 
 " Les Cris de Paris." Boucher also drew the frontispieces for the " M6m. de I'Aca- 
 d^mie de Chirurgie ; " for the Abbe Le Blanc's " Lettres sur I'Exposition des Ouvrages 
 de Peinture"; (1747), and Desormeaux's "Hist, de la Maison de Bourbon," etc., etc. 
 
 ' See Clement de Ris, « Etude sur le JVIusee de Stockholm," G. B. A., 1874. 
 
 ° Engraved by Gaillard. We find a similar subjedl in "Scene de Boudoir. De- 
 vant un poele, une jeune dame assise est occupee a attacher I'une de ses jarretieres. 
 Sur le plancher a ses pieds un chat joue avec un peloton. A droite une femme de 
 chambre." Signed "F. Boucher, 1742." Formerly in the colleftion of Tessin, this 
 work now belongs to Baron Ed. Cederstrom (Lofsta). A landscape signed " Boucher, 
 1744," also once in the hands of Tessin, belongs to M. Feron. See " Collns. privees 
 de la Suede. Olof Granberg," Stockholm, 1886, pp. 141 and 274. 
 
 ' No. 422, Cat. Beth. Green. 
 
 49 H 
 
The Great Paris has, however, retained in the "Diane sortant du Bain," 
 
 atfve*"' °^^ °^ '^^ finest of Boucher's works, a painting, which not only 
 Painters. attra6ls by a briUiance and freshness such as distinguish the " Venus 
 se preparant pour le jugement de Paris," and " Repos de Venus," 
 in the collection of baron Edmond de Rothschild,^ but which is 
 executed with unusual solidity and strength.^ We are reminded 
 by it of that letter written by his agent Berck, to the comte de 
 Tessin, when he bargained with Boucher on behalf of the Queen, 
 for the " Quatre heures du jour." " Le prix," says Berck, " reste 
 un secret a cause . . . du coutume, 6oolt. pour ces grandeur 
 quand il y a du fini." ^ It is clear from this, that, in 1745, 
 Boucher had established the system of two prices and two methods, 
 the one free, rapid, adapted to the production of a certain class of 
 designs, or for spontaneous studies such as that of the wonderful 
 baby, in a bonnet as blue as its eyes (in the collection of M. Jacques 
 Doucet) on the back of which he has written "fait en deux heures ; " 
 the other, such as that of the " Le Reveil " or " Venus et I'Amour," 
 formerly in the collection of M. Eudoxe Marcille, which, although 
 executed as a " dessus de porte," was finished with as much pre- 
 cision as if it had been intended for close examination.* In like 
 manner M. Mantz speaks of the celebrated " Femme couchee sur 
 le ventre,"® as carried out upon an under preparation which is solid 
 
 ' These works were inherited by him, as well as two " Pastorals " from his father. 
 In the same collection we find the panels of the Salon of the comtesse de Marcilly (see 
 p. 59) and " Le Peintre," an early work by Boucher, engraved 1752 by Marie-Made- 
 leine Igonet. To the kindness of their owner, and his librarian, M. Silvy, I owe my 
 information concerning them. 
 
 * I am inclined to group with these the " Reveil " (Collediion of M"^ Jahan), 
 and, as only somewhat less excellent, the "Diane et Caliste" (Wallace Collection, 
 Beth. Green., No, 390), for which M. Jacques Doucet has the preparatory study. 
 
 ' Letter of 24 0£t., 1745, published byM. de Chennevieres. "Portraits inedits 
 d'Artistes Franjais." 
 
 * Now belonging to his daughter, madame Jahan. See also Duplessis," Collections 
 Marcille," G. B. A., 1876. The "Venus, Mercury, and Love," in the Neues Palais, 
 Potsdam, is of this character. 
 
 ' See Paul Mantz's " Boucher," p. 99 et seq., for the various versions of this work, 
 and for the reproduction by Monzies of that in the Rothan collection. Boucher con- 
 stantly repeated the subjeCt, of which he has left many drawings. One of these, 
 lithographed by Le Roux as " Le Coucher," reappears in the engraving, by Demarteau, 
 of a drawing " du portefeuille de M. de Nera." In this drawing, the principal figure 
 has a companion, and lies amongst the rushes on the edge of a river, resting her left 
 arm on a vase. Demarteau, also, reproduced in red the same figure turned from left 
 to right and accompanied by a Love. The position of the arms in this version, which 
 bears the inscription, "Boucher fecit., 1761," is slightly changed. This print is dedi- 
 cated to M. Bergeret. The lines of this figure, though not marred by the heaviness 
 of form which often detraCts from the grace of Boucher's work, are far from showing 
 the rare and supple elegance of the model who served him for his Venus Triumphant, in 
 the "Naissance de V6nus" at Stockholm. At the very zenith of his force Boucher 
 
 50 
 
Vknus se preparant pour le jugement de Paris. Bv Boucher. 
 ( Collect inn of M. k haron Edvwnd de Rothschild. ) 
 
from one end to the other, and his small portrait of Mme. de Boucher 
 Pompadour on her Chaise-longue (Scottish National Gallery) is prago- 
 equally remarkable for the beauty of its solid workmanship and nard. 
 high finish.^ 
 
 At the turning point of his career, Boucher, the one man who 
 completely embodied the tastes and aspirations of his day, who, 
 with a more exadting public, might have aimed high, slipped into 
 hasty and summary methods. In Lundberg's portrait ^ of him, made 
 when he was about forty-five, we see lines which tell of premature 
 exhaustion and decay, but so great an artist could not wholly go 
 wrong, if he became the " typical representative of the decadence 
 of art," he was at least of the true race ! 
 
 The marvellous fertility of his imagination, seconded by an 
 equal facility of execution, enabled him to produce a mass of work 
 as great as if he had led the laborious and concentrated existence of 
 Charles le Brun. No one ever attacked a greater variety of styles ; 
 his drawings — often extremely good — are to be met with in every 
 important colle6lion ;^ innumerable were Boucher's easel pidlures, 
 his mural decorations, his designs for tapestries at Beauvais or the 
 Gobelins, his scene-paintings for Versailles^ and for the Opera, 
 where he was indispensable^ after Servandoni had been carried off 
 to the Tuileries — religious themes, also, were equally familiar to 
 his pencil. " N'a-t-il pas ete un temps ou il etait pris de la fureur 
 de faire des Vierges .? Eh bien ! qu'etait-ce que ses Vierges .? de 
 gentilles petites caillettes. Et ses anges ? de petits satyrs libertins."^ 
 '* Boucher," says Bachaumont, " a tous les talents qu'un peintre peut 
 avoir." He goes on to cite, " beaucoup de grands tableaux extreme- 
 seems to have been fortunate in the services of a sitter whose beautiful limbs, and still 
 more beautiful body, remind us of the type treated by Ingres in his " Odalisque." A 
 fine drawing, in red chalk, of this woman, seen from the back, twisting like a snake, 
 is in the Print Room of the British Museum. She is easily recognisable in several of 
 Boucher's designs, dating, like his " L6da," about 1 740. 
 
 • This work was, I should say, painted in 1758 as a study for the great full-length 
 portrait. 
 
 ' Admirably etched by Lalauze in Mantz's " Boucher." 
 
 ' Berlin, Vienna (Albertina), Stockholm, Louvre, Print Room, B. M. Fitz- 
 william, and in private collections such as those of M. Leon Bonnat and M. Jacques 
 Doucet, and many other amateurs. 
 
 ' 17+8. 
 
 ' In 1742 he exhibited "Le Hameau d'Issy," and pastoral studies for this purpose. 
 In 1746, the " Mercure," notes five decors for the " Perseus "j in 1748, others for the 
 " Atys"j in 1766, he worked on the " ballet de Sylvie." See Mantz, " Boucher," pp. 
 101, 102, 150. Sketches by him (some of which have been reproduced by M. Paul 
 Mantz), are still to be found in the archives of the library of the New Opera. In. g6n. 
 Mon. Civ., vol. i., pp. 34, 35, 36, 37. 
 
 ' Diderot, Salon, 1765. 
 
 SI 
 
The Great ment riches, d'apres lesquels on a execute d'excellentes tapisseries 
 Decor- ^ Beauvais," concerning which he adds, however, that " these 
 Painters, works are not much finished, they are, indeed, dashed off at once, 
 but that is good enough for tapestries."^ 
 
 Oudry had called Boucher to his aid when he took over the 
 direction of the manufadlory at Beauvais in 1734.^ At the Salon 
 of 1739, he exhibited " Psyche conduite par les Zephirs," a design 
 to be executed at Beauvais, and to that of 1742 he contributed no 
 less than eight " sujets Chinois " with the same purpose. '* Par 
 les sujets interessants qu'il fournit," says Louis Gougenot, " Boucher 
 accrut considerablement la reputation et le produit de cette manu- 
 fafture,"^ but he did more than this ; he not only gave a new im- 
 pulse to the manufafture in his own day, so that " those who 
 formerly sent for tapestry hangings to Brussels, dropped this prac- 
 tice ;" he imposed his designs on future generations, and the 
 triumph of Beauvais, at the last International Exhibition, was won 
 by a modern reprodu(5tion of his graceful subjedl, " La Balanfoire," 
 a charming if somewhat vulgar rendering of Watteau's delightful 
 " Escarpolette."* Of the amount of his work for the Gobelins, 
 where Boucher succeeded Oudry as Inspector in 1753, we get 
 some idea when we find that over fifty of his designs were rejected, 
 " sous le rapport d'art " by the jury " des arts et des manufadlures," 
 on which sat Prud'hon, Vincent, and others of the leading men in 
 1794.^ Amongst these were "Venus aux forges de Vulcain," 
 " Neptune et Amyone," " Aurore et Cephale," " Vertumne et 
 Pomone," " Psyche et I'Amour," and last, not least, the three pas- 
 torals, of which the " Balan9oire" was one. " Le Lever" and "Le 
 Coucher du Soleil";^ (Hertford House) vast compositions, the 
 exuberance and spirit of which recall the immense " Reunion des 
 arts "^ of the Musee d' Angers — were also designed for the Gobelins, 
 
 1 Notes, Appendix, Wille. 
 
 ^ Arret du Conseil et lettres patentes du Mars 13, 1734. M^m. inW, vol. ii., 
 
 P- 374. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 375. * Engraved by Cr6py fils. 
 
 ° Gerspach, p. 265, et seq. 
 
 ' These appeared at the Salon of 1 753, at which Boucher also exhibited the " Four 
 Seasons," for the Salle du Conseil, Fontainebleau. Another work of the same class is 
 "The Water Mill," also in the Wallace colleiftion. No. 454, Beth. Green. In this 
 colledtion we find several of Boucher's pretty, though artificial, pastorals: "The 
 Shepherd's Pipe," "The Shepherdess's Toilet," "Autumn Pleasure," ("Les d^lices 
 d'Automne,") which was brilliantly engraved by Daull6, and was one of the " Four 
 Seasons " painted by Boucher for Mme. de Pompadour, " The Sleeping Shepherdess," 
 etc., etc. (See Nos. 387, 388, 390, 392, 396, 408, 485, Catalogue Beth. Green). 
 I do not know whether the " V^nus tenant un tambourin," exhibited by Sir Richard 
 Wallace in Paris (1888) has been transferred to London. 
 
 ' Salon, 1751. 
 
 52 
 

 >i ■ 
 
 t i 
 
 
 . ^ 
 
 't 
 
 ;^^N'^ 
 
 r/ 
 
 Le Peintre. By Boucher. 
 (Collection of M. Leon Bonnat.) 
 
though they do not appear to have been employed for that manu- Boucher 
 fadlory, since they were produced at the end of Oudry's rule, and, prago- 
 on their exhibition at the Salon of 1753, were bought byMme. de nard. 
 Pompadour, 
 
 Her patronage of Boucher had begun with her reign. He 
 had worked for the Queen as early as 1734, when she re-decorated 
 her private rooms at Versailles, and replaced the paintings of Gilbert 
 de Se\te by " camaieux," ^ but he does not appear to have regularly 
 received Royal commissions until after he was employed — as has 
 been suggested through the influence of the favourite — on the 
 " Cabinet des Medailles." Two dessus de parte for this room were 
 exhibited in 1746,^ and in the same year Boucher successfully 
 applied for the lodgings in the Louvre vacated by the death of 
 Guillaume Coustou^ le pere. If these signs of favour were not due 
 to the grace of Mme. de Pompadour, she certainly had something 
 to say to his work at Marly, for which chateau he executed in 
 1747, the year in which Charles-Antoine Coypel was named 
 premier peintre, " Les Forges de Vulcain " as a dessus de parte 
 for the King's bedchamber.* " Venus et Vulcain " figure also 
 amongst the four dessus de parte ordered probably about the same 
 time, and still to be seen at the Petit Trianon ; and in 1748, when 
 Lassurance was busy with her chateau of Bellevue, Boucher was fore- 
 most amongst the artists employed on the work of decoration,^ but 
 the " Vierge coquette et anges libertins," of the altarpiece in the 
 chapel — a Nativity^ which was intrusted to him — show only, as 
 does other work of a similar charadter,^ how unfit his talent was for a 
 
 ' Reg. des batiments, 1735. 
 
 ' These were " L'Eloquence" and " L' Astronomic," which have been engraved in 
 colour, together with their two companions, " L'Histoire," and " La Po6sie 6pique," by 
 Thorn ley. 
 
 ' Guillaume Coustou must have occupied lodgings of some importance, which, if 
 Boucher succeeded to him, were divided, for we find a "Brevet de logement aux 
 galeries du Louvre pour I'abb^ NoUet ... en place du Sieur Coustou pere," Mars 
 22, 174S, and another "sur la place du Louvre" is granted June 6th, 1746, to 
 Guillaume Coustou fils"en place de son pere." (See N. A. de I'A, fr., v., 1873, p. 90.) 
 
 * Probably the work now in the Galerie La Caze (Louvre) No. 164. See 
 Mantz, p. 112. 
 
 ' " La Muse Erato," exhibited by Sir R. Wallace at the " Ecole des Beaux Arts, 
 1888," was painted by Boucher for Mme. de Pompadour, engraved with its com- 
 panion "Clio" by Daull6, and also by Ardail. G. B. A., 1890. As they do not 
 figure in the catalogue of the sale of Marigny, it is conjeftured that they may have 
 been left in some chateau as dessus de parte. 
 
 ° Ex. Salon, 1759. C. L., vol. ii., p. 361. A sketch of this subjeft was exhibited 
 (1888) by M. de Goncourt. 
 
 ' " Predication de Saint Jean," in a chapel of the parish church of St. Louis, Ver- 
 sailles. " Assomption de la Vierge " (Mus& de Viennc), " Repos de la Sainte Famille," 
 (Hermitage). 
 
 53 
 
The Great subjed requiring gravity or style.^ As M. de Goncourt has happily 
 Decor- phrased it, " la vulgarite elegante est la signature de Boucher ; " but 
 Painters, ^is defeats contributed to his enormous success. Seeing the character 
 of the services which were now and again required of his pencil by 
 the woman who then ruled France, it was no disadvantage to him 
 " qu'il n'avait pas vu les Graces en bon lieu." His close familiarity 
 with the stage made his help invaluable in connexion with the 
 scenes and costumes required for the " Theatre des petits apparte- 
 ments " during the years in which the marquise relied on her fine 
 voice and dramatic talent to amuse the King. ** Le Ballet de 
 Boucher " (St. Petersburg) is, it is said, a reminiscence of this 
 exercise of his powers as a stage adviser and costumier to the 
 marquise, for it is supposed to represent a scene in " L'Operateur 
 Chinois," a ballet-pantomime, by Dehesse, in which Mme. de 
 Pompadour played a prominent part,^ and a sketch for the back- 
 ground of which Boucher here seems to have turned to account. 
 
 Indispensable to the favourite in her capacity of patroness of 
 the arts, designing not only her furniture, but her fans;^ guiding 
 her hand when the caprice of the moment prompted her to try her 
 chance with the etching needle, Boucher secured for himself by 
 this familiarity the support of Marigny and the certainty of Royal 
 commissions of the first importance. Overwhelmed with work, he 
 dropped more and more into the habit of relying on his marvellous 
 memory and astonishing sureness of hand. In 1752 Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds* has recorded that he saw him working without model or 
 scheme on a large composition, and thenceforth, in the fever of in- 
 cessant production, it became his habit to design and work without 
 reference to nature. The change did not escape his critics. 
 " Boucher," writes Grimm, " a peint a son retour d'ltalie, quelques 
 tableaux, qui sont d'une verite, d'un coloris et d'un caradlere tout a 
 fait admirables ; aujourd'hui . . . c'est devenu un peintre d'even- 
 tail."^ Yet Boucher was by nature so richly endowed, that he 
 never seems to have lost the power of self-recovery. There is 
 decorative painting of his, at this very date, such as the graceful 
 " Muse Erato "^ and the " Apollon et Nymphe" of the Musee de 
 Tours (1750) carried out with all the sobriety and grace of his 
 best manner; a few years later, 1757, he produced (as a " modele 
 
 ' Exhibited before sale at the hotel Drouot, about 1877. 
 ' December r4th, 1748. 
 
 ' See the list of the drawings for tapestries, etc., reproduced by Braun. Cat, 
 gindral, Musdes de I'Europe. 
 
 * It is not without interest that we find, in the Print Room of the British 
 Museum, a study by Boucher which was once in Sir Joshua's colleftion. 
 
 • Grimm, C. L., July ist, 1758. ' See p. 53, Note 5. 
 
 54 
 
La Femme a l'eventail. By Boucher. 
 (National Museum, Stockholm.) 
 
m 
 
de tapisserie " for the Gobelins) that very inferior work, " Vulcain Boucher 
 presentant a Venus des armes pour Enee" (Louvre), and at the ^^ 
 same date painted two fine portraits of Mme. de Pompadour — " La nard. 
 marquise au jardin,"^ and "La marquise sur sa Chaise-Longue." 
 Nor must we forget that at a period which affords painful evidence 
 of decaying power, Boucher gave us the incomparable " Fille au 
 Manchon," of the Galerie La Caze. 
 
 If the " Fille au Manchon " is the best of Boucher's " portraits 
 intimes," that of the " Marquise sur sa Chaise longue " is the chief 
 official portrait that he painted. Two versions of this work, which 
 figures in St. Aubin's little drawing of the Salon of 1757, are now 
 in existence. The better, and I think the earlier, of the two, 
 signed " Boucher," was exhibited by the late baron Ferdinand de 
 Rothschild at the "Old Masters," in 1896,^ the other, which is 
 signed and dated 1758, belongs to M. Adolphe de Rothschild, to 
 whom it passed from the collediion Didier. Neither appears to me 
 to show Boucher's brilliant brush at its brilliant best, but both have 
 certainly come from his easel, and the larger part of that twice lent 
 to the Royal Academy from his hand. It is this last, which, in all 
 likelihood, attradled, at the Salon of 1757, the unfriendly notice of 
 Grimm, who compares it with the pastel by La Tour, exhibited 
 two years earlier. That, he says, was much criticised, but this by 
 Boucher, is " bien autrement mauvais . . . surcharge de fan- 
 freluches." ^ Grimm must have been so ill-disposed by the general 
 style of Boucher's work that he was blind to the merits of a portrait 
 which, in some respe6ts, is no inconsiderable performance. The 
 remarkable force of charadter, which enabled this woman to hold 
 out so long in the difficulties of her extraordinary position, is written 
 with a firm hand in the strufture and forms of the head and face, 
 and the gorgeous dress and accessories are handled with a freedom 
 which does not exclude an appropriate stateliness of treatment, and 
 which gives dignity to the decorative magnificence of the general 
 effedl. In curious contrast with this portrait, is the small full 
 length of the " Marquise au jardin." The immense pretensions 
 of the official portrait have disappeared ; white gowned and with 
 white lace at her throat, she sits under the blue sky against a 
 
 ' This work of small size, the figure in which is of remarkably sound execution, 
 is in the Jones bequest, S. K. M. A replica is in the colleftion of baron Alphonse 
 de Rothschild. 
 
 ' It had been previously exhibited in 1876, when the property of the Earl of 
 Lonsdale. I do not know when the work came into the hands of Lord Lonsdale, but 
 it appears to me to be the same portrait as that which was in the coUeftion of M. Duclos, 
 Paris, in 1865, when it was reproduced byM. Charles Blanc in his " Ecole Franjaise." 
 
 ' C. L., Odober 15th, 1757. 
 
 55 
 
TheGreat background — probably put in by a scholar — of green trees ; a book 
 ative*^ lies open under her right hand on her knees, while her left arm 
 Painters, rests upon others at her side. In another portrait of a somewhat 
 similar character at Hertford House/ we meet the favourite again 
 out of doors. From the dark background — in the depths of which 
 we trace the leaves of an orange tree, and the grey stone of the 
 spiral column against which the marquise leans — the lavish laces 
 and dull rose hues of the dress tell softly, the flesh tints are very 
 pure, and the figure interests by a natural air in spite of the elaborate 
 formality of the toilet, which is almost as stately and decorative as 
 that of the " Marquise sur sa Chaise longue." 
 
 Boucher was, indeed, above all a decorator. With but few 
 exceptions, even his easel pidtures may be regarded as simply pre- 
 parations, projefts in colour, esquisses, but, even when we look at 
 his decorative work, we are inclined to judge him in the words in 
 which Cochin admirably criticised Tiepolo — an artist whom 
 Boucher in certain respefts resembles. " Tiepolo," he says, " est 
 plein de genie surtout pour les plafonds . . . sa maniere a quelque- 
 chose de petit and un peu sec surtout a cause du clair excessif qu'il 
 aime dans ses tableaux, ce qui fait paraitre les ombres dures. . . . 
 II emploie volontiers les couleurs les plus vives et les plus claires. Ces 
 peintres sont fort agreables, c'est dommage que la nature qui est 
 fort belle ne soit pas a beaucoup pres aussi belle que leurs tableaux." ^ 
 In a like strain, Diderot wrote of Boucher himself, that he 
 loved "everything but truth" (Salon, 1761). Two years later 
 (Salon, 1763) he complained that Boucher, spoilt by praise, had 
 lost style, lost colour, lost composition, and added that his influence 
 was fatal to the young. In 1765, he returned to the charge, with 
 bitter energy, saying, " la degradation du gout, de la couleur, de la 
 composition, des cara6leres, de I'expression, du dessin, a suivi, pas a 
 pas, la degradation des moeurs. . . . Eh, bien ! mon ami, c'est au 
 moment ou Boucher cesse d'etre un artiste qu'il est nomme premier 
 peintre du roi." The influence of Mme. de Pompadour had sur- 
 vived her death (1764). Boucher's position was as sure as before, 
 strong in his appointment as the successor of Carle van Loo, 
 DireSor of the Royal Academy,^ he continued his ceaseless activity, 
 furnishing at every succeeding Salon fresh food for Diderot's in- 
 
 1 
 
 I learn from Mr. Murray Scott that this portrait came from the Vente Didier 
 in 1868. It fetched over 25,000 fr. at that sale. 
 
 " Letter written probably from Italy, 1749-51. Fonds Egerton, B.M. See A. 
 del'A., vol. i., p. 175. 
 
 ' P. V. August 23rd, 1765. A letter of Bertin to Marigny of September 27th, 
 1765. A. de I'A. fr., vol. i., p. 252. 
 
 56 
 
■'■■■ *l.lF^%*i«ii^^^^^*^. 
 
 ^ 
 
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 liB^fl^^ 
 
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 ^i^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^h^^ 
 
 
 — . . . _ — . . ■ ■■ II . - ^ 
 
 X 
 
 ^ 
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 ^ 
 
temperate sarcasms. "J'allois oublier celui-la," he writes in 1767, Boucher 
 " A peine laissera-t-il un nom et il eut ete le premier de tous s'il p"fgo. 
 eut voulu." nard. 
 
 When Boucher died, at the age of sixty-seven,^ Diderot re- 
 morsefully declares, "J'ai dit trop de mal de Boucher, je me 
 retradle," but popular opinion was already forming against his art, 
 and Bachaumont only sums up the estimate generally prevailing, 
 when he says, " En general, cet artiste a joui d'une reputation pre- 
 coce et portee beaucoup audela de ce qu'il meritoit. II avait un 
 pinceau facile, agreable, spirituel, et peut-etre trop fin pour les 
 details champetres auxquels il s'etait consacre. Toutes ses bergeres 
 ressemblaient a celles de Fontenelle et avaient plus de coquetterie 
 que de naturel." ^ Bachaumont did not foresee that, precisely be- 
 cause Boucher exadlly refledts the artificial tone and temper of his 
 day, his reputation and value would be reaffirmed by an after age. 
 If he were " canaille," so was the society of his day ; if he had 
 manner, not style, the same may be said of the men and women 
 with whom he lived. It is not the proper funftion of an artist to 
 create his own surroundings : if he attempts to do so, it must cost 
 him isolation from the quickest life of his time, and involves a 
 heavy drain on his own forces. The man who embodies in his art 
 the tendencies of an epoch, whatever may be his shortcomings, 
 needs must be " some one," and, as was said by David — destined to 
 found the school by which his uncle was held in detestation — 
 " N'est pas Boucher qui veut." 
 
 Turning back once more to the vivid pages of Diderot we find, 
 amongst the harsh and painful sayings concerning Boucher, which, 
 at the last, he declared himself ready to retradl, a passage of such 
 admirable criticism, that I here transcribe it, since it is as sane and 
 true a judgment of the Boucher we see to-day, as it was of the 
 brilliant peintre du rot at the date at which it was written. " II est 
 fait," writes Diderot, " pour tourner la tete a deux sortes de per- 
 sonnes, les gens du monde et les artistes. Son elegance, sa mignardise, 
 sa galanterie romanesque, sa coquetterie, sa facilite, sa variete, son 
 eclat, ses carnations fardees, sa debauche, doivent captiver les petits- 
 maitres, les petites femmes, les jeunes gens, les gens du monde, la 
 
 ' He died in the Louvre, May 30th, 1770. P. V.June and, 1770. "II avait 
 depuis longtemps I'air d'un spedtre, et toutes les infirmit& inevitables d'une vie con- 
 sum6e dans le travail, et le d6r6glement des plaisirs." — C. L., June 15th, 1770, 
 vol. vi., p. 481. 
 
 ^ The same comparison was made by Descamps. See letter to Bernardin de St. 
 Pierre, " Boucher, c^lebre par son g^nie, a donn6 dans un autre exces, Fontenelle 6toit 
 son guide." A. de I'A. fr., vol. i., p. 308. 
 
 SI I 
 
TheGreat foule de ceux qui sont etrangers au vrai gout, a la verite, aux idees 
 Decor- justes, a la severite de I'art, . . . Les artistes qui voient jusqu'a 
 Painters. 1^^^ point cet homme a surmonte les difficultes de la peinture et 
 pour qui c'est tout que ce merite, qui n'est guere bien connu que 
 d'eux, flechissent le genou devant lui." ^ These lines are as true 
 to-day as when they were written. In certain directions, Boucher 
 exhibited the skill of a great master, but he gradually became a 
 prey to the frivolity and luxury of the easy life he loved. 
 
 Of his interior, we get a glimpse from the journal of Wille, 
 who, on April 22nd, 1771, writes: "I took, my wife and my son 
 Frederic to see the colledlions of the late M. Boucher, of which 
 the sale began, with the pidtures, on the i8th. . . . The rest of his 
 curiosities, being still in place, merit the greatest attention on 
 account of their choice and variety ; my wife and Frederic were 
 amazed on seeing the china, minerals, precious stones, lacquer, 
 armour, instruments . . . got together during a long course of 
 years, with as much taste as cost, by this famous and graceful painter." 
 It is impossible to pifture the austere David working amidst the 
 magnificences of this studio which had fostered the talents of men 
 such as Boucher's sons-in-law,^ Baudouin^ and Deshayes.^ 
 
 The most important work by Deshayes now remaining is the 
 vast plafond of " Le Triomphe de Venus," executed by him in the 
 salon of the house of M. de Tourolle in the old rue d'Orleans. It 
 was transferred by M. Menier to his hotel in the Pare Monceaux 
 in 1871.^ Venus and Love, enwreathed by garlands of flowers, are 
 there to be seen, respe<5tfully contemplated by the three Graces, who 
 recline on their right ; the blue heavens, or del vague, as it was then 
 termed, form the background, and the whole work has either been 
 much repainted or was originally lacking in the spirit and energy 
 with which his admirers credited him, and with which his 
 " Erigone vaincue" — if we may judge from the engraving of the 
 subjeft by I'Evesque — was inspired. The few drawings by him 
 which I have examined, as, for instance, in the Louvre, are loose and 
 sketchy, so that it is difficult for us to understand how so great hopes 
 had come to be entertained regarding his future. As for David, 
 Boucher himself, after a short trial, sent his nephew away to Vien, 
 feeling, probably, the latent force of that readlion which was about 
 
 * Salon, 1765. See also C. L., June 15th, 1770, 
 
 " Boucher had two daughters, one born 1735; the other, to whom Oudry was 
 godfather, in 1740. 
 
 ' 1723-1769. R. 1763. See chap. V. 
 
 * 1729-1765. R. 1759. Mariette says he died " aux environs de 45 ans." 
 ' See de Champeaux, " L'Art d^coratif dans le Vieux Paris." 
 
 58 
 
to set in against his own art and the taste and temper of his day. Boucher 
 In the surroundings which communicated to Deshayes — " le seul," ^^ 
 says Diderot, " qui auroit pu nous consoler de la perte de Carle van nard. 
 Loo" — the "maniere libertine," criticised by Mariette, and which 
 inspired Baudouin with the licentious suggestiveness of his " Coucher 
 de la Mariee"^ and his " Modele honnete,"^ David found himself 
 a stranger : they were, however, less foreign to the natural disposi- 
 tions of Boucher's most distinguished pupil, the celebrated Frago- 
 nard, who, like his master, atoned for any lack of thoroughness by 
 an unrivalled facility and brilliancy of expression. " II est disciple," 
 says Mariette in 1761, " du Sieur Boucher. Je lui souhaite un aussi 
 bon pinceau que celui de son maitre. Je doute qu'il I'ait jamais." 
 The genius of Fragonard had developed during the years in 
 which discipline, inasmuch as it concerned all the more gifted men 
 of the school, had been growing slack. Boucher, we may do well 
 to remember, had had that severe schooling which, though it may 
 seem to make a dull man duller, is a pure advantage to one who 
 has sufficient temperament to readl against it. His admirable 
 instindl for decoration was seconded by the soundness of his learn- 
 ing. The " Salle du Conseil" at Fontainebleau ; the Salon formerly 
 in the hotel of the comtesse de Marcilly; the Salon painted for 
 madame de Pompadour at Crecy, and the curious Salon Demarteau, 
 are examples of equal excellence in great variety of treatment. If, 
 as has been said, the decoration of the "Salle du Conseil" was 
 inspired by an earlier work of Lancret's, this cannot be asserted of the 
 Salon transferred by baron Edmond de Rothschild from the hotel 
 of the comtesse de Marcilly to his own house in the Faubourg St. 
 Honore. Here, we find four large paintings of mythological sub- 
 jects, one of which is a variation on the well-known theme " Venus 
 demande a Vulcain des armes pour Enee,"^ whilst on one of the 
 two smaller panels which form the dessus de porte Boucher has in- 
 troduced, as a companion to " Venus couronnee par les amours," 
 the inappropriate slumbers of " Un Berger endormi." The eight 
 panels painted for Crecy are of a totally different character, and 
 are a typical specimen of the changes which marked the middle of 
 the century. They are now in the possession of M. Kann, and 
 were executed, I find from an entry in the Livre-Journal of Lazare- 
 
 * C. L., 15th June, 1770. See also Diderot, Salon, 1767. 
 
 ' Both these gouaches, in a much damaged state, are now in the collecSlion of 
 M. Groult. 
 
 ' The other subjedts are: " Bor^e enlevant Chloris," "Junon demande a Eole de 
 d^chainer la fureur des vents pour briser les vaisseaux des Troyens j" and " La naissance 
 de Bacchus." These titles are suggested by M. Silvy. 
 
 59 
 
TheGreat Duvaux, in 1751.^ The mouldings, on which Guibert, Vernet's 
 Decor- brother-in-law, was employed, were a mere framework, but pattern 
 Painters. ^^'^ colour are lavish of their resources. The medallions, two to 
 each panel, in which children's sports are represented as figuring 
 the arts and sciences, are separated by small blue cameo landscapes, 
 and the mouldings of the frames are of bluish-gray, against which 
 wreaths of little, coloured flowers give an effe6l of bright broken 
 hues.^ The dominant note of a tender bluish haze gives a personal 
 accent to the whole, though the scheme of the decoration, which 
 consists of centre medallions, treated like miniature piftures and set 
 on a groundwork of arabesque, is the same as that employed for the 
 boudoir or the cabinet from the days of Jean Berain. A certain 
 novelty is presented by the combination of " camaieux " with 
 passages of strong colour, but in this respedt Lancret shows an 
 earlier example when he painted for de Boullogne the " Intendant 
 des ordres du Roi," a small room on an upper floor of the hotel 
 (No. 23, Place Vendome) previously occupied by Law. Boucher 
 himself, as M. de Champeaux notes, had found a model in this 
 work of Lancret's when he decorated the " Salle de Conseil " at 
 Fontainebleau. Unfortunately, the work — in which Lancret had 
 combined " Fetes galantes," depidled in the full gaiety of colour, 
 with much arabesque ornament and cameos on a gold ground — 
 has recently been disturbed, and we can only find consolation for 
 these adverse fates in the reflection that the greater portion of the 
 decorations are at least faithfully preserved in the " Musee des 
 Arts decoratifs."^ 
 
 Monochrome was again employed by Boucher, as a relief from 
 colour, on a greater scale and with much effeft in the famous Salon 
 Demarteau, which, transferred by the son from his father's house 
 at the Enseigne de la Cloche, rue de la Pelleterie, to his own home 
 in the rue du Cloitre St. Benoit, now forms part of the collections 
 of M. Groult. It was, perhaps, a graceful exaggeration on the 
 part of the de Goncourt to say that this Salon, painted by Boucher 
 as a kindly token of regard for the old engraver who interpreted 
 his drawings so skilfully, showed the visitor " I'interieur elegant 
 d'un artiste du siecle passe." The little room was probably the 
 " Salon frais," or what we now know as the " Salon d'ete," of the 
 
 * No. 919, Oftober 4th, 1751. " Mme. la Marq. de Pompadour. Port6 a Crdcy 
 . . . frais de voyage pour M. Boucher et Guesnon ramen^ M. Lagarde paye, 
 23611." 
 
 ^ They remained in place till the chateau was pulled down in 1880, and were 
 then, I learn from their present owner, bought by Lord Pembroke, from whom they 
 passed through Mr. Barker to M. Kann. 
 
 ' Some portions were reserved or bought back by their owner, M. Cheireu. 
 
 60 
 
La Naissance de Bacchus. By Boucher. 
 {Collection of M. le Baron Edmond de Rothschild.) 
 
house. A light trellis formed the framework of the doors, windows Boucher 
 and mirror, which was the only ornament of the room, and so far 5,"^ 
 we are reminded of the engravings in Roufo's curious book on the nard° 
 arts of the " menuisier et treillageur,"^ but this trellis, in the Salon 
 Demarteau, is accompanied by four great panels, the subjefts of 
 which transport us to the garden or the field. The poultry yard is 
 here, here too are white swans, tranquilly imaged in the water, 
 here, also, comes the cat, watching by the well for a chance to 
 make prey of some of the marvellous birds who flaunt their colours 
 in the masses of summer foliage. This part of the work is, how- 
 ever, somewhat hard and dry of execution ; it was, one would say, 
 intrusted by Boucher to his pupils, but in the interpanels, in which 
 statuettes of children, admirably modelled, figure as tutelary loves, 
 the master himself paints with the grace and spirit which never 
 forsook him.^ 
 
 This treatment, by the painter alone, of the whole decoration of 
 a Salon is not usual. The pradlice was rather to combine with 
 painting various works of relief, if only in the ornament of the 
 cornice and the openings of the walls, and Boucher has evidently 
 relied upon the statuettes in their niches to give the necessary 
 variety to the eye. Twenty years later, when Jean-Honore Frago- 
 nard painted and arranged the no less famous Salon of the Maison 
 Malvilain at Grasse, the fashion of the day suggested a different ex- 
 pedient. He spaced his paintings not by the interpanels of subjedt 
 in monochrome which had been used with such excellent effeft 
 by the painter of the days of Louis XV., but by shafts, as it were, 
 of white, which he patterned with upspringing wreaths of natural 
 flowers. He thus got the same sense of support, and gave the same 
 impression of perpendicular lines, which the wood-carvers of the 
 same date obtained by the ascending spirals of foliage which they 
 employed, as in the " Garderobe de Louis XVI," and the boudoir 
 of Marie-Antoinette at the Petit Trianon, to space their principal 
 panels of decoration. 
 
 In Fragonard^ Boucher found his true heir, and the representa- 
 tive, in some respedts even more distinguished than himself, of 
 tendencies to which he gave a complete and final expression. 
 '* Ami de la joie et ennemi de la gene et de la contrainte, il ne 
 travailla jamais que de I'inspiration," he worked, or quitted his work 
 
 ' M. de Champeaux has noted a decoration of this class as still existing in the 
 house formerly belonging to Madame de Boufflers in the A116e des Tilleuls (No. 12), 
 Auteuil. 
 
 " Two have been reproduced, G. B. A., 1 890. 
 
 ' 1 732-1 806. Agr^6, 1765. 
 
 61 
 
The Great for amusement, with equal readiness and zest, making up for lack 
 Decor- ^f gtujy {^y ^jg marvellous readiness and gift. He is said to have 
 Painters, handled the brush before he could draw a line, and his natural 
 tendencies were confirmed by premature success. In 1752, before 
 he had yet been admitted to the Academy course, he carried off the 
 Grand Prix de Peinture.^ The teaching of the schools of Paris and 
 of Rome for awhile diverted his bent, and in 1763, the year in 
 which van Loo obtained a great success at the Salon with his 
 "Trois Graces enchainees de fleurs par I'Amour," we find Fragonard, 
 having returned from Italy (after executing a study of love in the 
 clouds with the title of " Le Maitre du Monde,") ^ busy with a 
 classical subjedt, " Le grand pretre Coresus s'immolant pour sauver 
 Callirhoe."^ "J'allois," writes Wille, on March 30th, 1765, "a 
 I'assemblee de I'Academie Royale. M. Frago ou Fragonard y fut 
 agree avec applaudissements. II avoit expose aux yeux de la 
 Compagnie un tres grand tableau d'histoire, qui etoit tres beau." 
 This work, for which Fragonard in vain solicited payment from 
 Marigny, was given by the King to the Gobelins to be reproduced 
 in tapestry. It was a serious effort in the " grand style " for which 
 Fragonard was fitted neither by his tastes nor his acquirements, and 
 it was noted at the Salon that after " les premieres exclamations le 
 public a semble se refroidir."^ 
 
 Disgusted by this deception, Fragonard turned to the public of 
 rich amateurs, and thenceforth for thirty years delighted the gay 
 world with his favourite subjecSls : " L'Heure du Berger,"^ 
 " L' Amour-Folie," « " La Fuite a dessein," ^ " La Chemise enlevee,"^ 
 "Le Verrou,"^ " Le Serment d'Amour."^" Works such as these, 
 Fragonard varied now and again by portrait painting, finding his 
 models, in his earlier years at least, chiefly amongst the heroes and 
 heroines of the stage. Half-length portraits of a singer and an 
 
 ^ P. V. August 26th, 1752. 
 
 ' See Colleftion Walferdin, G. B. A., 1880. 
 
 ' A sketch for this work is to be found in the Musde d'Angers, No. 43. By a 
 slip of the pen M. de Portalis has described it as exhibited at the Salon of 1769. It 
 should be 1765, and the references to it by Diderot occur in his famous letter of that 
 year to Grimm. See CEuv., vol. x., ed. 1876. There is also a replica at Madrid, 
 Musde St. Ferdinand. (See de Portalis.) 
 
 * Diderot, CEuv., vol. x., ed. 1876. ' Galerie La Caze. 
 ' Colleftion of M. Groult. 
 
 ' Colledion of baron A. de Rothschild, Vienna. Sec G. B. A., 1876 and 1880. 
 Engraved also by Macret and Couchd. 
 
 * Musde du Louvre. Engraved by Guersant. Lithographed by Barathier. 
 
 ° I do not know where the picture is ; the composition is familiar through the 
 engraving by Blot, and baron Edmond de Rothschild has a fine sepia drawing for it. 
 
 '" Colleftion of baron Gustave de Rothschild. There is a fine repetition in the 
 Musde de Tours, and M. Groult has a sketch of the same subjedt. Engraved by Mathieu. 
 
 62 
 
La '1'riomphe de Venus, Bv Fragonarh. 
 {Miisee de Besancon. ) 
 
aftor, probably dessus de forte like tne four similar subje6ls in the Boucher 
 Louvre, are to be noted in the colle<5lion of M. Alphonse de ^^ 
 Rothschild. All these works may be described, like the " Tetes nard. ' 
 de Viellards " in the colleftions of Mme. Edouard Andre and M. 
 Groult, as more or less in the manner of Tiepolo, who, amongst 
 other masters of the seventeenth century had a special attraction for 
 Fragonard ; but in his famous life-size painting of the celebrated 
 dancer, " la Guimard," " la plus elegante," says Grimm, " et la plus 
 exigue de toutes nos nymphes," we get a totally different style of 
 execution which reminds one somewhat of the work of Boucher 
 thirty years before. There is something of the thin paint and even 
 surface of the famous " Naissance de Venus" in Fragonard's render- 
 ing of the fascinations of this triumphant Goddess of the Dance, 
 and the work charms us by the delicate freshness of the varied hues 
 of rose and blue which, relieved on a background of pearly grays, are 
 veiled in clouds of white. The surface of the work, which has the 
 evenness of lacquer, naturally suggests that the portrait was a part 
 of the decoration of the " Salon de Terpsichore " in the magnificent 
 hotel in the Chausee d'Antin, which the dancer owed to the prodi- 
 galities of the prince de Soubise. " He kept her," says Bachau- 
 mont, " in the most incredible luxury. The house of the celebrated 
 Deschamps, her furniture, her carriages, do not approach the 
 sumptuousness of the modern Terpsichore." ^ Not only Marshal 
 Soubise but M. de la Borde, " valet de chambre du roi," contributed 
 to keep up the luxury of her establishment ; and when she gave 
 "theatrical entertainments" M. de Carmontelle prepared the 
 " Proverbes dramatiques " which were to be represented, whilst de 
 la Borde set them to music. The portrait in M. Groult's colle6tion 
 was the chief ornament of the "Salon " in which these plays took 
 place.^ The tonality and execution are not without a certain rela- 
 tion to that of two doors, painted also by him for a boudoir probably 
 in the same hotel, and now in the possession of M. Jacques Doucet.^ 
 On these most beautiful doors are medallions, " Le Cafe," and ** Le 
 Concert," miniature pidlures, which present a surface as even as 
 
 ' See the account of curious /?/« given under her auspices in C. L., Mars, 1776, 
 et Aout, 1780. The hotel, built by Ledoux, was destroyed when the New Opera 
 was built. See de Champeaux, G. B. A., 1895, p. 195. 
 
 " The ceiling of this room, left unfinished by Fragonard, who quarrelled with La 
 Guimard, was completed by David. 
 
 ^ M. de Portalis ascribed to Fragonard a boudoir now in the South Kensington 
 Museum, which he supposed to have been executed by him for the financier Bergeret. 
 This account is erroneous in every particular. The Salon was carried out for the 
 marquise de Serilly by Jean-Sim6on Rousseau de la Rottiere. (See the present writer, 
 "Boudoir de la marquise de Serilly," G. B. A., 1898.) 
 
 63 
 
TheGreat that of the portrait in M. Groult's colleftion. The arabesques by 
 attve"^ which they are enframed and connedled seem inspired by reminis- 
 Painters. cence of work which the painter had admired but a few years earlier 
 in Italy. They lie like a brown gold tracery on the green ground, 
 a beautiful enough green in itself, which reminds us in a lighter 
 key of the favourite hue of the celebrated vernis martin: this is, more- 
 over, just the hue which should give value to the shadows in the 
 full-length portrait of the famous dancer w^hich w^as enframed 
 above the chimney-piece of the Salon. ^ The portrait was accom- 
 panied by vases, tripods, garlands, arabesques and medallions, alive 
 with the games of loves, and nymphs, and satyrs, which figured on 
 panels of the same hue, relieved by the shade of cream colour, then 
 popular under the name of "jonquille." In the colour of the 
 doors belonging to M. Doucet we get the exa6l tonality by which 
 Fragonard's portrait of " la Guimard " was accompanied.^ No 
 doubt also but that the system of execution has had much to say to 
 the admirable preservation of M. Groult's most interesting portrait, 
 although, at the same time, it has deprived it of some of its attrac- 
 tions as a painting. The light and brilliant key in which it is 
 executed we find again in the two fine panels, " La Main chaude," 
 and " Le Cheval fondu," ^ now in the possession of the comte 
 Pillet-Will, and in these also we get an execution which is not 
 without likeness to that of the portrait of Mile. Guimard. 
 
 Fragonard's work presents examples of great variety of method. 
 Sometimes he painted very rapidly, making studies — as in the head 
 and shoulders of the old bearded model in M. Groult's colleftion, 
 to which I have before referred — with a broad, free brush, which 
 contrasts not only with the execution of the " Mile. Guimard," but 
 is totally unlike other specimens of his finished work. In the 
 charming small portrait of the same dancer, now in the possession 
 of M. Jacques Doucet, the execution, though smooth, is stronger, 
 more solid and more full of colour than is that of M. Groult's 
 dancing figure, but it is equally removed from the charadler of 
 other important studies. The head looks out from the oval frame 
 with an air of unusual suavity, the hair has a touch of powder, the 
 white and gray draperies round the shoulders and the grays of the 
 background are skilfully handled, as in M. Groult's full-length, in 
 order to give that exquisite value to the flesh which is one of 
 Fragonard's chief means of charm. 
 
 ' This Salon, or some part of it, now belongs to Mme. Abel Laurent. (See de 
 Portalis, " Fragonard," p. 89.) 
 
 " See de Champeaux, " L'Art d6coratif, etc.," G. B. A., 1895, p. 195. 
 ^ Both engraved by Veyrassat. (See de Portalis, " Fragonard.") 
 
 64 
 
a 
 
 Z 
 o 
 
 o 
 < 
 
 >• 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 u 
 
 G 
 
 u 
 
 
His relations to the lady in question are said to have ended in Boucher 
 a quarrel, the impression of which on Fragonard was so lively that ^^ 
 he avenged himself by transforming the features of his represen- nard. 
 tation of the Goddess of the Dance into those of a menacing fury, 
 and by writing, it has been said, on the back of the portrait " la 
 plus mechante araignee qui fut jamais."^ So much bitterness has 
 suggested, as a prelude, a little love. It may have been, but in this 
 connexion we may remember that the year 1770, in which 
 Fragonard was working for " la Guimard," was that following his 
 marriage with Marie-Anne Gerard. He was then the man of the 
 day, and in the course of the same year we find payments made to 
 him by Drouais — who was to the Dubarry what Boucher had been 
 to her predecessor the Pompadour — for four dessus de parte, which 
 had been executed by Fragonard for the chateau of Louveciennes, 
 the subjefts of which were : " Les Graces," " L' Amour qui embrasse 
 I'Univers," "Venus et I'Amour," and "La Nuit."^ The rapidity 
 and facility of his execution specially fitted him for the production 
 of this class of decoration, in which his gifts of grace and distinction 
 are always evident, however slight the chara6ter of his performance. 
 Nothing can be lighter than his touch in "Amours endormis" 
 and " Amours joueurs," dessus de parte at Hertford House ; super- 
 ficial work, yet each is a " grande et belle omelette d'enfants." 
 Superficial, Fragonard was always, " II a fait un tres beau tableau. 
 En fera-t-il un second. Je n'en sais rien," writes Diderot, in his 
 ** Etat adtuel de I'Ecole Fran9aise" (1767), and this doubt, in so 
 far as it regards Fragonard's incapacity for the thorough execution 
 of any great work, was justified by his subsequent career. His 
 "Triomphe de Venus" (Besanfon) shows at once his strength and 
 his weakness. It is drawn with a distinction that Boucher rarely, 
 if ever, reached ; the colour recalls the rich variety of Watteau, 
 and the delicacy and harmony of the whole efl^eCt has a peculiarly 
 seductive charm. Before this " Triomphe de Venus ; " before the 
 " Baigneuses," loosely as they are drawn, or the " Bacchante en- 
 dormie,"^ or that most lovely work "Fontaine d' Amour" — from 
 which Prud'hon may have sought a moment's inspiration,* even 
 
 ' We find in the correspondence of Grimm and Diderot a passage on which 
 perhaps this story is founded. The writer says: "J'ai toujours tendrement aim6 
 Mademoiselle Guimard, et . . . il faut qu'elle soit aimable, car elle a beaucoup d'amis, 
 quoiqu'ils disent que son excessive maigreur la fasse ressembler a une araignee." 
 Mars 1 5, 1 768, vol. v., p. 384. 
 
 " M. de Portalis has been unable to trace these works. 
 
 ' Galerie La Caze, etched by Wallet, Nos. 194 and 195. 
 
 * See Galichon ; San Donato Colleftion: G. B. A., 1870. Now at Hertford 
 House. Engraved by Regnault. 
 
 65 K 
 
TheGreat as "La Lefon de Musique"^ may have afforded a suggestion to 
 Decor- Delacroix and the Romantic school — we realise how great were 
 
 stive ^ 
 
 Painters. Fragonard's gifts as a painter, whilst at the same time we are tempted 
 to reproach him with their unconscientious use. Careless as to the 
 precise rendering of form, he possessed the secret of conferring life 
 and grace and style on his slightest creations. 
 
 Nor was the compass of his art restricted within narrow limits. 
 The beautiful " Foire de St. Cloud," which hangs in the dining- 
 room of the Banque de France, and of which a still more beautiful 
 rendering, on a small scale, of the right-hand portion, is in the pos- 
 session of M, Leopold Goldschmidt, shows genuine feeling for the 
 charm of colour and movement in the open air. The very dust raised 
 by the stir of the crowd glints gold beneath the trees as if in aftual 
 sunlight. The truth of this instinft for the beauty of nature tells 
 in every record of Fragonard's visits to Italy.^ Many of the drawings 
 made by him when he first went to Rome — looking at Baroccio, 
 Solimena, Tiepolo, and Pietro da Cortona — were engraved by the 
 Abbe de St. Non, who had accompanied him and Hubert Robert on 
 their journey. Amongst the most remarkable is that " Vue prise 
 dans les jardins de la Villa d'Este," which Mariette, no very friendly 
 critic of the " disciple du sieur Boucher," thought worthy of men- 
 tion. Again, when Fragonard left France for Italy with his wife 
 in 1773, on the invitation of M. Bergeret,^ the sketches which he 
 then executed, and which are preserved at Besan9on, bear witness 
 to the taste by which his choice of subjedl was always guided. 
 
 The just turn of his natural instinfts had no doubt been fostered 
 by the teaching and influence of Chardin, to whom Boucher himself 
 had sent his pupil. Thus it is that we can praise the feeling for a 
 certain class of landscape displayed in his " Gardens at Fontaine- 
 bleau;"* the simplicity and directness of purpose which distinguish 
 the treatment of the mother and children who form the central 
 group of " L'Heureuse Mere,"^ — a little work which is equally 
 
 ' Mus6e de Louvre. 
 
 ' See drawings in the Louvre, at Besan^on (those of 1773), at the Print Room of 
 the British Museum, and Exn. " Ecole des Beaux Arts," 1879. The Print Room of 
 the British Museum can show one large drawing at least of remarkable character. 
 It is in red chalk, and depidb the wooded banks of a river. A man on horseback, to left, 
 drives cattle and sheep into a pool. It is inscribed " Honor^ Fragonard fecit et pinx'." 
 
 ^ The two beautiful sepia drawings, " Le Concours" and " Le Recompense," in 
 the possession of madame Jahan, are supposed to represent scenes of family life in the 
 house of Bergeret, with whom Fragonard and his wife afterwards quarrelled. See de 
 Portalis, "Honor6 Fragonard," pp. 183 et seq. 
 
 *• Wallace CoUeftion, No, 481, Bethnal Green. 
 
 ° This fine work, at present in the possession of Messrs. Agnew, is, I think, 
 identical in subjedl with one seen by me in 1894, in the collection of M. Jacques 
 
 66 
 
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superb in colour and pure and luminous in quality — from similar Boucher 
 subjedts in the hands of Greuze, or admire the sincerity which 2,"^ 
 reaches a note of pure passion in " Le Verrou," painted for the nard. 
 financier, de la Reyniere, afterwards marquis de Veri. Financiers 
 were, as a matter of course, amongst the chief patrons of Fragonard. 
 Now and again, like de la Reyniere and de Grammont, they bid 
 his amiable pencil depidt for them scenes of a devotional charadter 
 — " L'Adoration des Bergers," or " La Visitation de la Vierge," but 
 more often we find it employed on subjedls such as *' Le Lever des 
 Ouvrieres;"^ " Le Coucher des Ouvrieres,"^ " Le Peintre et son 
 Modele,"^ or " Les Hasards heureux de I'Escarpolette,"* in which 
 the license taken is saved from being offensive by an air of fantastic 
 unreality. 
 
 The subjedt was, we are told by Colle, first proposed to Doyen : 
 
 " Croirait-on," me disait Doyen, " que peu de jours apr^s I'exposition au Salon de 
 mon tableau de St. Genevieve des Ardents, un homme de la Cour ' m'a envoy6 chercher 
 pour m'en commander un dans le genre que je vais vous dire. Ce seigneur 6tait a sa 
 petite maison avec sa maitresse lorsque je me pr^sentai a lui pour savoir ce qu'il me 
 voulait. II m'accablait d'abord de politesses et d'^loges, et finit par m'avouer qu'il sc 
 mourrait d'envie d'avoir de ma fa^on, le tableau dont il allait me tracer I'id^e. ' Je 
 d^sirerais,' continua-t-il, 'que vous peignissiez Madame (en me montrant sa maitresse) 
 sur une escarpolette qu'un ^veque mettrait en branle. Vous me placerez, moi, que je 
 sois a port^e de voir les jambes de cette belle enfant.' . . . J'avoue," me dit Doyen, "que 
 cette proposition a laquelle je n'aurais jamais du m'attendre, vu la nature du tableau 
 d'ou il partait pour me la faire, me confondit et me p^trifia d'abord. Je me remis 
 pourtant assez pour lui dire presque sur le champ: 'Ah ! Monsieur, il faut ajouter au 
 fond de I'idde de votre tableau, en faisant voler en I'air les pantoufles de Madame et 
 que des amours les retiennent.' — Mais comme j'^tais bien dloign6 de vouloir trailer un 
 pareil sujet, si oppos^ au genre dans lequel je travaille, j'ai adressd ce seigneur a M. 
 Fagonat qui I'a entrepris et fait aftuellement cet ouvrage singulier."" 
 
 Doyen's immense canvas, which we may still behold without 
 much pleasure at St. Roch, was exhibited at the Salon of 1767, and 
 we are thus enabled to fix the date of the execution of Fragonard's 
 lively pidture as not later than 1768. Within the next few years 
 the charadler of his execution underwent a great change. As he 
 
 Doucet. My notes record the same brilliant quality in the flesh, and the same mag- 
 nificent red worn by the the man holding down a sheep in the foreground. 
 
 ' Exhibited at Paris in 1889. 
 
 ° Colledlion of M. Groult, reproduced in de Portalis, " Fragonard." 
 
 ' This work, sometimes called " Le D6but du Modele," is in the colle£tion of 
 Madame Edouard Andr6, where we also find Fragonard's " Projets de Mariage." The 
 first has been reproduced in de Portalis, " Fragonard." 
 
 * Wallace CoUeftion, formerly in the possession of M. de Morny. A good 
 repetition belongs to M. Edmond de Rothschild. Engraved by de Launay. 
 
 ' Le baron de St. Julien, for whom Fragonard painted also " La Main Chaude " 
 and " Le Cheval Fondu." See de Portalis. 
 
 ° C0II6, "Journal et M^moires" (1748-72). 
 
 67 
 
TheGreat never exhibited after 1767, it is extremely difficult to classify his 
 atfve*^ work, but I am inclined to group together the subjeds in which 
 Painters, we get his most sedudtive flesh painting, such as " I'Heureuse 
 Mere,"i " L'Enfant blond," ^ '« Le Sacrifice au Minotaure,"^ " La 
 Maitresse d'Ecole," and " Le jeune Ecolier,"* as of a date later than 
 that of his second journey to Italy, and, of course, the delightful 
 children who amuse us in scenes such as '* Dites-donc, s'il vous 
 plait," ^ if, as tradition has it, the sitter were the painter's son Alex- 
 andre, must all have been painted after the year 1780. 
 
 Suddenly, 1789 brought Fragonard's brilliant career to a close, 
 and after a brief period of activity, under the protedtion of his 
 quondam fellow-pupil, the all-powerful David, during which he 
 was nominated one of the " Conservateurs du Musee " by the 
 Assemblee Nationale, we meet him at Grasse, the little manu- 
 fadluring town on the slopes of the hills to the north of Cannes, 
 repeating, in an old house, now known as the Maison Malvilain, his 
 dear familiar themes. Fragonard had been born at Grasse in 1732; 
 members of his family are still residing there, and in this old house, 
 local tradition says that the painter spent the days of the Terror. 
 
 When he fled from Paris he bore with him, it is said, four 
 works which he had begun in 1772 for Mme. Dubarry's Pavilion 
 of Louveciennes,^ which he had decorated with the four dessus de 
 porte already mentioned ; these he adapted to the walls of the prin- 
 cipal salon on the ground floor of the house he inhabited, and com- 
 pleted the series by the addition of a fifth subje<5l. All five paintings, 
 on February 8th, 1898, were sold at Cannes, for ^^50,000, by 
 auftion, and torn from the place where Fragonard had fixed them. 
 When I saw them some years ago they were still in position, 
 and I noted that they were executed on canvas stretched on wooden 
 frames which covered the space between the dado and the ceiling, 
 and should evidently have been enframed by woodwork carrying 
 up the wainscot beneath them, but the paintings themselves were 
 never completely finished, and probably the return of Fragonard to 
 Paris put an abrupt end to the undertaking. " Here, for once," I, then, 
 
 * In the possession of Messrs. Agnew. 
 
 ' Colleftion of Mme. la vicomtesse de Courval. Etched by Janzinski for dc 
 Portalis' " Fragonard." 
 
 ' Colledtion of M. Jacques Doucet. 
 
 * Colledion Wallace, Ex. Beth. Green, Nos. 445, 491. 
 
 ' Colledtion of the comte Pillet-Will. Engraved by de Launay. 
 
 ° Probably about 1770. The construftion of the Pavilion, begun by Ledoux in 
 1770, was completed in 1772. M. R. de Portalis suggests that these paintings were 
 rejefted by Madame Dubarry as too decent, and replaced by more suggestive work by 
 Vien and others. See Note 4, p. 43. 
 
 68 
 
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wrote, " he grouped, in connexion, the pretty trifling episodes in Boucher 
 which he deUghted." The large canvas, which fills the wall to the ^^ 
 right on entering, is " La Vierge et I'Amour," and so begins the nard. 
 series. " La Vierge," weary of wandering alone, rests and dreams 
 at the foot of a column standing in a cleared space within the 
 shadows of a little wood. The column supports a globe and thither 
 flies Love, with wings fluttering and uplifted arm and hand, 
 which seems to beckon from afar the lover pictured by the girl's 
 fancies. In the panel on the left, " La Surprise de I'Amour," the 
 lover appears and finds her seated in her garden, but she checks his 
 approach, turning away her head as in fear, whilst he pauses kneel- 
 ing against the edge of the little fence that separates them. The 
 next panel shows another incident in the story, " L'OfFrande de la 
 Rose." The girl thinks herself alone with her little sister, when 
 suddenly, half concealed by geranium masses such as blossom only 
 in the South, her lover appears ; surprised she flies, and he pro- 
 pitiates her anger with a rose. In " La Lettre d'Amour," the 
 pretty boy and girl couple read the letter together, she perched 
 on a low pedestal, whilst he holds her close embraced. Overhead, 
 leafy branches wave across the blue sky, and the girl's pink parasol, 
 hung up out of the way, shows like a large fantastic flower from out 
 the luxuriant creepers which wind about the feet of a marble statue 
 on the right. In the fifth panel, we reach the conclusion, " La 
 Couronne de I'Amour" is here bestowed upon the lover by his 
 mistress. She holds it above his head ; he kneels to receive it, 
 while in the shadow sits a third figure, a youth with sketch-book 
 and pencil ready to immortalize the happiness of his friend. 
 
 Fragonard was, I think, nowhere seen to the same advantage 
 as in that silent room, which retained the carpet, the consoles, the 
 tapestried chairs, couches, and tabourets of his day, the furniture of 
 which seemed, in short, to be just as it was when he painted his 
 little Comedy of Love, The geraniums, the roses, the purple 
 hollyhocks, which he employed on the smaller panels dividing his 
 main subjedls, allied themselves with the flowers and knotted 
 ribbons of the carpet, and the fanciful garlands and festoons which 
 adorned furniture that did not look as if it had been meant for use. 
 There was just that touch of theatrical unreality in the surround- 
 ings which was in keeping with the style of Fragonard's own work 
 — the style which it has in common with all French work of the 
 same date. The paintings of Fragonard and his fellows, the paint- 
 ings of Boucher, the Russian sketches of le Prince,^ the gouaches 
 
 ' 1733-1781. He was received on a "Bapteme selon le rite Grec." P. V. 
 August 23rd, 1766. See " H6dou," Jean le Prince et son CEuvre. 1879. 
 
 69 
 
The Great of Baudouin, all refleft with an intimacy to which there is perhaps 
 ative** "° parallel, the manners and tone of their day. The style of Court 
 Painters, fashions and customs, highly artificial even in the affe6lation of 
 nature and simplicity, the temper of society, purely sensual in 
 spite of pretensions to sentiment, gave birth to innumerable fiftions 
 which took their place in the commerce of ordinary life. Eternal 
 youth, perpetual pleasure, and all the wanton graces, their insincere 
 airs masked by a voluptuous charm, came into seeming — a bright 
 deceitful vision which cheated and allured all eyes. 
 
 Boy and girl lovers, always smiling, always toying, " who all 
 in one, one pleasing note do sing," create their own world. Shining 
 in silk of many hues, they flutter, like birds of brilliant plumage, 
 beneath the feathery branches which discreetly veil their pretty 
 painted lips and cheeks from the radiant sun which lights their 
 cloudless sky. The hours float by in waves of laughter, and the 
 scent of flowers which breathe of endless summer fills the air. 
 Existence, in the gardens of Fragonard, is pleasure ; its penalties 
 and pains are ignored just as sickness and sorrow were then ignored 
 in actual life. 
 
 These decorations ^ were his last important work ; they breathe 
 the same spirit of amorous gaiety as had rendered his talent de- 
 lightful to the Paris of his youth, but his career was closed. He 
 returned to Paris only to find the reign of Pleasure over and the 
 Loves and Graces fled. There was no place for such as Fragonard 
 in the new order. David was in power — David, in whose mouth 
 the names of Boucher and Watteau were equivalent terms of dis- 
 paragement. Fragonard sank into obscurity, and on August 22nd, 
 1806, when David was working out his vast " Imperial Coro- 
 nation," having a church for his atelier, Fragonard died in his 
 lodgings in the Louvre, forgotten and poor. 
 
 With Fragonard closes the line of the great decorative painters 
 of the eighteenth century. Of him, as of Natoire and van Loo and 
 Boucher, and all their fellows, it may be said that their work is 
 sometimes as poor as at others it is superb in quality. Again and 
 again we are amazed by the extraordinary discrepancies of style and 
 execution displayed at the hand of the same man. Slack the brush 
 may be to-day, and to-morrow you will have the finish of an enamel. 
 Total absence of conscientiousness seems to be a characteristic of 
 the whole school, and perhaps it is in a large measure due to their 
 lack of conscience that we owe the charm of much that is best 
 amongst the work they have left us. If they were inclined to do 
 so, they could draw with absolute distinction, but if they were not 
 * Engraved by Desboutins, and reproduced in de Portalis' " Fragonard." 
 
 70 
 
\^ i u 
 
 Le Concours. By Fragonard. 
 {Collection of Madame /akan.) 
 
in the humour they made no attempt to cheat themselves ; conse- Boucher 
 quently whatever they did had the charm which draws us so |,"^ 
 strongly to them — the incalculable charm of spontaneity and life. nard. 
 Boucher, who has left as much slipshod work as anyone, has also 
 left us drawings of the most exquisite precision, witness the two 
 portraits, in red chalk, of a painter and his wife in M. Bonnat's 
 colledlion. Fragonard, who seems never to have done anything 
 but " sketch," found the finest point of a faithful pencil to delineate 
 with tender care and delicacy his own features and those of his son, 
 his wife, and her sister, his pupil Mile. Gerard,^ whilst his lovely 
 drawing of his daughter Rosalie ^ is only a degree less searching. 
 
 The MM. de Goncourt gave us a too slight, a too feminine 
 Fragonard; slovenly and perfun6tory the play of his pencil may 
 sometimes be, but it is always suggestive. Not a trick of coquetry 
 in dress or manner can escape it. Lively and*exa6t in the apprecia- 
 tion of every pose and movement, of the intentional coyness of the 
 turn of a head, or the wave of a hand, it is equally cunning in the 
 choice of a meaning breast-knot, and in all those devices of the 
 toilet which are intended to create "a sweet disorder in the dress, 
 kindling in cloathes a wantonesse." The licence of such revela- 
 tions had long worn every disguise that could be borrowed from 
 the wardrobe of Olympus, The famous store which had served 
 the turn of two centuries was now exhausted ; love and the graces 
 lent their most secret charms to the pleasures of the hour. 
 
 Since colour, too, is one of the most delightful things that can 
 be set before the eye, colour having for its keynote the lovely tints 
 of beautiful flesh, was wrought to the perfeftion of sensual charm. 
 He who has true feeling for flesh lacks little it has been said, for 
 all else is as nothing in comparison. Now and again these men, 
 as, for example, Fragonard, have passages which rival the magic of 
 Rubens, and betray the aftual physical delight they had in painting 
 them. Each one as he took up his brushes seems to have said 
 " Comme cela va m'amuser, et vous aussi ! " Yet the palette they 
 employed seems far from varied. Boucher invariably played with 
 the same rather common pink and azure hues, which had been 
 handled by le Moine with greater virility, floating ofl^ his sparkling 
 passages of local colour into hazy greens and grays, so that one is 
 quite surprised to come across such a powerful scheme — gray and 
 gold and white, relieved by fine reds — as meets the eye in his "Venus 
 et I'Amour," or " Le Reveil," now belonging to Mme. Jahan. 
 
 • ColIedlionofM. Groult. 
 
 ' Once in the de Goncourt colledlion, and reproduced in "L'Art au XVIII. 
 Sieclc." 
 
 71 
 
The Great Fragonard improves on this, but he has recourse nearly always 
 
 Decor- ^q ^j^g same scheme, in the centre, white or pale pink (yellow very 
 Painters, rarely) with cold refledtions, which depend on neighbouring tones 
 of violet strongly contrasted against a deep red, often very beautiful 
 in tone, which is obtained diredly in a single painting, the local 
 colour put in positively in the shadows and driven thinly over the 
 lights. Two charming "esquisses" (Musee de Besan9on), "Jeune 
 couple a la fenetre " and "Jeune mere," are just flesh tints of silvery 
 purity run thinly over a brown preparation. The three leading tones, 
 masses of pink, violet and red, Fragonard throws out as a rule on a 
 background of green trees and pale sky, rubbed in with the utmost ra- 
 pidity, and then proceeds to sprinkle them, as it were, with their own 
 hues, putting touches of pink on violet, of violet on pink, and fling- 
 ing right and left variegated shades, as in the flowers which sparkle 
 and gleam from neighbouring thickets in the wall paintings now 
 removed fromGrasse. Blue, on which Boucher, his master, so largely 
 depended, Fragonard rarely employs. He has substituted it for his 
 favourite violet, with the same intention of heightening the effedl 
 of his central mass of rose and white, in the " Hasards heureux de 
 I'Escarpolette," but in the strange theatrical green moonlight of the 
 scene, violet would have given a false note. In the use of positive 
 colour, Fragonard had, in common with others of the same school, 
 a fine perception of the value of la tache and a strong feeling for 
 what is called pattern in colour. All pattern being made up of an 
 interchange of figures detached on a blank space, the skill and taste 
 shown in shaping and distributing these figures determine the 
 charafter of the design ; a good design may be simple or elaborate, 
 but it must be well spaced, that is, a certain effedlive balance must 
 be maintained between the figures and the ground on which they 
 are placed. A Japanese workman can lay a single spray of chrys- 
 anthemum in such a way as to make it fill to the eye an empty 
 field of ten times its magnitude, simply by his exa6l sense of the 
 conditions under which efFedtive balance can be obtained. " La 
 tache " in colour, fulfils precisely that office which an isolated 
 ornament may perform in pattern ; it is a detached mass of hue not 
 dire<5lly united to the tints which surround it, and it was one of 
 Fragonard's merits that he knew how to employ it without getting 
 out of harmony with the rest of his work. " II a de jolies taches 
 qui ne detonnent pas." The pink parasol, wide open against the 
 surrounding foliage in " La Lettre d'Amour," is an instance in 
 point, but his work abounds in examples equally telling. 
 
 Nor in other respedls are Fragonard and his contemporaries 
 less skilled in the requirements of decorative art. Whether they 
 
 72 
 
Le Recompense. By Fragonard. 
 {Collection of Madame Jahan.) 
 
ornament a fan, or paint the walls of a state drawing-room, however Boucher 
 slack hand and eye may be in other virtues, in readiness and dis- ^^ 
 tindtness of decorative purpose they are unfailing. nard.°" 
 
 Truth, either to individual nature, such as was practised by 
 the great Dutch school, or truth to the eternal truths of life, which, 
 handled by those to whom the heroic secrets of great style are 
 known, can wound no modest soul — truth in either wise was as 
 impossible to the artists of the latter half of the eighteenth century 
 as to the manners which they limned. Everywhere reigns con- 
 ventional good breeding ; nothing gross is suffered to appear, but 
 nothing less modest than the eighteenth century world can well be 
 conceived. To its representation the artists of the day brought an 
 exquisite tad:, a happy licence in selecting situations of light 
 comedy, an attradlive piquancy in charafterizing gesture and ex- 
 pression, a grace of arrangement, moreover, often really admirable, 
 although, as might be expedled, slightly theatrical in effe<5l. Their 
 compositions never give the impression of having cost a painful 
 thought ; the flowing lines are grouped with a facility born of 
 quick powers of observation, polished by incessant use, and laid 
 with the fluent ease which comes of long pra6lice. 
 
 Yet, just as there never was a day in which art and life were 
 more conventional, so there never was a time when conventions had 
 a greater influence on charadter and conduct, " On sut etre jeune, 
 j usque dans ses vieux jours," is a phrase frequently used by those 
 who knew the men and women of that day. The constant effort 
 to appear free from all that could vex and oppress the spirit, gave 
 men a mastery in concealing the effefts of pain, either on mind or 
 body, which was, in its measure, heroic, and which enabled them 
 to cheat themselves and others, often to the last, with the semblance 
 of that gaiety and youth in whose imperishable charm their philo- 
 sophy would have had them believe. Fragonard, their last repre- 
 sentative, " ami de la joie, ennemi de la contrainte," embraced 
 with ardour the creed of his day. " II savait exprimer la vie avec 
 grace," and when we enter that world in which his creations played 
 so distinguished a part, far removed as it is from that of nature and 
 of truth, we are still in a real world for the conventions of which 
 it was made up, were an essential part of the lives of those amongst 
 whom he lived and worked. 
 
 73 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE PAINTERS OF FETES G AL ANTES— WATTE AU, 
 
 PATER, LANCRET. 
 
 The 'W' IBERTIN d'esprit et sage de moeurs," Watteau^ enchants 
 
 of^FfeteT I "^ ^^*^ visions of a world peopled only by the sparkling 
 
 Galantes. I images of pleasure. By lawn and field, youth and love 
 
 * ' make holiday in a world of golden air, which knows no 
 
 shadow save the menace of the uncertain morrow. 
 
 " Quant' h bella giovinezza 
 Che si fugge tutta via 
 Chi vuol esser lieto sia, 
 Di doman non'ce certezza." 
 
 Every line of Watteau's work shows this joy in life, and that is the 
 tragic touch which heightens its fugitive beauty. On the one 
 hand, the most brilliant and vivid art the world has ever seen ; on 
 the other, a vain struggle with disease and death. Haunted by 
 that sense of failure which clings to high ambitions and spurred by 
 fear of the night, impatient of restraint and ill to live with, he was 
 yet most deeply loved by those in whom he trusted. When he 
 died, his friends — Gersaint, de Julienne, de Caylus, and Mariette — 
 recorded such details of his life as they could recolleft, and the fadls 
 which they preserved for us are so well known, and of late years 
 have been so admirably though differently handled by the two de 
 Goncourts and by M. Paul Mantz — not to speak of lesser autho- 
 rities — that it seems idle to recapitulate them.^ Yet, in spite of 
 
 ' 1684-1721. His "a£le de bapteme," was found by M. Arthur Dinaux in the 
 registers of the parish church of St. Jacques de Valenciennes. " Notice," A. Dinaux, 
 Valenciennes, 1834. 
 
 ' The first three accounts will be found in the A. B. C. Dario of Mariette, ed. 
 de Chenneviires and Montaiglon. The fourth is printed in " L'Art du XVIII. Siicle," 
 E. and J. de Goncourt. 
 
 74 
 
the pious care of those who knew him, various romances were Watteau, 
 
 current as to Watteau's early days, until M. Cellier published the Pa*®*"' 
 
 fadls brought together by his researches at Valenciennes. Then, 
 
 we learnt that Watteau's father was a well-to-do " maitre-couv- 
 
 reur ; " that Watteau himself served his full apprenticeship to the 
 
 president of the Guild of St. Luke, J. A. Gerin, in his native 
 
 town, and that it was not until the death of his master, in 1702, 
 
 that he decided to seek his fortune in Paris. He was, at that 
 
 date, a lad of eighteen, and his studies under Gerin — the painter 
 
 of a " St. Giles healing the sick," which still hangs in the Hospital 
 
 at Valenciennes^ — had prepared him for the tiresome exercises 
 
 on which he was employed at the shop on the Pont Neuf, where 
 
 he got work shortly after arriving in Paris. Food and shelter 
 
 and 3lt. a week were the reward of the incessant repetition of a 
 
 pattern St. Nicolas : " ' Je s9avois,' medit-il un jour," says Gersaint, 
 
 " ' mon St. Nicolas par coeur et je me passais d'original.' " To the 
 
 last, Watteau would occasionally turn from his " fetes galantes " to 
 
 paint some sacred theme, but he now eagerly seized the first 
 
 opportunity to quit the shop for sacred subjects and associated 
 
 himself with Claude Gillot, exchanging " pattern saints " for the 
 
 droll buffooneries of this master of grotesques. 
 
 His stay with Gillot was brief. On this point, M. de Julienne 
 makes two incompatible statements, which have, nevertheless, 
 remained unchallenged. If, as he tells us, Watteau joined Gillot 
 shortly after Gillot was " agree " by the Royal Academy in July, 
 1710,^ he cannot possibly have competed, as he also says, for the 
 " Grand Prix," whilst with Audran,^ to whom he went on leaving 
 Gillot, because the competition in question came off in 1709. 
 Caylus, it must be noted, not only makes Watteau's life with 
 Gillot and Audran, but also his return to Valenciennes, precede his 
 entry for the "Grand Prix" in 1709, but Caylus did not know 
 Watteau as early or as intimately as de Julienne and Gersaint, 
 who confirm each other. Perhaps we shall not be far wrong if we 
 reckon that Watteau spent seven obscure years in Paris, doing in- 
 ferior and ill-paid work, and that he came into contadl with Gillot 
 at the Academy, where he attended classes, since he was chosen as 
 one of the " eleves " to compete for the " Grand Prix," which 
 was, no doubt meritoriously, carried off by a certain Antoine 
 Grison, Watteau himself obtaining only the second place. He 
 was then twenty-five, and Gillot's influence over him may easily 
 be exaggerated. It is obvious in " Le Depart des Comediens 
 
 ' See Paul Mantz, G.B.A., 1889. " A. B. C. Dario, ut supra, p. 1 14. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 116. 
 
 75 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 of F6tes 
 Galantes. 
 
 Italiens,"^ and there are occasional reminiscences of his style in 
 Watteau's treatment of subjects, such as the " Singe Sculpteur,"^ or 
 the absurd " Chat Malade," engraved by Liotard, but he was not 
 seriously affefted by Gillot ; ^ nor was it from him that he received 
 the impulse which finally set his fancy playing till the very spirit 
 of romance took shape before him in the simplest events of daily 
 life. The majestic force of the genius of Rubens, with which he 
 was brought into contadt by his work for Audran * at the Luxem- 
 bourg, evoked in Watteau a form of its own exuberance and showed 
 him the golden channel of his dreams. It is, indeed, impossible to 
 overrate the power which this gallery exercised over the French 
 school during the century, nor the magic attraction which it had 
 for those who loved the sensual pleasures of art. 
 
 Le Moine and de Troy, Boucher and Fragonard bowed before 
 Rubens and Veronese ; the great decorators were not alone in their 
 homage. "It has pleased M. I'Abbe des Noiresterres," writes 
 Watteau to M, de Julienne, " to send me that canvas of P. Rubens 
 on which there are two angels' heads, and on the cloud beneath 
 that woman's figure absorbed in contemplation. Nothing certainly 
 could have made me happier, were I not persuaded that it is out of 
 friendship to you and your nephew that M. de Noiresterres has 
 deprived himself in my favour of so rare a painting. I have been 
 unable to keep still since the moment at which I received it, and 
 my eyes are never weary of turning towards the stand on which I 
 have placed it as on a tabernacle."^ 
 
 The eyes of men, in a later generation, sought the same shrine. 
 " Greuze and I," says Wille, July 22nd, 1760, "have been in the 
 Rubens gallery at the Luxembourg, which was opened on purpose 
 for us. We got on a ladder to look close at the paintings executed 
 by this great man, and examined his manner of painting and colouring 
 his works." 
 
 The efFeft on Watteau of this mighty influence was not im- 
 
 ' No. 70, Cat. de Goncourt. 
 
 " Musee d'Orl6ans. Engd. Chereau. In. g6n. Mon. civ. Province, vol. i., p. 108. 
 
 ' A recent writer, the late Dr. Richard Dohme, w^as mistaken in supposing that 
 no painting by Gillot has come down to us. M. Groult possesses a curious harle- 
 quinade, " Scene de la Com6die Italienne," by Gillot. Two screens in the colledtion 
 of Mme. Andr^ show his ornamental style. 
 
 * " Peintre d'ornement et Concierge," ;.?., Keeper, "du Luxembourg." See M. I., 
 vol. ii., pp. 104,226, 401. See also G. Brice, "Description de Paris," 1752, vol. iii., 
 p. 404. 
 
 ' A. de I'A. fr., vol. ii., p. 212. Watteau sent in return a " Repos de la Sainte 
 Famille," now, I believe, at the Hermitage. There is an engraving, by C. L. Wust, 
 of a " Sainte Famille " by Watteau, in the colleftion of " M. le comte de Bruhl, 
 premier ministre de sa majest^ polonaise" (1739-1793). 
 
 76 
 
mediately evident, for in the two little piftures which he painted Watteau, 
 
 for Audran, and which were, therefore, probably executed during P^t^r, 
 
 his stay at the Luxembourg, we recognize the diredt teaching not 
 
 of Rubens but of Teniers. The engravings of " La Marmotte " 
 
 and "La Fileuse,"^ by Benoit Audran, show single figures relieved 
 
 by sketchily indicated backgrounds which recall subjedls somewhat 
 
 similarly treated in the colledion of drawings and studies published 
 
 by de Julienne, and it is likely that such exercises were the prelude 
 
 to the celebrated "Depart de Troupe," etched by Watteau and 
 
 engraved by Thomassin as " La recrue allant joindre le Regiment," 
 
 which is now in the coUeftion of baron Edmond de Rothschild.^ 
 
 This was the first pidlure which Watteau had the luck to sell to 
 
 the dealer Sirois, through the kind offices of his friend and fellow 
 
 countryman Spoede, then Reftor of the Academy of St. Luke.^ It 
 
 is said, that Audran criticised the work, and that Watteau left him 
 
 in anger, but Watteau must soon have felt, as indeed Gersaint 
 
 asserts, that as assistant to a decorator like Audran, he had not the 
 
 free hand he wanted. And now comes the turning point in his career. 
 
 From Valenciennes, whither he had gone on leaving Audran, 
 Watteau sent up to Paris a second pidlure, " Halte de Troupe," * 
 a companion to the first. Its sale — through Spoede to Sirois — for 
 more than three times the price paid for the " Depart de Troupe,"^ 
 brought the painter back to Paris. He then presented himself 
 again at the Academy, in order to solicit "la pension du roi," 
 without which he could not aflford to go to Rome, as he desired, 
 " pour y etudier d'apres les grands maitres, surtout d'apres les 
 Venitiens dont il aimait beaucoup le coloris et la composition," 
 and, as a proof of his deserts, he sent in the two pidtures which he 
 had sold to Gersaint's father-in-law, M. de Sirois. 
 
 At this point, de la Fosse,® one of the most distinguished pupils 
 of Charles le Brun, comes on the scene. He had been one of the 
 judges, in 1709, for the "Grand Prix," but judges are not always 
 
 ' " La Fileuse " has disappeared, but " La Marmotte " is in the Hermitage. It 
 has been ill lithographed by Dollet. Nos. 78 and 79 Cat. de Goncourt. 
 
 " No 2, Cat. de G. There is no doubt that this pifture is the pifture painted by 
 Watteau, etched by him and engraved by Thomassin, but there are repetitions painted 
 by a later hand from the engravings of this work and its companion, " Halte de Troupe," 
 which passed in the Euing Colleftion to the Corporation Galleries, Glasgow. See 
 Catalogue. Nos. 927, 928. 
 
 ' See his Scell6, 1757. N. A. de I'A. fr. 1884, p. 234. A portrait-caricature of 
 " Bolureau doyen des maitres peintres " (Engd. Guelard) by J. J. Spoede, figures in the 
 Mus6e d'Orldans. In. g6n. Mon. civ. Province, vol i., p. 104. 
 
 * Engraved by Cochin, No. 51, Cat. de G. 
 
 " He received 6olt. for the first, and 20olt. for the second. See Gersaint. 
 
 ' 1636-1716. He was employed by Lord Montagu with Rousseau and Baptiste 
 Monnoyer, to decorate Montagu House, now absorbed in the British Museum. 
 
 77 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 of Fgtes 
 Galantes. 
 
 unanimous, and it is possible that he considered Watteau's work, 
 marked " D,' superior to that of Grison, labelled " C," for, even in 
 his unsuccessful composition, Gersaint says " qu'on vit briller . . . 
 les etincelles de ce beau feu qu'il fit paroitre dans la suite." On 
 this second occasion, he adds, that de la Fosse instantly recognised 
 Watteau's ability, that he sent for him, heard his petition and 
 replied, " Mon ami, vous ignorez vos talens et vous mefiez de vos 
 forces ; croyez-moi vous en S9avez plus que nous ; nous vous 
 trouvons capables d'honorer notre Academic, faites les demarches 
 necessaires nous vous regardons comme un des notres." A story 
 which possibly requires modification, but there is no doubt that 
 de la Fosse, at this time, came to Watteau's aid, facilitated his 
 reception into the Academy and eventually procured him the very 
 important support of Pierre Crozat. 
 
 A close intimacy existed between Pierre Crozat " le jeune " or 
 " le pauvre " — as he was usually called to distinguish him from 
 his archi-millionaire brother, of the Place Vendome, — and 
 the family of de la Fosse, whom he lodged in an apartment 
 on the first floor of the hotel, built for him, by Cartaud, " rue et 
 porte de Richelieu." After the death of de la Fosse, in 171 6, 
 his widow continued to occupy the same lodgings, and in 1724 
 Mathieu Marais notes that Crozat, who loved music " a chez lui 
 une fille appelee d'Argenon, niece de Lafosse, le peintre, qui chante 
 tres bien." ^ When, therefore, we find that " Les fatigues de la 
 guerre " and " Les delassements de la guerre," two early paintings by 
 Watteau, now in the Hermitage,^ were both commissions from 
 Crozat, we naturally connect the circumstance with the friendly 
 influence of de la Fosse. He had, himself, recently completed the 
 decoration of the ceiling of the great gallery in Crozat's house, for 
 which he executed one of his most considerable compositions — 
 " La Naissance de Minerve," — and, on his designs, Watteau was 
 employed by Crozat to paint four canvases for his dining-room 
 with figures of the Four Seasons half-life size.^ Sketches by 
 Watteau for " I'Automne " and " Le Printemps " were exhibited 
 at the " Ecole des Beaux Arts," in 1879, and their owner, M. de 
 Goncourt, maintained their originality, but the style of the subjedls 
 showed that, if not aftually copied from, they were but " pastiches" 
 of de la Fosse. 
 
 ' Her portrait by Watteau exists amongst his drawings in the Louvre, No 1,334. 
 See also Cat. de Goncourt, p. 29. 
 
 * Engraved by Scotin and by Crdpy. 
 
 ' Engraved by du Bos and others, "L'Hiver," says M. Clement de Ris, in 
 " Amateurs d'autrefois," was at Chenonceau in 1 858, in a very bad state. Nos. 46, 
 47, 48, 49. Cat. de Goncourt. 
 
 78 
 
La vraie Gaiete. By Watteau. 
 {Collection of Sir Charles Teniiaut.) 
 
The two paintings of military subjed:s bought by Crozat, remind Watteau, 
 us again how extraordinarily dissimilar the style of Watteau's early Pater, 
 work was from that which he invented, and the value of the 
 " Depart de Troupe," as a document which fixes an exaft point in 
 Watteau's career, is incalculable. It has darkened sadly, the faces 
 of only two figures are visible, but each is detached from the others 
 by some dissimilarity of a6lion, observed — as in the case of the man 
 who stoops to settle his musket — with an exquisite fidelity which 
 reveals the Watteau that is to be. The touch is full and firm, yet 
 light, especially in the whites with which his brush has, as it were, 
 written, in a running hand, the indications which vitalize the 
 movement of the footsore group wearily following their mounted 
 leader under a leaden sky. Engravings of various scenes of the same 
 character by the younger Cochin and Moyreau, by Baron and by 
 Dubosc, illustrate a very gradual development of power. There is a 
 marked change in the proportions of the figures, which are, at first, 
 immeasurably lengthy, and, as Dr. Dohme pointed out — in the paper 
 which he devoted to the paintings by French artists exhibited at 
 Berlin in 1 883 — the landscape backgrounds become fuller, the draw- 
 ing — at first peculiarly defedtive in the heads and hands — improves, 
 and motives appear, as in the " Escorte d'equipage " ^ engraved by 
 Laurent Cars, with which we are familiar in his later work. The 
 peasant scenes in the style of Teniers, which he also treated, and 
 which must be referred to the same date, are, with one exception, 
 known to us only in engravings. The landscape in the Neues 
 Palais, at Potsdam, which, for a while, was labelled " Watteau " ^ 
 has now been restored to its rightful owner. Pater, but the long 
 lost work, " La vraie gaiete," ^ which belonged to M. Lehardy de 
 Famars, a Valenciennes amateur, has recently reappeared in the 
 colledtion of Sir Charles Tennant, and, as the earliest known paint- 
 ing by Watteau, possesses for us an extraordinary interest. 
 
 Crozat's generous off^er of '* la table et un logement " was, it 
 has been suggested, not made till after his return from Italy in 171 5, 
 when Watteau was over thirty years of age. This is, I think, 
 most improbable, both Gersaint and Mariette write as if the admis- 
 sion to Crozat's house, and all its advantages, had followed 
 immediately on Watteau's return to Paris from Valenciennes, when 
 his success at the Royal Academy had drawn great attention to his 
 work, but when he was still in need. His stay in the rue de 
 
 ' No. 56, Cat. de Goncourt. 
 
 " A fine heliogravure of this work accompanies Dr. Dohme's article in the Jahr- 
 buch der Koniglich Kunstsammlungen 1883. 
 ' No. 184, Cat. de Goncourt. 
 
 79 
 
The Richelieu was, in any case, brief. It was ended by Watteau's 
 
 ^-^IJI*®''^ natural love of liberty for work, and it had served its uses. He had 
 Galantes. become favourably known to all the " persons of importance " by 
 whom Crozat was constantly surrounded, and his reputation had 
 been consecrated by a commission from de Julienne, for whom he 
 had painted " Les Jaloux " ^ which was amongst the works which 
 he submitted when he presented himself to the Academy on the 
 30th of July, 1712.^ Curiously enough, on the same day, arrange- 
 ments were made for the supervision of the diploma work of his early 
 master, Claude Gillot, a circumstance which led M. de Montaiglon 
 to suppose that he and his whilom pupil were " agrees " together, 
 whereas Gillot was, then, an associate of fully two years' standing. 
 With " Les Jaloux," should probably be taken two works to 
 which Dr. Dohme assigned a transitional position, the *' Colin- 
 Maillard "^ engraved by Brion, which was also in de Julienne's 
 collection, and the " Danse champetre," * which was reproduced by 
 Dupin. To these I should add, " Le Denicheur de moineaux," 
 of the Scottish National Gallery,^ — engraved by Boucher, together 
 with the arabesque by which the ornamental version of the subject 
 was enframed. Although this most beautiful work has not the full 
 strong tone proper to Watteau's early work and which distinguishes 
 the " Hirten " ^ in the Neues Palais, Potsdam, it belongs, like that 
 subject, to a more mature period than the " Danse champetre " and 
 must be classed in the group of compositions which fall between the 
 peasant scenes, imitated more or less from Teniers, and the " Fetes 
 galantes" in which his talent found its full freedom. That the peculiar 
 quality of Watteau's genius was recognised by his brother artists at 
 this date, is proved by the permission given to him, to choose the 
 subjedl of his own diploma work for the Academy. The registers of 
 the sitting, at which this grace was conferred, contain the usual 
 formula " II recevra de Monsieur Van Cleve, Diredteur, un sujet 
 d'ouvrage, dont il representera une esquisse," but these words are 
 
 ' Engraved by Scotin. No. 142, Cat. de Goncourt. 
 
 2 P.V. 30 July, 1 7 12. 28 August 1717, Watteau was received on the same day 
 as His friend Nicolas Vieughels. 
 
 3 No. 187, Cat. de Goncourt. 
 
 * No. 185, Cat. de Goncourt. Reproduced in "Antoine Watteau, par G. 
 d'Argenty," and wrongly described as in the " Mus6e Condd a Chantilly." It is not 
 there, nor have I, as yet, been able to trace it. 
 
 ° No. 298. No. 270, Cat. de Goncourt. This work, which measures seven by 
 nine inches, is the replica of the pifture in de Julienne's colledion which is catalogued 
 No. 423, Vente Giroux, 18 16. 
 
 ° Two very fine drawings, on the same sheet, for the central figure are preserved in 
 the Print Room at Berlin, No. 2319. The work itself is a variation of" Plaisir pastoral " 
 No. cxiv. Musee Conde. No. 154, Cat. de Goncourt. 
 
 80 
 
Le D^nicheur de Moineaux. By VVatteau. 
 (National Gallery of Scotland.) 
 
scratched out, and, in their place, we have " le sujet de son ouvrage Watteau, 
 de reception a este laisse a sa volonte." Coypel and Barrois^ were LamTret 
 dire<5led to see him at work. This indulgence on the part of the 
 academicians was perhaps stimulated by the recollection of Watteau's 
 ill-success in handling the Old Testament theme, "Abigail qui 
 apporte des vivres a David," which had been given him in the 
 competition for the " Grand Prix." They probably saw that it 
 would not do to impose a composition in the " genre serieux " on 
 the brilliant painter of " Fetes galantes," and it is as a " Feste 
 galante," that we find " Le Pelerinage a I'isle de Cythere," the 
 theme of Watteau's choice,^ inscribed on the registers of the Academy 
 on August 28th, 1 717, the day on which, after repeated delays, he 
 was received into that body.^ 
 
 The " Embarquement pour I'ile de Cythere" — of which Watteau 
 executed for de Julienne a larger version, full of more suggestive 
 detail, now in the Royal Palace at Berlin — hangs in the Louvre. It 
 has lost something of that famous quality which caused Leslie to say 
 of a work in his own possession, that, " it was painted with gold 
 and honey." Beautiful as it is, the present condition of " L'Em- 
 barquement pour I'ile de Cythere " reminds us that Watteau, like 
 Parrocel,* " mettait beaucoup d'huile grasse a son pinceau, afin 
 d'etendre plus facilement sa couleur : il faut avouer que beaucoup de 
 ses tableaux perissent par la, de jour en jour, qu'ils ont totalement 
 change de couleur ou qu'ils deviennent tres ales sans aucune res- 
 source : ^ mais aussi ceux qui se trouvent exempts de ces defauts sont 
 admirables et se soutiendront toujours dans les plus grands cabinets." 
 In Watteau's diploma work, there are indications of that early study 
 of Rubens — which is proved by the sketches from the " Kermesse " 
 in the His de la Salle colleftion^ — from which he derived " un 
 goust bien plus naturel et bien different de celuy qu'il avoit contradte 
 chez Gillot"' and, in later years — as we see from his letter, written 
 probably about 171 8, when he was living with Vleughels — his 
 enthusiasm had not diminished.^ Of his admiration for Paul 
 
 ^ Francois Barrois, 1656-1726. R. 1700. A. de I'A., vol. i., pp. 374,4i4,vol. ii., 
 P- 358. 
 
 ' Engraved by Tardieu. No. 128, Cat. de Goncourt. The work is in the Louvre, 
 No. 649. 
 
 ^ P.V. January 5th, I7i4,and 1 715, January 25th, 1 7 1 6, and January 9th, 1717. 
 
 * M6m. in6d., vol. ii., p. 410. 
 
 * This is the case with the " Marine de Village " (Sans Souci), which Dr. Dohme 
 ranks with "L'Amour paisible" and " Lefon d' Amour " (Neues Palais), as illustrating the 
 moment at which Watteau became himself, but I think the " Marine " is earlier than the 
 other two works — the proportions are abnormally long. It is No. 148, Cat. de Goncourt. 
 
 ' Louvre. 7 A. B. C. Dario, vol. vi., p. xi6. 
 
 ' A. B. C. Dario, vol. vi., p. 118. 
 
 81 M 
 
The Veronese no less strong proof is given in the sketch after that 
 
 ^^JP*^**^ master, which was once in the colledtion of M. Camille Marcille,^ 
 Galantes. 3"^ by the delightful reminiscence which Watteau transfigured, after 
 his own fashion, in *' L' Amour desarme." ^ 
 
 The Italian comedians, who returned to Paris by permission of 
 the Regent in 171 6, seem to have had an extraordinary fascination 
 for Watteau. M. Mantz has suggested that Watteau frequented 
 only '* les frontieres du theatre." Mariette has said that the 
 " Mezzetin " of the group reproduced in " Le Consert Italien " or 
 " Gille et sa Famille " was really a portrait of Sirois,^ whose 
 daughter, also, sat to Watteau for the lady in a " Retour de Chasse." * 
 Following this indication, M. Mantz proposed to regard many other 
 sitters as friends of the painter attired in the fantastic costumes of 
 which he possessed a store, and the suggestion has been carried 
 further by M. Gaston Schefer, but he admits that his ingenious con- 
 jediures are conjeftures only.^ It is, on the other hand, probable 
 that Watteau found amongst these Italian people turns of speech 
 and gesture more natural, more true to human instin<5l and emotion 
 than could be furnished by the manners of those trained from their 
 birth in a highly artificial society. His early models were the 
 strolling players who passed through his native town ; he had first 
 reached Paris in the employ of a theatrical decorator, and hundreds 
 of his sketches betray his especial delight in the Italian stage. 
 Above all, his favourite subject " Le Mezzetin," is a striking figure. 
 In the charming pi<5lure of the Musee Conde, a replica with variations 
 of the same subjedl in the Hermitage, the dress of the a6lor shows 
 Watteau's favourite harmonies, the rose-red of the tunic running 
 with fairy-like play of tint between the slashes which show the 
 underlining of palest blue, against which the white of the collar, 
 cuffs and stockings tell with pearly brilliancy.^ 
 
 The use of broken tones, as in this pidture and its companion 
 " L'Amante inquiete," ^ on silk of vivid yet delicate hues, marks 
 some of the most chara6leristic works by Watteau. In the 
 "Masquerade" belonging to Lord Northbrook,^ in the "Music 
 
 • G. B. A. 1896, p. 427. 
 
 ' No. CXIII. Musde Conde, No. 33, Cat. de Goncourt. 
 
 » No. 178, Cat. de Goncourt. * No. 18, ibid. 
 
 5 G. B. A. 1896. 
 
 ^ No. 86, Cat. de Goncourt, and No. CXV. Musde Cond6. Several studies for 
 this figure are in the colledion of M. Camille Groult, also in the Print Room, British 
 Museum. 
 
 ' No. 81, Cat. de Goncourt, and CXVI. Mus6e Conde. Engraved by Aveline. 
 
 ' Ex. R.A. 1889, No. 94.. My memory of this pifture leads me to identify it with 
 No. 75, Cat. de Goncourt, " Arlequin, Pierrot et Scapin," which M. de Goncourt says 
 is in the Wallace Colleftion. I do not, however, remember it there. 
 
 82 
 
Lk Donneur de Serenades. Hv Watteau. 
 {Musk Conde, Chantilly.) 
 
Party " at Hertford House — the chief group of which is a free Wattcau, 
 repetition of the half length composition " Pour nous prouver que P^t^**' 
 cette belle " in the same coUedlion ^ — and in " La Serenade Italienne " ^ 
 there is painting of this type as admirable as that of the " Indifferent," 
 or the even more beautiful " Finette," of the Galerie La Caze.^ It 
 has been suggested that this rapid, apparently sketchy style of 
 execution was abandoned by Watteau in 1 7 17-17 1 8, and the con- 
 trast presented by the handling of the " Embarquement pour I'lle 
 de Cythere " in the Louvre with that of the finished work, now at 
 Berlin, is alleged in proof, but the greater solidity shown in the 
 later version may suit the more complete and elaborate composition 
 for which the earlier work had served but as a project, and the 
 " plafond of Gersaint "* — which we know to have been executed in 
 the last year of Watteau's life — exhibits the running and flexible 
 brushwork which is to be associated, I think, with his wonderful 
 faculty of improvisation rather than with the manner of any limited 
 period in his career. The unfinished " Assemblee dans un pare " ^ 
 of the Berlin Museum, is also an example of Watteau's lightest vein 
 of fancy and manner, whilst in " L'Amour au Theatre Italien " and 
 " L'Amour au Theatre Fran9ois " ^ we find two most brilliant works 
 of an opposite type in which depth and force of colour are sustained 
 
 ' Engraved by Surugue, 17 19. No. 177, Cat. de Goncourt. There is a replica of 
 the " Music Party " at Sans Souci. 
 
 ' CoUedion of Mr. Alfred de Rothschild, No. 165, Cat. de Goncourt j Ex. R.A. 
 1889, No. 100. 
 
 3 Nos. 83 and 84. 
 
 * No. 95 Cat. de Goncourt. I went to Berlin in the hope of seeing this work 
 for myself, but the application made on my behalf by our Embassy was refused by the 
 Direftor of the Collections in the Royal Palaces. I can therefore only repeat the statement 
 made by Dr. Dohme, that some of the heads have suffered severely from " restoration." 
 As regards the " Embarquement pour I'ile de Cythere " I was told by a French friend, to 
 whom it had been shown by a great personage, that it had been cleaned till nothing- 
 was left but the composition, and then buried under varnish. My friend, Mr. Claude 
 Phillips, whose work on " Antoine Watteau " is well known, and who had succeeded 
 where I failed in obtaining admission to the Palace, tells me that the " colour " has 
 suffered so that the effedt is crude, and the work, as a whole, in its present state con- 
 spicuously lacks the charm of the Louvre example. The " Enseigne de Gersaint," on 
 the other hand, though it appeared far from intadt, had preserved much of its freshness 
 and beauty, and retained the balance of general tone in the bright, light key of which 
 the " Embarquement " had been robbed. I may add that on this occasion only, did I 
 find the slightest want of courtesy on the part of those in authority over foreign collec- 
 tions or museums. 
 
 ' No. 474B. Berlin Museum. No. 108, Cat. de Goncourt. The composition 
 has some slight likeness to that of " Gesellige]_unterhaltung im freien," No. 781 in the 
 Dresden Gallery. Engraved, as was its companion No. 782, " Liebes fest," by Cham- 
 pollion. These two compositions are arrangements of figures known to us in other 
 piftures. 
 
 ° Nos. 468, and 470 Berlin Museum. Nos. 65, and 68 Cat. de Goncourt. Both 
 engraved by Cochin. 
 
 83 
 
The by a masterly execution which has successfully stood the test of 
 
 Galantes. The two central figures of the " Assemblee dans un pare " are 
 
 introduced from Watteau's superb " Gamme d'Amour " which 
 once formed part of the Lyne-Stephens colledtion. Sold at the 
 death of Mrs. Lyne-Stephens in 1895, it is now in the possession 
 of M. Julius Wernher, and once figured in the gallery of Mariette.^ 
 Although it has suffered somewhat in parts, this beautiful work, 
 the composition of which is well known through the engraving by 
 Le Bas, is nevertheless a rare example of the master at his surest 
 and strongest. The wonderful red which flashes like the gleaming 
 of jewels from the hair and breast knots worn by the lady, is 
 supported by the duller crimson of her lover's cap and cloak and 
 the rich purples and golden browns of her own dress, whilst pale 
 pinks and blues and yellows play fitfully over these broader masses 
 of colour, the hues worn by the secondary figures serving merely 
 to break the uniformity of tint in the background. The painting 
 of the flesh and the drawing of the hands show each touch running 
 freely from the brush, yet defining every form with magical certainty 
 of accent, and present the supreme attraftion of Watteau's most 
 spontaneous art. When this masterwork was exhibited in 1898 
 at the Guildhall, its thoroughness, solidity and completeness made 
 the neighbouring canvas, "Scene de Jardin avec Pierrot," — pearly 
 and delicate as it was in general effedl — look thin and empty. ^ 
 The " Scene de Jardin," like the " Assemblee dans un pare," was 
 indeed, as Mariette would have said, " une esquisse legere ; " it 
 had, unfortunately, also suffered from reckless cleaning, the colour 
 having been removed in some places to the very ground, but some 
 parts, such as the head and right hand, indeed one may say the 
 greater portion of the figure of Pierrot, had remained intadl, and 
 showed the perfeftion of Watteau's enchanting touch. 
 
 Now this enchanting touch has one unfailing chara(5leristic. 
 Whether Watteau sketches rapidly, as in " La Troupe Italienne " 
 — a work of fairy-like grace, in a state of admirable preservation, 
 now in the colledlion of M. Edmond de Rothschild ^ — or treats his 
 subjedt with the deliberate intention of perfection, as in " La Gamme 
 d'Amour," we are invariably struck by the " coulees grasses de son 
 
 ' No. 136, Cat. de Goncourt. Exhibited Guildhall, 1898, No. 59. It originally 
 belonged to Mariette. See A.B.C. Dario. 
 
 » No. 67, Guildhall. 
 
 ' No. 71, Cat. de Goncourt. A second version of this subjeft, that engraved by 
 Boucher, passed from Blenheim into the Wallace collection. I am under the impres- 
 sion that I have seen it at Hertford House, but I am told it is not now there. A poor 
 copy, belonging to M. Wertheimer, was exhibited at the Guildhall, 1898, No. 58. 
 
 84 
 
La Collation. By Watteau. 
 {Royal Museum, Berlin.) 
 
Lancret. 
 
 pinceau." The way in which he models with the point of a full Wattcau, 
 
 brush the forms of his subjed:s, is as noticeable in his earliest as in f ^^®/j^ 
 
 his latest work. You have this marked charadteristic in " La vraie 
 
 gaiete " and in " La Recrue allant joindre le Regiment " just as you 
 
 have it in " Le Rendezvous de Chasse," ^ which is one of the most 
 
 important of the great group of Watteau's works at Hertford House, 
 
 where we find also the famous " Amusements champetres " ^ once in 
 
 the gallery of Cardinal Fesch. Let us remember that " La vraie gaiete " 
 
 and " La Recrue allant joindre le Regiment " are the earliest works 
 
 by Watteau that we know, j ust as the " Rendezvous de Chasse," painted 
 
 for M. de Julienne in 1 72 1 , is one of the latest, and observe that in both 
 
 these, as in all the intermediate work, which represents the various 
 
 stages of Watteau's marvellous talent, we find the same character of 
 
 touch. It is present in all the most authentic examples that I can call 
 
 to mind, in " Finette," ^ in the " Mezzetin " and " L' Amante inquiete" 
 
 of Chantilly ; in the " Plaisir Pastoral " of the same colle<5lion; in 
 
 the ruined " Mariee de village " at Potsdam; in the better preserved 
 
 " La Danse;" in the brilliant "Gille et sa Famille" * and "Harlequin 
 
 and Columbine " ^ both at Hertford House, and — not to make my 
 
 list too long — in the " Fetes Venitiennes " and " Le Nid " or 
 
 "Denicheur de Moineaux" of the Scottish National Gallery. 
 
 Where this peculiarity is absent, I am always inclined to pause before 
 
 accepting the most apparently authentic page, even if the quality 
 
 and tone are worth appreciation, and, for this reason, I have 
 
 hesitated to concur with those who have attributed to Watteau 
 
 the " Duet," in Sir Francis Cook's colleftion, in which a man 
 
 and woman are seen singing, the woman holding a sheet of music, 
 
 on which the light falls from a candle in the man's hand.® It 
 
 is a fine study, but the flesh colour has been laid on thick and 
 
 not very wet, then dragged from a square-tipped brush — a pra<5lice 
 
 which I fail to identify with that exhibited in the candle-light 
 
 piece " L' Amour au Theatre-Italien " in the Prussian National 
 
 Gallery, with which it has been compared.^ The execution of 
 
 this noble work, which is certainly not lacking either in solidity 
 
 or strength, shows practice absolutely the reverse of that exem- 
 
 ' No. 164, Cat. de Gt. Ex. ; Bethnal Green, No. 446, and R. A. 1889, No. 102. 
 Engd. by Aubert. 
 
 ' De Goncourt, p. 171. Ex. Beth. Green, No. 402 ; R. A. 1889, No. 91. 
 
 ' No. 83, Cat. de Gt. Mus^e du Louvre. Etched by Rajon. 
 
 * No. 178, Cat. de Gt. Ex. ; Beth. Green, No. 452, and R. A. 1889, No. 95. 
 
 ' No. 179, Cat. de Gt. Ex. ; R. A. 1889, No. 99. 
 
 ' Exhibited at the Guildhall, 1898, No. 53. 
 
 ' No. 470, Cat. of the Gallery, No. 69, Cat. de Gt. Engd., as also its companion 
 "L' Amour au Th^atre-Franjais," No 468, by Cochin. 
 
 85 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 of Fetes 
 Galantes. 
 
 plified in the " Duet." The flesh-painting throughout has pre- 
 cisely that special charadter which is always typical of Watteau's 
 work — the current stroke of the brush — the hands of " Gilles " — 
 who for once has borrowed from the " Mezzetin " his mandoline 
 — are written in with the same nervous accent which is present in 
 every line of the " Gamme d' Amour," as in all genuine work by the 
 master's hand, but of which there is no trace in the " Duet." 
 
 Amongst the more admirable triumphs of Watteau's art must 
 also be mentioned two works but little known : the " Toilette du 
 matin " in the colleftion of the Vicomtesse de Courval,^ and the 
 " Toilette " at Hertford House ^ which has never been engraved, 
 but which is probably the work which once belonged to the 
 Marquis Maison. There is no more beautiful piece of flesh-painting 
 in the whole of Watteau's work than the body of the girl, to whom 
 the maid presents her shift in the " Toilette," nor any figure more 
 full of charm than that of the graceful, long-limbed woman to 
 whom the kneeling servant ofl^ers the bowl of water and the sponge 
 in "Toilette du matin." Both these subjedts are very evidently 
 portraits, and the Venus of " L'Amour desarme," painted by 
 Watteau " d'apres I'invention de Paul Veronese," presents the 
 charafteristics of another and no less delicately observed type. 
 Here, we get one of Watteau's favourite models, of whom we 
 have a study, in black and red chalk, as she sits to him, her needle- 
 work thrown aside on her chair, which is preserved in the Print 
 Room of the British Museum.^ This study has served, also — as 
 adapted first in a drawing of the Albertine colle(5tion — for his 
 celebrated " Diane au bain," * and we cannot but conjed:ure from 
 the frequency with which the same model appears in everyday 
 dress amongst his sketches and drawings, that she is none other 
 than the handsome maid of whom d'Argenville says, that she 
 habitually sat to him.^ 
 
 A recent writer attributes to Watteau " le sens du gracieux, de 
 I'indolent, de I'attenue " — this he had, but he had also the sense of 
 virile strength and charadter, of health and beauty. The gracile 
 elegance of such work as the screen in the possession of M. 
 Groult, and which comes even more prettily in the engraving of 
 " Crepy filius, chez Surugue," is not the constant form of Watteau's 
 
 * No. 94, Cat. de Gt. 
 
 ' See pp. 93, 171 and 172, Cat. de Gt. No. 429, Cat. Bethnal Green, and R. A. 
 1889, No. 1 08. 
 
 3 Reproduced p. 9 of d'Argenty's " Watteau." Nearly all the genuine drawings 
 by Watteau in the Print Room of the British Museum have been reproduced in this work, 
 
 * No. 36, Cat. de Gt. Sold to Mme. Nilsson, 11 mai, 1896, for 170,000 fr. 
 ' Vol. iv., p. 407. 
 
 86 
 
Gii.LEs. By Watteau. 
 (Collection La Caze, Musee du Louvre.) 
 
fancy.^ His work varied very much, as the work of a man needs Wattcau, 
 must vary who fights his way with uncertain strength. In large work Pater, 
 he is, as one would expe(5l, never at his splendid best. There is a 
 want of breadth even in the treatment of the head of his life-size 
 portrait of de Julienne^ and, for this reason, I should be disinclined 
 to accept the attribution to Watteau of the important portrait of a 
 young noble in the Edouard Andre collection, in which I can deted: 
 no similar weakness. The head, too, of the famous " Grand Gilles " 
 of the Galerie La Caze^ shows a certain lack of grasp, though in 
 other respe6ts this extraordinary work, in which Watteau has shown 
 with how masterly a brush he could handle great masses of white 
 in outdoor light, is a noble performance. The explosion of light 
 from the centre of the pifture upwards — a system which he has 
 again employed in that lovely bit of charafter '* L'Indifferent " * — 
 has extraordinary force. The figure of the " Gilles " (much too 
 youthful for a portrait, as was once supposed, of Biancolelli),^ suggests 
 a certain nervous aftivity, a readiness for energetic movement even 
 in repose, which specially characterises many of Watteau's favourite 
 types, and above all distinguishes the band of Italian adtors^amongst 
 whom he so frequently found his models. The quality is noticeable 
 in several figures of " L'Amour au Theatre-Italien," and in " Les 
 Comediens Italiens " ^ — still exquisitely fresh in colour though the 
 surface is somewhat cracked — in which '* le Mezzetin " forms the 
 centre figure, we get the same impression of vitality and alertness. 
 
 But the " Comediens Italiens," now in the collection of 
 M. Groult, is a late work, painted in England for DoCtor Mead, 
 and the attenuated long-drawn type appears only in Watteau's 
 earlier efforts ; the "Vertumne et Pomone" engraved by Boucher,^ 
 several of the " Figures de differents caraCteres " ^ and those of " La 
 
 ' Nos. 309-314, Cat. de Goncourt. 
 Colin. Groult. Watteau also painted himself, with de Julienne in a landscape, 
 " jouant de la basse." " On a de ce tableau une fort belle estampe du au burin de Tardieu 
 p4re." Note, M6m. Wille. 
 
 ' Cat. de Goncourt, p. 76. Engraved for " L'Art " by Mile. Rhodon. 
 
 ' No. 84, Cat. de Goncourt. There is a fine study for this figure in two chalks 
 in M. Bonnat's collediion. 
 
 ' See Cat. de Goncourt, p. 76. It is different from the head of the " Gille " in the 
 " Comediens Italiens " painted for Dr. Mead and now in the colledtion of M. Camille 
 Groult. 
 
 ' No. 68, Cat. de Goncourt. 
 No. 41, Cat. de Goncourt. Mariette says this work served, for some time, as 
 the signboard of a painter on the " pont Notre-Dame" before it entered M. de Julienne's 
 colleftion. It has been freely copied by Antoine Pesne. He has made Pomona sit 
 down, but otherwise the composition is the same. See P. Seidel, "Friedrich der 
 grosse und die Franzosische Malerei seiner Zeit." 
 
 ' See No. 222, " Recueil de diff. caradteres," etc. 
 
 87 
 
X^^ Collation"^ in the Prussian National Gallery share this peculiaritVt 
 
 Painters ii- • i-z-i-ri 
 
 of Fetes "^^ "^^ ^Y^ ^^^ ^°° J^^*' "^^ reeling for beauty too true to rest 
 
 Galantes. satisfied with proportions such as those which were, perhaps, 
 imposed on him by M. Dieu, for whom he executed the droll 
 " Louis XIV. metant le cordon bleu a Monsieur de Bourgogne." ^ 
 No one who is acquainted with the magnificent series of his drawings 
 in the British Museum, in the Louvre, at Chantilly, or in the 
 colledlions of well-known amateurs such as M. Bonnat,^ M. Groult 
 and M. Jacques Doucet, can fail to be enthusiastic as to Watteau's 
 powers as a draughtsman. The value of these studies was all the 
 greater since we learn from Caylus, that Watteau never made any 
 projedls or sketches, even of the slightest kind, for his paintings. 
 He made all his drawings from life in a bound volume, so that he 
 always had a great quantity of figures to choose from under his 
 hand. These he consulted whenever he was about to paint, 
 selecting such as suited his purpose and arranging them, generally, 
 in reference to a landscape background which he had drawn or 
 designed. The gardens of the Luxembourg — in which a few years 
 later we hear of the Queen of Spain running wild and washing 
 her clothes in the fountains^ — were always less precisely kept than 
 those of other royal palaces. They furnished Watteau with an 
 infinite variety of subjedt and, whilst living with Crozat, he 
 exchanged Les Porcherons — where Mariette says that he painted 
 " L'Abbreuvoir " and " Le Marais " ^ — for the magnificent gardens 
 of Montmorency, which owed their beauty to Le Brun, their "ancien 
 maitre," ^ and which form the background of " La Perspedlive," ^ 
 a painting executed by Watteau for Guesnon the " menuisier du 
 roi," and of many of his " Fetes champetres." The frequency, too, 
 with which Watteau has introduced into his work Sarrazin's famous 
 group of the two children feeding a goat with grapes, shows that 
 the picturesque " Bosquet de Marly " had also attracted him.* 
 
 ' No. 474^. No. 1 1 8, Cat. de Goncourt. 
 
 " No. 50, Cat. de Goncourt. This pidure, given by Frederick the Great to his 
 brother Prince Henry, is now lost. See P. Seidel, "Friedrich der grosse," etc., p. 12. 
 
 ' Several of the finest from the colledlion of Miss James, sold 1891, passed into 
 the hands of M. Bonnat. 
 
 * "Journal de Mathieu Marais," August 25th, 1727. 
 ' Nos. 194 and 195, Cat. de Goncourt. 
 
 * D'Argenville, Voy. pitt. The chateau, like Pierre Crozat's house in the rue de 
 Richelieu, was built by Cartaud. 
 
 ' No. 1 52, Cat. de Goncourt. 
 
 ' We find this group introduced with variations in " La Famille," gr. Aveline, in 
 '* Amusements champetres," gr. B. Audran, in " Assembl^e dans un pare " (No, 474, 
 National Gallery, Berlin), and various other works. The group itself is now in the 
 Tardin des Plantes. 
 
 88 
 
Studies of a Negro's Head. By Watteau. 
 (National Museum, Stockholm.) 
 
Sketches of landscape, such as the beautiful " Coin de village " Watteau, 
 in M. Bonnat's collediion, are by no means amongst the least f^t^r, 
 valuable of Watteau's drawings. For the most part they are executed 
 very simply in red chalk, they are " pensees a la sanguine " — often, 
 indeed, very slight. " Je ne fais pas ce que je veux," he writes one 
 May morning to M. de Julienne, " en ce que la pierre grise et la 
 pierre de sanguine sont fort dures en ce moment," ^ but it would be 
 difficult to find a drawing in which his tools do not seem to have 
 been as playthings in his hands. Three men are sketched by him 
 in a drawing belonging to M. Groult, one listening, :whilst two 
 are playing the flute, and of these two we see, at a glance, that 
 one can play and that the other cannot. A woman throws herself 
 down to rest, in another drawing of the same colle6tion, — we know 
 from her movement, from the very pressure of the perfedlly drawn 
 hand, from the very outline of her skirts, where she is lying ; she 
 is lounging on the grass, and her figure will reappear in " L' Amour 
 paisible." ^ 
 
 Love, indeed, is always " paisible " as conceived by Watteau. 
 Passion never seems to trouble his dreams of pleasure. M. Mantz — 
 writing of " Finette " in the Galerie La Caze — has said, that " a une 
 realite choisie, cette peinture mele quelquechose qui semble venu 
 du pays des fees." This something, coming from the realms of 
 fairyland, etherealizes the coquetries which enliven the "faire disport 
 and courting dalliance" in which his gay dames and gallant cavaliers 
 indulge, as they keep perpetual holiday beneath the shadows of the 
 woods, on sun-lit lawns or flowery fields : 
 
 " Tout en chantant sur le mode mineur, 
 L'Amour vainqueur et la vie opportune, 
 lis n'ont pas I'air de croire a leur bonheur, 
 Et leur chanson se mele au clair de lune." 
 
 They may limit themselves to " La Conversation"^ or a "Concert"^ 
 they may indulge in the " Plaisirs du bal " or of a " Fete champetre " ^ 
 
 ' May 3rd, 1 721. See Mantz, G. B. A. 1890, p. 27. 
 
 ' No. 102, Cat. de Goncourt. The work is at Berlin. It was painted for 
 Dr. Mead, and engd. by Favannes. The same insight into gesture characterises 
 " L'Occupation selon I'age " a work which otherwise has never inspired me with 
 admiration. It was exhibited R. A. No. 258, 1871, and is now in the coUedtion of 
 baron Alphonse de Rothschild. 
 
 ' Coll". Groult. This work seems to have escaped the notice of M. de Gon- 
 court, who catalogues under this title another subjedl engraved by Liotard. See Cat. 
 de Goncourt, No. 123. 
 
 * Berlin, Hertford House, and Musee d' Angers. 
 
 ' Both in the Dulwich Gallery. See Cat. de Goncourt, No. 155. The "Fete 
 champetre" of the d'Aremberg gallery at Brussels is a repetition of the "Fete champetre" 
 at Madrid. See Leopold Mabilleau, G. B. A. 1895. 
 
 89 N 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 of F6tes 
 Galantes. 
 
 dance in a *' Garden Pavilion " ^ or risk the more a6live amusement 
 of " Le Jeu de I'Escarpolette," ^ their warmest caresses are meet for 
 children's eyes, rarely is there a suggestion of sentiment in which 
 these little ones cannot share. Again and again we see them 
 clinging to their young mother's knee, or listening to her voice. ^ 
 Sometimes their play is Watteau's only theme, as in the quaint 
 group " Iris c'est de bonne heure avoir I'air a la danse " in the Neues 
 Palais, Potsdam, or in " Heureux Age,"* a work to which unusual 
 interest is attached, as it is one of the two small pidlures which he 
 painted for the comtesse de Verrue, the famous " Dame de la 
 Volupte." In the " Rendezvous de Chasse " and its companion, 
 " Amusements Champetres " ^ ; in the beautiful unfinished " As- 
 semblee dans une pare " of the Berlin Gallery ; ^ in the " Garden 
 party in the Champs Elysees " '' and " La Gamme d'Amour," ^ 
 groups occur such as the two children with the dog in the 
 " Music Party," ^ whilst in " La Recreation Italienne," ^° now at 
 Sans Souci ; in " Les Pasteurs," at the Neues Palais, children figure 
 prominently, and by their very presence give an air of innocence 
 to the gaiety of the fantastic creatures whom Burger branded as " les 
 courtisannes de Watteau." ^^ 
 
 The gaiety of Watteau's art resides, it must be confessed, not so 
 much in the lively airs of his aftors as in the sunlit brilliance of his 
 colour, and this brilliancy, which rests on great purity rather than 
 intensity of tone, is made up of a marvellous variety of uncertain 
 
 * "Tanz im Garten Halle," Neues Palais, Potsdam. 
 
 ' Coll". Mme. Edouard Andr6. The two principal figures in this work are identical 
 with those in the engraving of the same subjedt by "L. Cr6py." A group of three 
 figures on the right replaces in the pidture the arabesque ornament of the engraving. 
 
 ' " La Lecon," " Pour nous prouver que cette belle," engraved by Surugue, 171 9. 
 Wallace CoUeftion ; No. 177, Cat. de Gt. This group is treated at full length in the 
 " Music Party " of the same coUedlion, of which there is a repetition at Potsdam. The 
 engraving of the subjeft by Philip Mercier is dedicated to de Caylus. 
 
 * No. 108, Cat. de Gt.; Ex. R.A. 1819, No. 86. Colkaion of Mr. Alfred de 
 Rothschild. This work was sold together with "L'Assembl^e galante" in 1737 on 
 the death of the comtesse de Verrue. 
 
 ' No. 164 and'p. 171, Cat. de Gt. ; Ex. Beth. Gn., Nos. 402 and 446, and at R.A. 
 1889, Nos. 102 and 91. 
 
 ' A variation of this work is to be found in the " Assemblde dans une pare " of 
 the Dresden Gallery (No. 781), which, with its companion, "Fete a 1' Amour" (No. 
 782), has been engraved by Champollion. 
 
 ' Wallace Coll". Ex. R.A. 1889, No. 93. 
 
 ' See p. 84. 
 
 ' Ex. Beth. Gn., No. 377, and R.A. 1889, No. 97. See also p. 83. 
 
 '° No. 160, Cat. de Gt. Engraved in the " Recueil de Julienne" by Aveline. 
 Dr. P. Seidel does not appear to have recognized this work. See p. 38 of his work re- 
 ferred to above. 
 
 " See also Paul Mantz, "I'Histoire d'Antoine Watteau," p. 95. 
 
 90 
 
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 Z: 
 D 
 
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hues. His central white is that of a pearl and, like a pearl, takes Watteau, 
 on reflexions from every neighbouring tint. Lamfret. 
 
 Going from room to room in the royal palaces of Potsdam, 
 at the Neues Palais, at Sans Souci, at the Altes Schloss, where we 
 find so many treasures which represent the inexhaustible wealth of 
 Watteau's genius hanging in the company of other masterpieces of 
 French art,^ the eye carries away the impression of his special charm, 
 as a great serenity of light diffused by an iridescence of delicate and 
 changeful hues. It is true that the way in which paintings are 
 treated at Berlin, too often reminds us that " Rien n'est sacre pour 
 un sapeur," for canvases and panels appear to have been cleaned 
 with martial ardour and varnished by a conscientious bootblack, 
 but wherever any portion of the original work remains intadt, 
 this opalescent quality is conspicuous. Here, as elsewhere, when 
 one meets the full strength of that perfedt workman, Chardin, his 
 masterly whites impose themselves by their forceful quality, but 
 Chardin ranks apart — a reigning prince, but of another royal house. 
 It is amongst the canvases of Lancret and of Pater, that one looks 
 for some emulous show of rival loveliness, but Lancret, even in his 
 charming " L'Oiseleur " at the Neues Palais, achieves — in com- 
 parison with Watteau— .no more than a bright parti-coloured 
 insistence, and Pater but rarely, as in his famous " Colin-Maillard " 
 at the Altes Schloss, catches something of the elusive quality and 
 sheen of his great master. 
 
 In spite of the intraftable humour with which he is credited, 
 Watteau was courted by men of worth and reputation. After his 
 success at the Academy (1712) he was overwhelmed with visitors 
 who left him no time to work, and was glad, says Gersaint, on that 
 account, to take refuge with Crozat. Of his employment by the 
 Regent, there is just a trace, shortly before his departure for London, 
 in a receipt, for 26olt., given by " Antoine Vateau le 14 Aoust I'an 
 17 1 9," on account of a picture "qui represente un jardin avec huit 
 figures " ^ but his chief patrons were amateurs such as de Julienne, 
 and " quelques amis qui connoissoient son Sfavoir." The painter of 
 " Fetes galantes " knew neither the high living of men like de Troy, 
 nor the licence of such as Boucher. Every line of the four letters 
 written by him, which have been preserved, shows that, absolutely 
 devoted to his art, Watteau had no thought of cultivating those 
 
 ' For works by French artists now in Prussia, see also " Die Ausstellung alterer 
 meister in Berliner Privatbesitz, 1883," ^ode und Dohme. 
 
 ' A. de I'A. fr., vol iv., p. 112. He also executed for the Regent a miniature 
 work, " Les Singes peintres," now lost. See catalogue by Dubois de Saint-Gelais of 
 the Palais Royal piftures. 
 
 91 
 
The " liaisons avec des gens riches " by which a certain class contrived 
 
 of Fgtes ^° ^iv^ i" luxury. Not one of these letters bears a date other than 
 Galantes. that of the day of the week or month, but two were certainly 
 written after his ill-fated journey to London, as he names in them 
 both Mme. de Julienne, whose marriage took place 9 May, 1720. 
 " II demeurait," says Mariette, " avec Vleughels dans la maison du 
 neveu de M. le Brun sur les fossez de la Doftrine Chretienne, 
 lorsque des idees de fortune le faisait passer a Londres." Thither 
 he went to seek his fortune or his health, and thence he returned, 
 in the summer of 1720, to die a lingering death. On Sept. 20th, 
 1719, Vleughels wrote, apparently by Watteau's wish, to Rosalba 
 Carriera. " Un excellent homme, M. Watteau, duquel vous aurez 
 sans doute entendu parler a le plus grand desir de vous connaitre 
 et d'avoir un petit ouvrage de votre main, en echange il vous 
 enverroit un des siens, ou s'il ne pouvoit I'equivalent. . . . C'est 
 mon ami, il demeure avec moi, il me prie de vous presenter ses 
 respefts les plus humbles et desire une reponse favorable." Rosalba 
 came to Paris in April 1720, and from her diary we learn that 
 Watteau had returned by August 21st in the same year when she 
 enters " Vu M. Vateau et un anglois." On Feb. 9th, I72i,she 
 writes again " Dans la matinee je rendis visite a M. Vateau." ^ As 
 Watteau established himself in Gersaint's house for the first six 
 months after he came back to Paris, the letters to his friend should 
 probably find a place in the year 171 8-19 when he was living either 
 with Vleughels or with Gersaint's father-in-law, the dealer, M. de 
 Sirois. The letter opens cheerfully with " Mon ami Gersaint, Oui, 
 comme tu le desires je me rendrai demain a diner avec Antoine de 
 la Roque,^ chez toi. Je compte aller a la messe a dix heures a St. 
 Germain de Lauxerrois et assurement je seroi rendu chez toi a midi." 
 In the letter of Sept. (1720) he refers to the "Rendezvous de 
 chasse " ^ on which he was then at work, and from that of the third 
 of May (1721) we learn that M. de Julienne had earned the writer's 
 gratitude by lending him " le grand tome premier de I'Ecrit de 
 Leonardo de Vincy " and certain MSS. letters of Rubens, which he 
 apologises for detaining, adding " cette douleur au cote gauche de 
 la teste ne m'a laisse sommeiller depuis Mardi." * 
 
 * " Diario da Rosalba Carriera," Venezia, 1 793. The portrait of her by Watteau 
 was sold at the sale of M. la Live de Jully. See also No. 19, Cat. de Gt. 
 
 " Direfteur de " la Mercure." His portrait by Watteau (engraved by L^pici^) 
 sold in 1850 at the sale of General Despinoy. See "Les Amateurs d'Autrefois," 
 Clement de Ris. See also No. 17, Cat. de Gt. 
 
 ' See p. 85. 
 
 * A. de I'A. fr., t. 2, pp. 210,211. De Julienne made a liberal use of his collec- 
 tions. Wille writes, 27 June, 1761 : "j'allay voir M. de Julienne aux Gobelins. J'y 
 
 92 
 
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This reference to his health does not appear to indicate anything Watteau, 
 worse than the chronic ailments from which Watteau had been all Laifcret. 
 his life a sufferer. The date of the second letter (September) shows 
 that it cannot have been written later than 1719, for in Sept. 1720 
 Watteau was in England — where Doctor Mead gave him, as we have 
 seen, two commissions, and, it is said, induced George I. to buy the 
 pidtures now in Buckingham Palace, and bid his patient " work less 
 and play more."^ Even if it had been possible for Watteau to have 
 followed this advice, it came too late. Of one of the friends he 
 made in England, we have a trace in the engraving by Philippe 
 Mercier ^ of a sketch made by Watteau of himself and his family, 
 of which a copy is preserved in the Print Room of the British 
 Museum. 
 
 The detestable climate, " le mauvais air qui regne a Londres, a 
 cause de la vapeur du charbon de terre dont on fait usage," seems 
 to have hastened the end. He returned from England " deja 
 attaque si vivement de la maladie qu'on nomme dans ce pays la 
 consomption, que depuis il n'a plus traine qu'une vie languissante 
 et qui insensiblement I'a conduit au tombeau." The physical 
 sufferings entailed by " une constitution foible " had been an 
 unceasing cause of restlessness and irritability. Watteau had found 
 Gillot insupportable, had suspected Audran, had withdrawn from 
 Crozat's hospitality to live with Vleughels, or in his little lodging 
 in the house of M. de Sirois — the purchaser of his first pidture — 
 " il voulut vivre a sa fantasie . . . et defendit absolument de 
 decouvrir sa demeure a ceux qui le demanderoient." He had no 
 sooner settled in lodgings, says de Caylus, — who had learnt to know 
 him under Crozat's roof — than he took a dislike to them. He 
 changed hundreds of times . . . The places in which he stopped 
 the most were certain rooms which I had in different parts of 
 
 menay MM. le Capitaine et Ustori voir son magnifique Cabinet. Je fus fort content 
 car outre le bon accueil . . . il me preta un tableau de Gerard Dow." 
 
 ' Mr. F. G. Stephens says that "these paintings, and probably one or two others, 
 are all the Watteaus that we hear of in this country, till the great English colle£lions 
 were formed late in the last century. Watteaus were in such low esteem in this 
 country, that they fetched trivial prices. So late as 1856, not one of the five sold at 
 the Rogers' sale realized more than 185 guineas, and the charming "Lady in a Red 
 Dress," although it had been engraved, fetched onlyj^i47." This statement evidently 
 requires some modification, since in 1744, count v. Rottenburg tells Frederick the 
 Great that Watteaus fetch a higher price than Lancrets or Paters, and that his works 
 are already rare having, almost all, gone to England, where " on en fait un cas infini." 
 Dr. P. Seidel, p. 6. 
 
 ' No 1 5, Cat. de Gt. Mercier lived in London, but was born in Berlin, and was 
 a pupil of Antoine Pesne, Horace Walpole says he painted somewhat like Watteau, 
 and M. Mantz has suggested that many so-called Watteaus in English coUedtions are 
 by him and I have no doubt, from my own experience, that this is so. 
 
 93 
 
The Paris, which we used for painting and drawing from the life.* In 
 
 ^^If.*^*'^ these rooms, solely dedicated to art, freed from all outside claims, 
 Gala^ntes. ^^ tasted, he and I with a common friend (M. Henin), the pure 
 joy of youth joined to the fever of the imagination, " I'une et I'autre 
 unies sans cesse aux charmes de la peinture. Je puis dire," he 
 concludes, " que ce Watteau si sombre, si atrabiliare, si timide et 
 si caustique parfois, n'etoit plus alors que le Watteau de ses tableaux, 
 c'est a dire I'auteur qu'ils font imaginer — agreable, tendre et peut- 
 etre un peu berger," ^ 
 
 It is of this Watteau, the painter of the lovely "Lefon 
 d'amour," ^ of the magnificent " Amusements champetres," * and of 
 " Les Plaisirs du Bal," ^ so frequently copied by Pater, that one 
 fain would think ; yet, side by side with de Caylus' charming 
 sketch, there rises before us, that other vision of the man whose sad 
 eyes and mouth, pitifully drawn, give a painful chara6ler to most 
 portraits of Watteau. The drawing in the Musee Conde,^ which 
 was engraved by Boucher at the head of the first volume of the 
 " Recueil," published by M. de Julienne, shows the face rather 
 fuller and younger than in either of the portraits in the Groult 
 colleftion, but the same depressing lines, which may have been 
 stirred from time to time in moments of animation, drag the corners 
 of the lips and eyes. The small full-length — in which we see him 
 seated in a garden with his violoncello between his knees — is, per- 
 haps, the happiest memorial of him which remains to us, and it is 
 in a perfedt state of preservation.^ The small and slight sketch of 
 his head, by himself, also in oils, shows stronger signs of charadter ; 
 we divine the capricious and irritable temper, the keen wits and pas- 
 sionate instinfts constantly betrayed by the failing body ; we see how 
 it was that he was always ill content with himself, and why he was 
 
 ' There is a sketch by Watteau, in the Print Room of the British Museum, of a 
 man in a dressing-gown seated at an etching-table, which may record a scene of this 
 life in common. 
 
 " Caylus. De Goncourt, « L'Art du XVIII Siecle," 2nd ed., vol. i., p. 48. M. 
 Mantz took exception (G. B. A. 1890, p. 168) to the statement made by Caylus that 
 he and Henin prepared work for Watteau, which he touched up. It does not, though, 
 seem unlikely, when we remember his feverish impatience and his liking for coloured 
 studies of work he admired. 
 
 ^ Neues Palais, Potsdam. No. 144, Cat. de Gt. * See pp. 85 and 90. 
 
 ' Or "Bal sous un Colonnade," No. 210, Dulwich Gallery. No. 155, Cat. de 
 Goncourt. There is some doubt as to whether this work is not a copy by Pater. 
 There are several repetitions, of which one is at Blenheim Palace. 
 
 " No. 12, Cat. de Gt. De Julienne was faithful to the memory of Watteau. 
 Dec. 31, 1 7 39, the register of the Academy has the following entry, " M. de Julienne 6\u 
 amateur fait present de I'ceuvre de Watteau . . . quatre beaux volumes reliez en maro- 
 quin contenant une suitte de toutes les estampes gravdes d'aprds Watteau, Acad^micien." 
 
 ' Possibly by Lancret. 
 
 94 
 
L'Enseigne Gersaint. 
 {Altes Sch/oss, 
 
By Watteau. 
 Berlin.) 
 
reckless as to the materials he used and the way in which he Watteau, 
 employed them. Eight days sufficed for Gersaint's famous " plajond," Lancret. 
 or signboard, which Watteau painted on his return to Paris from 
 England " pour se degourdir les doigts." 
 
 " L'on s^ait," remarks Gersaint, " la reussite qu'eut ce morceau ; 
 le tout etoit fait d'apres nature ; les groupes si bien entendus, qu'il 
 attiroit les yeux des passants, et meme les plus habiles peintres 
 vinrent a plusieurs fois pour I'admirer. Ce fut le travail de huit 
 journees, encore n'y travailloit-il que les matins, sa sante delicate, 
 ou pour mieux dire sa foiblesse, ne lui permettant pas de s'occuper 
 plus longtemps." For a vivid pidture of the way in which the 
 work was done we have to thank de Caylus, who confirms Gersaint's 
 statement that in order to hasten his result, Watteau was addidled 
 to too " fat " painting. This method required sound preparations, 
 but Watteau hardly ever made any. He was in the habit, instead, 
 when he took up a picture, already begun, of rubbing it over with 
 his " huile grasse " before repainting. The momentary advantage 
 thus obtained, in the end, injured his work, and its ill effefts were 
 increased by a slovenliness in practice which of necessity has 
 prevented his colours from standing. Rarely did he clean his 
 palette and often it was left unset for days. His pot of oil, of 
 which he made so much use, was full of dirt and dust, mixed with 
 all sorts of colours which dropped from the brushes which he dipped 
 in it. If the eiFedl obtained satisfied him, well and good ; if not, 
 his work was destroyed as hastily as it had been produced. No 
 considerations of profit sufficed to stay his hand, though his 
 indifference to money was somewhat affedled, says de Caylus, by 
 his stay in London, where he tells us that Watteau, though a 
 Frenchman, " fut asses accueilli et ne laissa pas de faire ses affaires 
 du cote de I'utile," but during his earlier years he carried this 
 indifference to such a point that his only answer to the friends who 
 remonstrated with him on his imprudence was, " Le pis aller n'est- 
 ce-pas, I'hopital ? On n'y refuse personne." 
 
 In spite of this careless destrudlion of all that did not please 
 him — and even, if the fancy took him, of things which he admitted 
 to be good — the mass of work which he left behind him, at the 
 close of his brief span of thirty-seven years, was great. ^ To the 
 last, "quoique ses infirmites continuelles ne luy laissassent pas un 
 
 ' This amount is swelled by the skill of numerous imitators and copyists. At 
 Berlin and Potsdam, as in many English colleftions, much exists which has no title to 
 bear his name, and I do not think that we are within an appreciable distance of deciding 
 the share of Jacques Mercier and others in works now attributed to Watteau. See 
 note 3, p. 93. 
 
 95 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 of Fetes 
 Galantes. 
 
 moment d'intervalle, il travailla neanmoins de terns en tems." 
 When the summer drew on, Watteau, in restless misery, removed 
 from Paris to the lodging at Nogent which his friend the Abbe 
 Harenger had obtained for him in the house of M. Le Febvre, 
 "intendant des menus." Here, he lingered awhile, then died, 
 in Gersaint's arms, on July i8th, 1721. "Nous avons perdu ce 
 pauvre Watteau," writes Crozat to Rosalba (11 Aout, 1721) "qui 
 a fini ses jours, le pinceau a la main."^ To the last he worked; 
 to the last he was tormented by the desire of change, and was 
 planning how he might return once again to his native Valen- 
 ciennes, believing that there he might recover. The four " best 
 friends " to whom he left his drawings : — Gersaint, de Julienne, the 
 Abbe Harenger and M. Henin — buried him and paid his debts, 
 sending his little fortune (9,ooolt.) to the family at Valenciennes. 
 
 Tradition has dwelt persistently in telling Watteau's story on 
 the peculiarities of a character troubled by constant pain which had 
 rendered him " incommode " — ill to live with. Yet no man was 
 ever more devoted to another than Gersaint was to Watteau. It is 
 to Gersaint, of whom Watteau has left us a curious small miniature 
 portrait,^ that we owe the account of those relations to Pater, 
 which are not merely interesting in point of faft, but throw light 
 on the sincerity and beauty of Watteau's nature. He told Gersaint 
 that he thought he had been unfair to Pater,^ who, being like 
 himself a native of Valenciennes, had been sent to him as a pupil by 
 his father,* in the hope that he would give him special help and 
 prote6lion. He, however, had driven him away instead of 
 encouraging him. In making this confession to Gersaint, Watteau 
 did not spare himself, even adding, " qu'il I'avoit redoute." In 
 order, therefore, to make reparation before death, Watteau sent for 
 Pater, then a young man of five-and-twenty, to Nogent, set him to 
 work before him and " lui abandonna les derniers jours de sa vie." 
 
 Gersaint further tells us that Pater always freely acknowledged 
 his debt to Watteau, saying that he owed all he knew to " ce peu 
 de temps qu'il avoit mis a profit " but whether he was worth the 
 sacrifice may be doubted. Except in the sense of chara6ler and 
 variety which distinguishes the heads of his personages^ he shows 
 
 * The "Mercure" of Fev., 1 721, announces that "M. Watteau, Natier et un autre, 
 sont charges de desiner pour M. Crozat le jeune les tableaux du Roi et du Regent," 
 but the work was indefinitely delayed and the prospeftus only reappeared in 1728. 
 
 ' Colin. Groult. ' 1696-1736. R. Dec. 31st, 1728. 
 
 * A portrait of Antoine Pater, father of J. B. Pater, is ascribed to Watteau in the 
 Mus6e de Valenciennes. 
 
 " See drawings in the Louvre ; at the Museums of Grenoble and Angers (Sketch 
 for " Baigneuses "), and Print Room, British Museum. • 
 
 96 
 
none of that vivacity of temperament which distinguished his great Watteau, 
 master, and Watteau's teaching must necessarily have been ill- P^*®*"' 
 assimilated by one of so opposite a disposition. That rapidity of 
 execution by which Watteau strove not only to keep pace with the 
 liveliness of his impressions, but to force, as it were, the hand of 
 time, lends a singular charm to his painting whenever it has retained 
 its early beauty. It has the charm of work done without the sense 
 of responsibility, a charm which we often get in sketches and 
 drawings, but which deserts the finished labour of most men. 
 
 Pater had no such natural readiness and grace ; his methods 
 were mechanical. Even in his own day he was accused " de ne 
 pas savoire mettre une figure ensemble, et d'avoir un pinceau 
 pesant." Nor does the contrast between master and pupil stop 
 here. Careful of the future, even as Watteau was careless. Pater 
 spent his whole life in earning and hoarding. Never resting in his 
 haste to get rich, he denied himself necessaries, taking pleasure 
 only in counting that gold the acquisition of which is said to have 
 cost him his life, and Mariette, who judges him with extreme 
 harshness, adds, by way of epitaph, in recording his premature 
 death, "Je n'ai rien vu de si miserable que lui."^ 
 
 Even now, looking at Pater with a fairer mind, we are still 
 forced to admit that his early works, done under the dired: inspira- 
 tion of Watteau, were his best. At Sans Souci, his " Soldats en 
 marche,"^ which recalls the subjedl of his "Soldiers halting,^ at 
 Hertford House, and which is undoubtedly superior to its com- 
 panion " Soldats devant la taverne," not only shows forcible tone 
 and lively drawing, but has something of the merit of similar early 
 work by his master. The "Landscape" by him, which was at 
 one time ascribed to Watteau,^ is also executed with a scrupulous 
 method which contrasts with his handling at a later date. Eager, 
 we are told, to make money. Pater's execution, as the years go on, 
 becomes more and more superficial. He draws, rather than models 
 his heads, runs his local colour over monochrome preparations, relies 
 on conventional landscape of pale greys touched in gold, dresses his 
 figures with a pretty taste, mostly in white and lilac and pink, and 
 
 ' See also " La mort de J. B. Pater." Foucart. Paris, 1891. The « Scelli " of 
 his eftefts confirms to some extent the statement of Mariette. N. A. 1883, p. 328. 
 
 ' Dr. Dohme ranks with this work " Landliche Tanz " and " Der Fischer." 
 
 ' Beth. Green, No. 438. There is an etching, " Halte de Regiment," amongst 
 Pater's work (Print Room, B. M.) which resembles " Les Plaisirs du Camp," engraved 
 by Lalauze. 
 
 * In the Neues Palais, Potsdam, Attributed by Dr, Dohme (Jahrbuch der K. P. 
 Kunstsammlungen 1 883, p. 230) to Watteau, it has now been properly restored to Pater, 
 whose name it originally bore. Seidel, pp. 50, 51. 
 
 97 o 
 
The enhances the miniature elegance of their heads by the complexion 
 
 ^.^P ^^''^ of a waxen doll. In his diploma work, the " Fete champetre " of 
 Galantes. the Louvre (1728); in the four examples of the Galerie La Caze; 
 in the famous "Pleasure Barge ;"^ in his remarkable "Ladies 
 Bathing;^ in the "Court and Village Festivals " ^ of the Wallace 
 colle6tion we find a certain elegance in the figures which dis- 
 tinguishes his work from that of Lancret, who, in wit as well as in 
 learning, was perhaps his superior. In proof of this we may confront 
 his coarse, slovenly and not very amusing illustrations to Scarron's 
 "Roman Comique " * with his celebrated "Fete champetre," the 
 largest pidture that he ever painted,^ and which, together with 
 twenty-two other works also by him, figures in the list of the 
 Prussian Royal colle6lions at Berlin. 
 
 The " Ladies Bathing," which has just been named, is in the 
 National Gallery of Scotland, and bears, if I remember rightly, a 
 considerable resemblance to " The Bath," ^ a variation of the same 
 subjeft now at Hertford House. The work at Hertford House 
 has, unfortunately, like the version by Lancret of a similar subjedl,'^ 
 darkened much, though the flesh painting is still very pretty. It 
 is a subje6l which Pater has constantly repeated, sometimes repro- 
 ducing portions almost exaftly, as for example the central group, 
 which reappears in the " Baigneuses dans un pare," bought by 
 Count Tessin, which is now in the National Gallery at Stockholm.^ 
 Sometimes he slightly varies the composition or adds some new 
 feature, such as the awning stretched amongst the trees of the repeti- 
 tion at the Neues Palais, Potsdam,^ into which he has also intro- 
 duced figures from the " Bain rustique," ^"^ and again, in a more im- 
 portant canvas, the " Badende Madchen," also hanging in this 
 palace, the same composition, freely modified and in some parts 
 transposed, reappears. This version has not, however, the strength 
 
 ' Colleftion of M'. Alfred de Rothschild. Ex. R. A., 1896, No. 77. 
 
 ' Scottish National Gallery, No. 366. 
 
 ° Nos. 376 and 424, Beth. Green. 
 
 * Fourteen of these are in the Neues Palais, Potsdam. 
 
 ' In the Neues Palais, Potsdam. It is signed and dated "Pater 1753." 
 
 " Beth. Gn., No. 430. 
 
 ' Beth. Gn., No. 450, and R. A., 1889, No. 104. 
 
 ' His "Jeune dame allant se coucher," and its companion, "Jeune dame se levant," 
 are also in Sweden. See p. 85 " CoUeftions privies de la Suede." Olof Granberg. 
 Stockholm, 1880. 
 
 ° " Das Bad," reproduced in " Friedrich der Grosse und die Franzosische Malerei 
 seiner Zeit." P. Seidel. 
 
 '° See the print by Cardon. The freedom with which Pater makes use of this 
 composition justifies the query, Is not the painting in the d'Aremberg collection, en- 
 graved by Ant. Cardon as " apres le tableau d'Antoine Watteau," really by Pater ? 
 
 98 
 
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and depth of tone which distinguishes that excellent example of Watteau, 
 
 Pater's earlier manner, the pidture in the Edinburgh gallery ; the Pater, 
 
 magnificent dresses of the attendant cavaliers and the costumes 
 
 of the women about to disrobe give remarkable beauty and 
 
 value to the flesh of the bathers, who disport themselves in the 
 
 great circular basin of water which fills the foreground. In the 
 
 midst is a sculptured fountain backed by a semicircular colonnade 
 
 in partial shadow, beneath which are various figures. Here, close 
 
 to the fountain, stands conspicuous a lady, accompanied by a man, 
 
 and her pale pinkish draperies spread the pearl-like tones of the flesh 
 
 of the single undraped central figure resting against the marble of 
 
 the fountain before joining her companions in the water. Some 
 
 are on their way to the opposite bank, where two fair dames look 
 
 on, whilst one who has bravely crossed is received by her maid 
 
 and wrapped in a dull red cloak, the tone of which is repeated in 
 
 the cape of a man who, his dog at his side, stands looking on, with 
 
 a companion woman, in the dark shadows to the left. 
 
 Another excellent illustration of Pater's art at its best occurs in 
 "Le Desir de Plaire " in the colledlion of the marquise de Lavalette,^ 
 the composition of which is known to us all through the engraving 
 by Surugue, The central group — that of the little lady and her 
 attendants at the toilette table — is almost identical with that of " La 
 Toilette " in the Louvre, but in the " Desir de Plaire " the painter 
 has introduced additional figures, and has opened a large doorway, 
 behind the priest who enters, thanks to a venal handmaiden, through 
 which a pleasant glimpse is given of the garden beyond. Not only is 
 the treatment but also the execution of " Le Desir de Plaire " more 
 amusing than usual with Pater. The colour is almost rich, and 
 the scarlet striped gown of the maid, who warms linen at the fire 
 in the near foreground, is a really good bit of sound and vigorous 
 painting. Pater is too often satisfied with that arrangement of pink 
 and white helped by a little lilac which distinguishes the beau- 
 tiful " Fete champetre " in the same colle<5tion,^ and the " Fete 
 champetre " of the South Kensington Museum. 
 
 None of these undoubtedly authentic works by Pater show, as 
 far as I can see, any such resemblance to his master's hand as could 
 deceive a pradlised eye^ after a close inspedlion, and this brings to 
 mind the question which often occurs to students of Watteau's art 
 — How many of the innumerable canvases grouped under his great 
 
 • Exhibited, Guildhall, 1898, No. 75. ' Guildhall, 1898, No. 71. 
 
 ' It is nevertheless a faft that a pair of small works by Lancret, up till a recent 
 date, have interchanged names with a pair by Pater in the Dresden Gallery. (See 
 Nos. 785, 786, 787, and 788, Cat. "Dresdener Gallerie.") 
 
 99 
 
The name should be ascribed to his friend Philippe Mercier, the painter 
 
 ^tplt^^ of " L'Escamoteur " in the Galerie du Louvre ? a work which, until 
 Galantes. M. de Goncourt called attention to the print with " Mercier pinxit" 
 beneath the engraving, was attributed confidently to Watteau him- 
 self.^ It is far less easy to determine the share or Mercier than that 
 of other followers who, like Pater and Lancret, have mannerisms 
 which stamp their work more or less plainly. " L'Escamoteur " 
 could not have been Pater, but for a long while passed, almost un- 
 questioned, as an early Watteau.^ 
 
 Mariette asserts that Pater never could put two figures toge- 
 ther, and the occurrence of frequent repetitions of the same arrange- 
 ment in subjects such as " Le Bain " and " La Toilette " explains 
 his criticism. Not only did Pater frequently copy work by Wat- 
 teau, such as the " Plaisirs du Bal," or " Bal sous un Colonnade," at 
 Dulwich, but he helped himself without scruple, as in the " Fete 
 champetre" at Buckingham Palace, and in his " Baigneuses," to 
 fragments of Watteau's inventions. In the " Fete champetre " at 
 Potsdam, signed and dated " Pater 1733," which is in many respedts 
 his chief work, and into which he has introduced dozens of little 
 figures, we instantly recognize the influence of his model in the 
 principal couple of dancers, and in the seated figure of the white 
 lady in the centre who might be the " accordee de village " 
 in whose honour the fete is held. If, however, Pater had no 
 originality, he had an observant eye for the significance of gesture 
 and countenance, and his colour sometimes has a pretty quality all 
 his own. A canvas at the Neues Palais on which he has depidted 
 a fat blonde in lilac surrounded by her lovers,^ " Le Bain a la 
 maison,"^ and " Le Sultan dans son Harem," ^ at Sans Souci, and, in 
 a higher degree, " Le Colin-Maillard" in the Music Room of the 
 Altes Schloss,® all show the delicate gray efFedts which give a pleasant 
 value, sometimes, to this painter's work. The " Colin-Maillard," 
 concerning which the Prussians preserve a fantastic legend, is one 
 of Pater's prettiest efforts, and the execution, although sketchy, is 
 so light and full of spirit that it makes the panels by Lancret which 
 are on either side in the same room, look hard by comparison. In 
 the principal performers, a girl wearing white and lilac-pink, and 
 a lad, in a brown-gold suit and red stockings, who — prompted by 
 
 ' Engraved for « I'Art " by Mile. Rhodon. 
 ^ See Note 3 p. 93, and Note i p. 96. 
 
 ' Reproduced by Dr. P. Seidel as " Gesellschaft an der Parkmauer." 
 ' Engd. Surugue. 
 
 ' This work, once in the possession of M"". de Pompadour, was acquired by 
 Prince Henry of Prussia. Reproduced, Seidel, p. 12. 
 
 ' There is a version of this subjedt at Hertford House. Ex, Beth. Gn., No. 437. 
 
 100 
 

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the little Love at his elbow — is about to embrace her, we are to Wattcau, 
 see, they say, portraits of Mme. de Pompadour and Louis XV. Pate**. 
 However this may be, the inspiration is a happy one. Pater has 
 never touched anything with more grace and charm. 
 
 Looking from this chef-ct ceuvre of Pater's art to the works by 
 Lancret^ — " The Swing,"^ which, having been added to above and 
 transferred to copper, is let into the wall of the Music- Room as a 
 companion to the " Dance near a Fountain " ^ — one is struck by 
 his heavier hand, though the best specimens of his skill, so many of 
 which have found their way to Potsdam, have qualities which justify 
 his claims to an honourable place in M. de Julienne's great collec- 
 tion. Although he shows the influence of Watteau, his work is 
 not lacking in personal chara6ter ; he observes attitude and gesture 
 keenly, and arranges his subject, especially when of small dimen- 
 sions, with much tadl. Unlike Watteau, he had remained for 
 several years with Claude Gillot, but he belonged to a well-to-do 
 family in Paris,* and there were no greater difficulties in his way 
 than such as arose from his early apprenticeship to an engraver, 
 whose lessons were speedily abandoned for those of d'Ulin, a now 
 forgotten professor of the Royal Academy. As a student he dis- 
 tinguished himself by rioting, and was, in company with le Moine 
 and Roettiers, one of the celebrated medallists of that name, tem- 
 porarily expelled on the 28th September, 1708, for " insultes dans 
 Tecole." D'Ulin, at a later date, was quitted for Gillot, and this 
 indication leads us to put the date of Lancret's acquaintance with 
 Watteau, who was six years his elder, at about the time of Watteau's 
 return from Valenciennes, when he competed unsuccessfully for the 
 " Grand Prix." This incident was repeated, two years later, in 
 Lancret's own life ; nor was he " agree " by the Academy until 1718,^ 
 when he brought in " plusieurs tableaux sur un talent particulier." 
 
 Then, Lancret produced the two famous works to which 
 Mariette refers when he says, " Twenty-four years ago he (Lancret) 
 made his mark with two pidures, a ' Ball,' and a ' Dance in a 
 Wood,' two pidures which have belonged to M. de Julienne and 
 the Prince de Carignan;^ and I recollect that, having been ex- 
 
 ' 1690-1743. Received, 1 71 9. Conseiller, 24 March, 1735. 
 ' A fine repetition of this work, with slight variations, is in the collection of 
 M"". la M*". de Lavalette, and was exhibited at the Guildhall, 1898, No. 78. 
 ' This work, as well as " The Swing," have been reproduced by Dr. Seidel. 
 
 For two hundred years the family had been in " la cordonnerie." 
 » P. V. February 26th, 17 18. 
 The patron of van Loo. It is worth recalling in this connection that both the 
 "Moulinet" and " Soci6t6 dans un Pavilion," in the Altes Schloss, Potsdam (tea- 
 room) came from this colledlion, having been bought at the sale of the Prince de 
 
 lOI 
 
The hibited at the Place Dauphine a day in Ascension week, they 
 
 o?Faes ^^°^g^* ^^"^ enthusiastic praise." The sentence seems to have 
 Galantes. been written shortly after Lancret's death, and, if so, " twenty years 
 ago" would give us the year 171 8, which preceded his reception 
 as an Academician, " sur une fete galante."^ The coolness which 
 then began between Lancret and Watteau is ascribed to the 
 jealousy of the elder painter, who may quite possibly have felt that 
 the younger was imitating him offensively, when he found that 
 the pidtures exhibited at the Place Dauphine passed as his own, 
 and that these same works were to enter the collection of his own 
 especial friend and admirer, M. de Julienne. Watteau's own con- 
 fession of weakness, in resped of Pater, has inclined the world to 
 credit the story that Lancret's success ended their friendship, 
 whereas a man may well be irritated when those who are supposed 
 to know better attribute to him the work of one of his imitators. 
 
 No one will, now, judge Lancret as harshly as Mariette, who 
 says, " tout ce qu'il a fait montre seulement le pradticien ; " yet 
 neither for originality nor temperament can he be compared to 
 Watteau. Rarely does he give us work as fresh and genial in sen- 
 timent as his " Montreur de lanterne magique,"^ or the admirable 
 " Family group taking tea," in the colledlion of Lord Wantage ; 
 for the most part there is too much method and too little feeling. 
 The sweet gravity with which Watteau depidls even the comic 
 appearance of a Pierrot reminds us that his pencil was not that of 
 an habitual jester ; that more than once, as in the " Sainte Vierge " 
 (Stockholm), 2 or the " Sainte Famille " of M. de Julienne's collec- 
 tion,^ he treated sacred subjedts; and that the last canvas on his 
 easel was the " Christ en Croix," which disappeared from the 
 church at Nogent during the Revolution.^ Lancret, on the other 
 hand, an intelligent if not a genial painter, seems to have found 
 himself in his element when rendering the humours and revels of 
 the Regency. We find the due d'Antin commissioning him to 
 
 Carignan, by Count Rothenburg for Frederick the Great, March 30th, 1744. 
 Rothenburg writes in a letter of that date to the King, " the Prince paid io,ooolt. for 
 them to Lancret, and I got them for 3,ooolt." Seidel, p. 6. 
 
 ' P.V. March 24th, 17 19. 
 
 ^ Potsdam. This was his last work, painted in 1743 (D'A. vol. iv., p. 439). 
 
 ^ M. Dussieux mentions this work as in the National Gallery at Stockholm, but 
 it is not there, nor could I learn anything concerning it. 
 
 * In the Hermitage. See also p. 19, " Tom beau de Watteau," 1865. The en- 
 graving of this subjedl, by C. L. Wust (then in the colledion of " M. le Comte de 
 Bruhl, premier ministre de sa majeste polonaise ") shows formless draperies and conven- 
 tional types, though the child is admirably drawn. "La proposition embarrassante " 
 was in the same colledtion when engraved by Keyl. 
 
 ' See de Caylus and " Tombeau, etc." 
 
 102 
 
Lk Dejeunek dk jambon. Bv Lancrkt. 
 {Ml/see Condi", Chantilly.) 
 
depift the accident that befell some illustrious ladies, between Wattcau, 
 
 Provins and Montereau, when Marie Leczinska was on her way in Pater, 
 
 1725, to meet the King at Fontainebleau. On that occasion, a 
 
 royal coach got hopelessly fixed in the mud, and the six ladies who 
 
 were in it, amongst whom were the duchesses de Tallard, de 
 
 Bethune, and d'Epernon, all " en grand habit et coiffees," had to 
 
 take up their places in a waggon on some straw. " II faut," writes 
 
 the duke, " representer les six dames le plus grotesquement qu'on 
 
 pourra et dans le goust qu'on porte les veaux au marche et I'equipage 
 
 le plus depenaille que faire se pourra. II faut une autre dame sur 
 
 un cheval de charette, harnache comme ils le sont ordinairement, 
 
 bien maigre et bien harasse et une autre en travers, sur un autre 
 
 cheval de charette comme un sac, et que le panier releve, de fa9on 
 
 qu'on voit jusques a la jarretiere, le tout accompagne de quelques 
 
 cavaliers culbutez dans les crottes et de galopins qui eclairent avec 
 
 des brandons de paille."^ D'Antin, who had but recently entered 
 
 on his fun(Sions as " sur-intendant des batiments," was, it is clear, 
 
 not on the side of those who wished to revive the formal decorums 
 
 of the old Court. 
 
 How cleverly Lancret would have carried out these instruc- 
 tions we see from his celebrated " Convives dans la joie " or 
 " Dejeuner au jambon " (Musee Conde), a pidture which — like the 
 •' Chasse au Tigre " now at Fontainebleau — once hung at Versailles 
 in one of the '* petits cabinets " of the " petits appartements " of 
 Louis XV., where it was accompanied by de Troy's equally well 
 known " Dejeuner aux huitres," now also at Chantilly.^ M. le 
 due d'Aumale used to say that he remembered hearing, from the 
 King, his father, the names of the feasters in Lancret's brilliant 
 pidlure, which is signed and dated 1735, but these he had forgotten, 
 nor are they likely to be recalled by the likeness of the " convives " 
 to known portraits, for their individuality is not marked as plainly 
 as their common jollity.^ In the National Gallery, Lancret is 
 represented by " The Four Ages," cited by d'Argenville amongst 
 his more important works,* and in the Louvre we find one of his 
 sets of " The Four Seasons," and four examples in the Galerie La 
 Caze, amongst which is " Les Adleurs de la Comedie Italienne " — 
 a work in which he seems to challenge comparison with the various 
 
 ' A. de I'A. fr., vol. i., p. 301. 
 
 "" See Catalogue, etc., Peinture Fran^aise a Chantilly. At the Musee^ Orleans, 
 No. 210, we find a life-size " Dejeuner au Jambon " attributed to Lancret. 
 
 It is supposed that Lancret owed these commissions to the success of the Salon 
 decorated by him in the house (No. 23 Place Vendome) of de Boullogne, " intendant des 
 Menus plaisirs." This Salon has recently been stripped of its decorations. See p. 60. 
 ♦ D'A. vol. iv., p. 440. Engd. Desplaces & Larmessin fils. 
 
 103 
 
The renderings of the same subjedt by Watteau, but here again we get 
 
 of^FSus^ that sameness of expression and charadter, which remind us of the 
 Galantes. "Jeu des Quatre Coins" and the "Menuet" at Besan9on, the 
 sole attradtion of which is to be found in butterfly colours, relieved 
 against a pretty landscape background. M. Clement de Ris 
 tells us that the five subjedts by Lancret at the Hermitage ^ are 
 all better than those which the Louvre can offer, but the 
 examples at the Hermitage must, in their turn, give way to the 
 twenty-six specimens of the master which figure in the Prussian 
 Royal coUediions, and which include works of capital importance 
 and varied charafter, such as the " Bal champetre," signed " Lancret 
 1739"^; " La Reunion galante en plein air," '• Le Montreur de 
 lanterne magique," " L'Oiseleur," " Le moulinet," and " Les agre- 
 ments de la Campagne," which, although it is one of Lancret's best 
 known compositions, having been engraved by Joullain (Bocher, 3), I 
 found still bearing the name of Watteau at Sans Souci, the confusion 
 possibly having arisen from the fadl that a very different composi- 
 tion by Watteau was engraved as "Les agrement de I'ete " by Joulin.^ 
 " La plupart de mes tableaux," writes Frederic the Great to 
 Wilhelmina, " sont de Watteau, ou de Lancret, tous deux peintres 
 fran9ais de I'ecole de Brabant." Those who bought for the King 
 served him well. Single specimens of great excellence — such as 
 the " Fete champetre " belonging to the due d'Aremberg at 
 Brussels,* and reckoned by d'Argenville as one of Lancret's chief 
 works — are to be found in many private galleries, but it is at Berlin 
 and Potsdam that we must seek not only for capital examples of 
 Watteau's art, but for the finest group of Lancret's work, not ex- 
 cepting even the famous series of nine in the Wallace collection, 
 though some of these nine — notably the " Camargo dansant," the 
 " Adlrice," a fine portrait, in good condition, engraved by Schmidt 
 as " La belle Grecque," ^ and the two " Groupes de masques " — are 
 works of unusual interest and charadter. 
 
 The " Camargo avec son danseur,"^ is a subjedl which Lancret 
 was frequently called on to repeat. This celebrated lady, who we 
 are told " osa la premiere faire raccourcir les jupes,"^ greets us at 
 
 ^Nantes, at the Hermitage and at the Neues Palais, where we find 
 « 
 
 * One of these is, he says, a replica of the "Baigneuses" of the Mus^e d'Angers, 
 which shows also " Repas de Noces " and " Danse de noces " by the same painter. 
 
 ' Exhibited Salon, 1740. ^ No. 100, Cat. de Gt. 
 
 * This work is a repetition of another at Madrid. See L. Mabilleau, G. B. A., 1895. 
 ' Ex. Beth. Green, No. 462 ; Ex. R. A., 1889, No. 124. There is a repetition of 
 
 an inferior charadter in the colleftion of the vicomtesse de Courval. 
 
 ° Ex. R. A. 1889, No. loi. Beth. Green, 433. See d'A. v. 4, p. 440. 
 ' See Corres. litt., 15 mai, 1770. 
 
 104 
 

 
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yet another version of her " danse a cabrioles," the figures in which, Watteau, 
 admirably framed in foliage, are drawn with great spirit. At the Pater, 
 Neues Palais, too, we find the " Halte de Chasse " and the " Re- 
 union galante en plein air," where the white cloth is spread and the 
 courtly feasters grouped about it with a taifl which recalls Lancret's 
 treatment of his " Convives dans la joie." The " Halte de Chasse," 
 although it is not a bad example of Lancret's art — for the figures 
 have a charader which he too often loses by his uncertain drawing — 
 is yet inferior to the famous " Bal champetre," ranked by d'Argen- 
 ville amongst the painter's chief works. It is certainly one of the 
 best and most interesting now at Potsdam. Amongst the numerous 
 figures Lancret has introduced his own portrait ; and Dr. Dohme, 
 who made a skilful attempt to class these works chronologically, 
 selefts the " Bal champetre " (1739), as a fine example of the best 
 time, relegating the popular " L'Oiseleur," together with " La 
 Reunion galante" to that third and last group in which we find the 
 heads getting too small and the colour too chalky. This is 
 obviously the case with " L'Oiseleur," where we see two young 
 girls, who — well beribbonned and accompanied by toy sheep — in- 
 spe6l, with a pretty affeftation of curiosity, the contents of the cage 
 held by an equally beribboned bird-catcher, and present an absurdly 
 pleasing vision of an eighteenth century Arcadia. Of its class, 
 however, it is scarcely so good an example as the *' Pastoral " in the 
 Berlin Museum, of which a repeat, or a copy with slight variation, 
 in a very bad state, is to be found at Sans Souci. 
 
 Lancret is seen to better effeft in the " Divertissement dans un 
 pavilion," and the "Moulinet,"^ earlier works at the "Altes Schloss," 
 where, also we find in the Music-room, on either side of Pater's 
 " Colin-Maillard," " Une Fete aupres d'une Fontaine," and " L'Es- 
 carpolette." The background of the " Divertissement " appears in 
 many of Lancret's works, as for example in the clever " Colin- 
 Maillard" of the gallery at Stockholm, which was obtained, together 
 with its companion " L'Escarpolette,"^ from the gallery of Louise- 
 Ulrique, the Queen-Dowager, who had also acquired from the col- 
 le(5tions of Count Tessin so many works by Chardin. A third work 
 by Lancret, also purchased in 1 741, is " L'Attache du Patin," the 
 figures of which are identical with two of the three in " L'Hiver," ^ — 
 one of the set of the " Four Seasons," two of which were exhibited 
 in 1742 and brilliantly engraved by de Larmessin in 1745. 
 
 ' Both these piftures, especially the " Moulinet " appeared to me to have suffered, 
 particularly in the heads, from the " restorer." 
 
 ' Nos. 843 and 844, Nat. Museum, Stockholm. 
 
 ' In the colleaion of Mr. Alfred de Rothschild, Ex. R. A., 1889, No. 90. He 
 
 105 P 
 
The In " L'Attache du Patin," the figures are half life size, a cir- 
 
 ^f F *f '^^ cumstance not altogether friendly to the genius of Lancret, but the 
 Galantes. colour is striking in its combination if not in its quality. The 
 black furs of the woman's collar, and her attendant's cape, detach 
 the flesh tints sharply from the browns of gown and coat. As he 
 kneels, his long deep blue waistcoat is exposed with great efFedt, 
 and she, with disproportionately long legs and arms, which seem 
 to stick out anywhere, contrives to show not only the blue lining 
 of her dress, her scarlet petticoat and painfully thin white stockings, 
 but also a white furbelow which, if in keeping with the lady's very 
 low bodice, affords no suggestion of that comfortable warmth which 
 the leafless trees and leaden sky of the background would seem to 
 demand. 
 
 The rather unusual scale of this group reminds us of " La 
 Comedie Italienne," a work in the possession of M. Groult, 
 which is carried out in the same proportions. The centre figure is 
 that of a woman splendidly dressed in rose pink and white. The 
 treatment of the subjedl and the verse attached by Crepy fils to 
 his engraving, suggests that the leading lady is receiving the homage 
 of the rest of the " troupe : " 
 
 " Par une tendre chansonette 
 On exprime ses sentiments 
 Souvent la flute et la musette 
 Sont I'interprete des amants." 
 
 In this instance their music seems to have little charm, for whilst 
 all her companions are vying in their efforts to please her, the 
 objedt of so much attention remains coldly indifferent. The heavi- 
 ness of Lancret's touch is to be felt in work of this size more 
 sensibly than in his treatment of subjefts on a smaller scale. A 
 charming " Idylle " in Mme. Andre's colle6tion has been attributed 
 to him, but the handling, if we except other two works in the 
 Louvre, is foreign to his usual praftice. The figures, a Dresden 
 china group of a man seated by a girl to whom he offers flowers 
 which he has gathered in his hat, are painted into the landscape 
 after a fashion not exa6tly usual with Lancret. There are, 
 however, examples in his work, such as " La Cage," and the little 
 
 also possesses a version of" Spring" (1742) exhibited the same year. No. 84. This set 
 of the "Seasons"(Bocher,No. 39)was Lancret's last finished work,"son dernier ouvrage" 
 are the words which follow the entry of the engravings by Larmessin in the " livret 
 du Salon " of 1745. It is, therefore, I think, clear that the " Seasons " in the Louvre 
 (Nos. 310, 311, 312, 313) are those executed for La Muette and exhibited in 1738. 
 Those, however, in the possession of Mr. Alfred de Rothschild differ in size from those 
 exhibited in 1742. 
 
 106 
 
pi6lure of a woman seated beneath a tree, in which figures a man Watteau, 
 leaning against a wall, both of which are in the Galerie La Caze, F^*^^^' ^ 
 which present similarities of treatment, and with these we may, 
 also, mention parts of the " Bird-catcher " at Potsdam. A curious 
 circumstance regarding the " Idylle " is to be found in a certain re- 
 semblance which the head of the man has with the best known 
 portraits of Watteau, a resemblance which is sufficiently striking to 
 at once suggest that we have here a record of some fleeting 
 moment when life seemed bright in his eyes. The colour has 
 a purity of tone and a freshness which recalls the beauty of " Le 
 Violoncelliste," which, together with a supposed portrait of Louis 
 XV. at the age of sixteen, in the not inappropriate costume of a 
 " Pelerin pour Cythere," appeared at the " Exposition du XVIIL 
 Siecle " in 1884. The distindl intention of portrait always 
 greatly helps Lancret, for his work suffered loss of chara6ter 
 through his enormous vogue. As a rule the personages of his 
 Pastorals and " Divertissements " are mere lay figures, yet that he 
 could see charafter and delineate it he has proved, not only in the 
 oft repeated " Camargo," and in the well known portrait of an adtress, 
 to which reference has been made, in the Wallace collediion,^ but 
 in many lesser works. His portrait of " Grandval," " inimitable 
 dans le comique," is an amusing instance, for this work derives its 
 chief interest from the clever characterisation of the self-conscious- 
 ness of the comedian. " Grandval," says Grimm, " chargeait un 
 peu dans les derniers temps," and the painter has contrived to 
 convey the impression that his sitter is afting his pose, as he stands, 
 in solitary state, over against a monument which has apparently 
 been erefted for that purpose in the middle of a park.^ 
 
 The Fete galante is not, I think, the class of subje6l in which 
 Lancret's gifts show to advantage. We admire the skill which he 
 shows in the distribution of the figures by which they are peopled, 
 but this very skill betrays something intentional which contrasts 
 with the instindlive grace of Watteau's compositions, and it is this 
 something intentional which inclined me to attribute to Lancret 
 two large canvases at Sans Souci, " Danse dans un Pare," and 
 " Conversation dans un Pare," in which the visitor is bidden to 
 behold the hand of Watteau. It is, indeed. Pater who usually 
 helps himself to his master's compositions, and the central figure in 
 the " Danse " has more than a reminiscence of the principal per- 
 former in the " Fetes Venitiennes," but the white and lilac and 
 
 ' An inferior replica of this work is in the colledion of the vicomtesse de 
 Courval. 
 
 ' Colle£tion Groult. Exhibited in Paris, 1888. It figured at the Salon, 1742. 
 
 107 
 
The blue which relieve the trenchant black and red of his magnificent 
 
 of^F6\eT ''°^^s ^^^ peculiarly charaderistic of Lancret, as, indeed, are also 
 Galantes. ^be white and rose, enframed by stronger and warmer hues, in 
 the " Conversation." Of more decided charafter, more typically 
 Lancret, is that other canvas, the " Dejeuner de Chasse " hanging 
 also at Sans Souci, for, like the " Hake de Chasse " and the 
 " Reunion galante " in the Neues Palais, this subjed: has permitted 
 just enough reference to the aftual circumstances of life to help 
 the painter's lack of intention. 
 
 Lancret is not a painter of " fantasies." He must see the 
 dancers of a " Bal champetre;" the feasters at a supper, the hunt- 
 ing party resting in the wood. What he lacks in power of inven- 
 tion or initiative he supplies with a remarkable intelligence which 
 enables him to assimilate successfully very different modes of work. 
 Watteau's execution was too personal, too charged with fa£ts ob- 
 served from his own standpoint, to be imitated by one whose 
 powers of vision belonged to a totally different order. Less original 
 methods did not present the same difficulty, and Lancret appro- 
 priated them with ease. In 1898, at the exhibition of French 
 pidures in the Guildhall, where one had the unusual advantage of 
 comparing fine specimens of Watteau, of Lancret, and of Pater 
 within the four walls of one small room, the variety of practice in 
 which Lancret indulged was obvious. All the same, his work 
 invariably contrasted not only with the swift indications given by 
 Watteau's loaded brush, but with the timid fashion after which 
 Pater draws rather than paints the features of his subjects, literally 
 outlining them with fine hair strokes. Extraordinarily different 
 too, are Lancret and Pater in their predileftions as regards colour. 
 Pater can be strong sometimes, as in the scarlet skirt with which 
 he has enriched the dark corner of " Le Desir de Plaire," but in 
 his " Fetes champetres," as in the " Colin-Maillard," at Potsdam — 
 wherever in short he seeks gaiety of impression — he betrays a 
 liking for pale and evanescent hues. Nowhere do you find him 
 handling his work with the decision and dramatic energy displayed 
 by Lancret in his "Nicaise,"^ the heroine of La Fontaine, who 
 teaches her lover " ce que vaut I'occasion," or reaching the scale of 
 brilliant and lively colour which he has affedled in " Les Deux 
 Amis,"^ who are so evidently undesirable companions of the little 
 lady who engages their attentions. The rose-red of the costume 
 
 ' No. 63, Guildhall, 1898. Four other illustrations of La Fontaine: — "Le 
 Gascon puni ; " " La Femme avare et le galant Escroc ; " " Le Faucon ; " and " Les 
 Troqueurs," were exhibited by Lancret in 1738 and engraved by Larmessin. 
 
 ' No. 55, Guildhall, 1898. 
 
 108 
 
worn by the standing gallant who in " Les Deux Amis" encourages Watteau, 
 the girl to receive the advances of his friend, is of a remarkable fat^*"' 
 quality, examples of which are to be found in other works by 
 Lancret. In that work from the colle(5lion of Lord Wantage, also 
 exhibited at the Guildhall, which is really a group of family por- 
 traits, but which was absurdly entitled " The Garden Party," we 
 find this hue repeated in the dress, lined with blue, which the 
 mother, who is the central figure, turns up over her white skirts as 
 she offers to her youngest girl a teaspoonful of tea from the blue 
 and white cup which she holds in her left hand. The child, her 
 white pinafore drawn over her yellow frock, has a delightfully 
 roguish air, the little hands are full of expression ; the interest of 
 the group centres, indeed, wholly on the young mother and the 
 little one ; the elder sister, the father, the footman who serves, are 
 as much accessories as the dog who sniffs among some admirably 
 painted hollyhocks, or the charmingly designed background, with 
 its fountain, vases, and blue sky.^ 
 
 Now the execution of this family group is totally different 
 from the execution of " Nicaise." The heroine of this brilliant 
 little picture, formerly in the colledlion of the baron de Beurnon- 
 ville, and now belonging to Mr. Pierpont Morgan, is the bour- 
 geoise sister of the noble lady in the " Faucon " by Subleyras in 
 the Louvre, and the smart little soubrette in blue and white striped 
 silk, who forgets her basket of linen whilst the two friends trifle 
 with her charms, belongs to the same family, all closely connefted 
 with the stage. All their faces wear the same appeal to the 
 audience, but in each case Lancret has laboriously worked up the 
 lights, aiming at a certain solidity of relief and trenchant accent of 
 the forms which is by no means common in his work, and which 
 suggests that when he was bidden to illustrate La Fontaine^ he 
 had looked at the treatment by Subleyras of the " Oies du frere 
 Philippe " and " Le Faucon," and had taken some hints from that 
 accomplished artist's skill. Of this well-defined manner there is 
 not a trace in the family group belonging to Lord Wantage. The 
 heads are modelled with a delicacy which, as it were, allows the 
 carnations of the flesh to melt upon the canvas, the rendering of 
 
 ' The figure of this little child recalls the babies of the " Montreur de Lanterne 
 Magique," and reminds me that the "Toy Windmill," which bears the name of Wat- 
 teau in the National Gallery of Scotland, should, I think, be attributed to Lancret. I 
 thought to identify Lord Wantage's pidture with " Une dame dans un jardin, prenant 
 du cafF6 avec des enfans," exhibited by Lancret in 1742, but this work measured 
 " about 4 ft. by 3-I. ft.," and the dimensions of the work belonging to Lord Wantage 
 are given as only " 35 x 38." 
 
 ' The series was admirably and brilliantly engraved by Larmessin. 
 
 109 
 
The the flowers is full of care and liking, even the circular sweeps of 
 
 ^^p^^'^^ the foliage are less conventional than usual. The colour, perhaps, 
 Galantes. the full rose-pink, thrown out against blue and white and yellow, 
 reminds us of identical schemes employed in some of the innumer- 
 able company of " Fetes galantes," in which, as in the " Swing," 
 he figures as a would-be imitator of Watteau, but that is all. The 
 actual method is so curiously like the work of the younger de 
 Troy — as, for example, in " Le Souper d'huitres " of the Musee 
 Conde, and " The Alarm," of the Jones Bequest, South Kensing- 
 ton — that we have to remember the similar painting of Lancret's 
 " Convives dans la joie " and the charming natural sentiment of 
 " Le Montreur du lanterne magique " at Potsdam, before we can 
 persuade ourselves that this work is really his. To depi6l the woman 
 on her knees who encourages the little one to approach the wonders 
 of the magic lantern, or the mother who coaxes her baby girl to 
 taste her tea, to show us in either case the hesitation and excite- 
 ment of these little creatures, the lively movement of their tiny 
 hands and the delicacy of their childish forms, Lancret's brush can 
 find an accent which is almost a caress. 
 
 Whilst work of this class engaged all eyes it was in vain for 
 the elder academicians to continue to talk, like Cochin, of " ce 
 faux gout des arts, qui ne recherche en eux qu'une gentillesse mes- 
 quine ; des graces manierees et peu naturelles, et qui neglige ou 
 ignore le vrai merite de I'art deploye dans toute sa force. "^ Men 
 like Charles Parrocel, " un peintre d'une maniere fiere," had, says 
 his biographer resentfully, " the mortification of being rarely em- 
 ployed, whilst Lancret was wholly unable to execute the com- 
 missions he received."^ Within the Academy the men who repre- 
 sented " le genre serieux " were losing ground, and Lancret, as long 
 as he lived, was able to avenge the small esteem in which his work 
 was held by Parrocel, and punish his critic by preventing his 
 nomination for the post he seemed specially qualified to fill as pro- 
 fessor of the Academy. So plausibly, too, did Lancret colour his 
 opposition, that, as Cochin says, " ce desir ne peut etre satisfait 
 pendant la vie de ce dernier." 
 
 As a draughtsman, Charles Parrocel certainly could not afford 
 to despise Lancret, whose drawings^ prove that, like Pater, he 
 drew much better than he painted. The series which we have 
 in the Print Room — amongst which are several important subjects 
 — are alone sufficient to show that their author could seize the 
 physiognomy of his sitters with great felicity, and could produce a 
 
 ' M. I., vol. ii., p. 417. ' 1688-1752. M. I., vol. ii., p. 417. 
 
 ' Louvre ; Print Room, British Museum. 
 
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charming effedt with slight means. It is possible that his early Watteau, 
 work as an engraver hampered him in dealing with the brush, as Pater, 
 even his best works do not prepare us for the singular beauty and 
 ease of many of the drawings ; something too in his paintings may 
 be due to the desire to give an air of finish to work executed 
 against time. This would naturally lead to the adoption of a 
 laboured method, such as that of which much of Lancret's work 
 gives evidence. 
 
 In spite of having more to do than he could manage, Lancret 
 does not appear to have amassed a fortune. His marriage, which 
 did not take place till he had attained the age of fifty, seems to 
 have been a love match, which he, dying in 1748, survived but 
 four years. ^ The contradt between himself and his bride, Marie- 
 Bernarde-Hiacinte de Boursaut, contains a mutual donation " de tous 
 leurs biens presents et a venir," and the furniture found, at her death 
 in 178 1, in her modest apartment on the second floor of a " maison a 
 porte cochere," in the Rue de Limoges, shows traces of the 
 opulence which she had enjoyed whilst Lancret was at the height 
 of his reputation. It is interesting to find that to the last she had 
 kept his pictures. In her bedroom hung not only " un grand 
 tableau portrait representant le dit Lancrey," but six other works : 
 " peints sur toile dans leur differentes bordures," and her salon was 
 decorated with no less than '* dix-neuf tableaux sur toile representant 
 difFerents sujets " by the famous painter, " des petites modes fran- 
 faises;"^ even the passage to the kitchen boasts, " trois tableaux, un 
 autre dans leur bordure doree " [sic) also from his hand. 
 
 And thus, on Lancret's death, the " Fete galante " disappears, 
 with its delightful open-air frivolities and its fragrant vision of 
 perpetual youth and holiday. The meadows of the *' Champs 
 Elysees " vanish, and we are closeted with Baudouin and that 
 troop of " little " masters who swarmed towards the end of the 
 century, and whose art does not indeed always justify the popu- 
 larity enjoyed by the trifling jests and petty schoolboy indecencies, 
 which appear to furnish them with their favourite subjedls. 
 
 ' See "Contrat de mariage et Scelle apres d&es de la veuve," N. A., 1874, 
 
 p. 33°- 
 
 " Lancret is thus most aptly described. He had little or no gift for decorative 
 
 work ; the large folding screen by him, in the Jones Bequest at South Kensington, not 
 
 only shows great poverty of invention in the arabesques and details which accompany 
 
 the scenes depicted on the panels, but the forms chosen are such as might have figured 
 
 in work done half a century earlier. 
 
 I I I 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 The 
 
 Painters 
 
 of 
 
 Familiar 
 
 Scenes. 
 
 THE PAINTERS OF FAMILIAR SCENES- 
 CHARDIN, BAUDOUIN, GREUZE 
 
 T 
 
 I HE blemish, or the charm, of eighteenth century art lies 
 precisely in its modishness, in its close companionship to 
 the fashions of the day, but this distindtive mark is miss- 
 ing from the work of Chardin.^ The joys of good 
 company, the pomps and vanities of worldly pleasure, do not attradt 
 him ; his spirit is drawn to the humilities of daily service, to the 
 gentle cares of daily life. Sometimes, it is true, the men of an 
 elder school would pause from their graver studies to open, as it 
 were, but for an instant, the doors of their home. In this wise, 
 Noel Coypel has shown himself at his easel, with his little daughter 
 Madeleine-Suzanne, on her stool by his side,^ and has rendered with 
 delightful sentiment, the tender freshness of the child's face, but 
 such an instance of proffered intimacy was then rare, and in the 
 later days, when Chardin lived, such subjefts tempted no man. 
 
 A certain sobriety and dignity, of which Noel Coypel had re- 
 ceived the tradition from Vouet, are present in the work of his son 
 Noel-Nicolas, who became the master of Chardin and to these in- 
 fluences, I think, Chardin owed much that distinguished him from 
 the more representative men of his own generation. He is not so 
 much an eighteenth century French artist, as a French artist of 
 pure race and type. Though he treated subjefts of the humblest 
 and most unpretentious class, he brought to their rendering, not 
 only deep feeling and a penetration which divined the innermost 
 truths of the simplest forms of life, but a perfection of workmanship 
 by which everything he handled was clothed with beauty. His 
 
 ' 1699, 1779, Agr^^ et r^cu, September 25th, 1728. 
 28th, 1743. Tr6sorier, Mars 22, 1752. 
 ' Musie de Besan^on, No. 108. 
 
 I 12 
 
 Conseiller, September 
 
every touch is intelligent ; with a severely restrifted palette he Chardin, 
 contrives to produce the most varied harmonies of colour, and, by ^jf^*^°"'" 
 an heroic reserve of force, endov^s his creations with an air of abso- Greuze. 
 lute freedom. 
 
 His first years were difficult. His father's occupation as 
 bilhard-table maker to the king was the reverse of lucrative,^ and 
 when Chardin entered the studio of Cazes — though d'Argenville 
 classes him as one of the greatest painters of his day — he found that 
 his master was himself too poor to pay for a model ; he next had 
 the good fortune to find work with Noel-Nicolas Coypel, and 
 eventually was employed by Jean-Baptiste van Loo, another sound 
 and skilful master, then engaged on the restoration of the gallery at 
 Fontainebleau. Van Loo showed a generous appreciation of his 
 assistant's talents. Not only did he pay Chardin 20olt. instead of the 
 look, which, with his keep, was the price agreed on for his services, 
 but bought of him a painting of still life, in which a bronze bas-relief 
 figured, that his assistant had exhibited on the Place Dauphine.^ 
 
 At his father's wish, Chardin had been admitted into the 
 Academy of St. Luke — composed, according to Grimm, " de tous 
 les artistes qui n'ont pas assez de talent ni de reputation pour se faire 
 recevoir a I'Academie royale " ^ — but now, encouraged by van Loo, 
 he determined to try his fortune with the Royal Academy. We 
 all know the story of how he brought together ten small paintings, 
 two of which, " Interieur de cuisine," and " Fruits sur une table " 
 (presented by Chardin as his diploma work), are now in the Louvre ;* 
 and how these works were placed in an anteroom through which 
 the members passed to their place of meeting. Cazes, who does 
 not seem to have recognized his pupil's hand, Louis de Boullogne 
 and Largilliere, took them to be " d'un bon peintre flamand," and 
 this appreciation of Chardin's style became the current phrase,^ 
 though not the Flemish, but the Dutch school influenced Chardin 
 most. As Dr. Dohme has suggested, he learnt much from Rem- 
 brandt, and probably more from Kalf, whose works he must have 
 seen in the colledtion of Antoine de la Roque. There was no trace 
 in his work of contemporary fashion, yet in spite of this, the beauty 
 of his execution brought him a great public amazed by qualities of 
 perfeftion the rarity of which his brother artists had been the first 
 to acknowledge. 
 
 Agree, and received the same day (27th September, 1725) on 
 
 ' Mem. in^d., vol. ii., p. 438. 
 
 Probably the work which figured at the Salon of 1737. 
 ' Correspondance litteraire, Odober ist, 1762. 
 
 * Nos, 96, 97. ' See Notes in the Appendix to Wille's Memoires. 
 
 113 Q 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 
 of 
 
 Familiar 
 
 Scenes. 
 
 the " talent des animaux et fruits " there still remains some doubt 
 as to the date at which Chardin essayed to paint the familiar scenes 
 by which he won his great popular reputation. Although he had 
 made his first success with a " nombreuse Composition de figures," 
 painted as the sign of a barber's shop,^ it has been said that up to 
 1737^ he entirely confined himself to inanimate objefts and then 
 was only urged to attempt figures by a remark of his friend, the 
 portrait painter Aved, who parried a criticism from Chardin with 
 " Tu t'imagines que cela est aussi aise a peindre que des langues 
 fourrees et des saucissons." Thereupon, Chardin at once painted 
 the well known " Fille tirant de I'eau a une fontaine " which was 
 engraved by Cochin as " La Fontaine," and exhibited, together with 
 several other works of the same charadler, at the famous Salon of 1 7 3 7, 
 This startling story has troubled all Chardin's later biographers. 
 It is not only contradicted by the story of that " Signboard" to which 
 we have just referred, but everyone must feel that the work of all 
 true artists shows regular stages of development, and that it is im- 
 probable that Chardin should have resisted the temptation to paint 
 the figure till twelve years after his reception by the Academy, when 
 he was nearly forty years of age. Perhaps, instead of " vers 1737 " 
 we should read "vers 1727" ; this would permit us — with reserve 
 — to accept the anecdote as told by Haillet de Couronne, though 
 the date which he gives can most certainly be proved to be incorre6l. 
 Mariette,^ who relates the same story, fixes not on " La Fontaine " 
 but on the head of a " Youth blowing soap-bubbles," as Chardin's 
 first essay " dans un nouveau genre." If this were so, the work 
 served, probably, as the basis for the pidture which, exhibited at the 
 Salon of 1739 as " L'Amusement frivole d'un jeune homme faisant 
 des bouteilles de savon," is now, together with its companion " re- 
 presentant des tours de cartes," at the Hermitage. M. Jacques 
 Doucet, is, however the fortunate possessor of the fine repetition 
 of the "tours de Cartes" which Chardin exhibited in 1741 as " le 
 fils de M. Le Noir s'amusant a faire des chateaux de cartes," * and 
 also of a very beautiful original of the " Bouteilles de Savon," 
 the execution of which is distinguished by the finest qualities of 
 
 1 See Arch, de I'Art fr., vol. iii., p. 120. Lebas, writing to his ex-pupil Rehn, 
 January loth, 1746, asks him to mention " ce plafond de Chardin " to Tessin (letters 
 communicated by baron Hochschild). He probably refers to this work. See also de 
 Goncourt, vol. i., p. 67. 
 
 ' M6m. in^d., vol. ii., p. 439. 
 
 * His article on Chardin was written probably in 1748, as works exhibited by him 
 in 1747 are referred to as at the "dernier Salon." 
 
 * The son of M. Lenoir, the nigociant who was present at Chardin's second 
 marriage as " temoin " of the bride. 
 
 114 
 
the master. The de Goncourt were also familiar with a version in Chardin, 
 the colledtion of M. Laperlier/ which they describe as marked by Baudouin 
 something more than the rugosite of which Diderot complained, Greuze. 
 and which they held to be of an early date, showing, indeed, the 
 effort which they profess to detedt in all work by Chardin not on 
 a small scale. With it they couple, as similar in^charafter, the study 
 of a little girl in a white " fanchon," formerly in the colleftion of 
 M, Guilmard, Both pictures are, say the authors of " L'Art au 
 XVIII. Siecle," of the class produced by Chardin before he was in 
 the full possession of his powers, but they reje<5l the story told by 
 Mariette and Haillet de Couronne, on the ground that there is a 
 pidlure of a " Lady sealing a letter," an engraving from which 
 shows that it was painted by Chardin in 1732.^ 
 
 So far, so good. The date at which Chardin began to paint 
 the figure is thus successfully put back at least half-a-dozen years, 
 but, unfortunately, these brilliant writers — having before them an 
 " esquisse " of the same subject, then in the colleftion of M. 
 Peltier — proceeded to characterize the amorous elegance of the 
 " Lady," and ingeniously suggest that Chardin, before he worked 
 out his " veine bourgeoise" devoted his pencil to the produdlion of 
 works of a very different character — nothing is less certain ! 
 
 I am most deeply sensible of all we owe to the industry and 
 zeal of the two de Goncourts, who brought together, for the first 
 time, an invaluable mass of information respefting Chardin's life 
 and work, but now and then they seem to me to be a little too 
 ready with hypotheses, a little too free with fadts. I write in all 
 humility, and with the fear of their Academy before my eyes, but 
 the truth must be told. Having gone thus far, it next seemed to 
 them necessary to establish a point at which Chardin should have 
 entered into his true kingdom. For this purpose they fix upon 
 " La Fontaine," the very pidlure named by Haillet de Couronne, 
 and they then most eloquently describe the excellencies of a work 
 which they had not seen, except in the later repetition then possessed 
 by M, Eudoxe Marcille.^ "Tout son talent," they say, "un talent 
 ferme et degage , . . en pleine possession de son cadre, de ses 
 personnages, de son faire, nous le trouvons dans ' La Fontaine ' que 
 lui commandait le chevalier de Laroque et que gravait Cochin, 
 nous le trouvons a tous les coins de cette eclatante petite toile." 
 
 ' L'Art du XVIII Siecle, (Ed. 1 880), vol, i., p. 75, 
 
 " It was engraved without a title by Fessard, and in 1883 by Eilers. See 
 Jahrbuch der Koniglich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen. It has also been reproduced 
 by Braun. 
 
 ' Of this beautiful work I speak later. There are other repetitions, but this is 
 the finest I know, 
 
 IIS 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 
 of 
 
 Familiar 
 
 Scenes. 
 
 Alas ! the poor pidture ordered by de laRoque — of which we are 
 told to admire the brush-work — " le travail de brosse" — is at Stock- 
 holm, and far from being " une eclatante petite toile," is in bad 
 case. The MM. de Goncourt did not, I fancy, go to Stockholm, 
 but I did, and I have often asked myself what Chardin would have 
 said if he could have known what I endured : 
 
 " Multas per gentes, multa per asquora veftus," 
 
 solely with the obje6t of seeing with my own eyes his first version 
 of " La Fontaine." It is painted not on canvas but on an oak 
 panel, and has suffered cruelly — probably from exposure to the heat 
 of a stove in the royal palace, from which it was transferred to the 
 National Gallery; it is blistered, it is a wreck past restoration, 
 but it is signed and dated, and one can clearly decipher the in- 
 scription in the left-hand corner, " Chardin 1733." This work, 
 then, which shows the master in the full possession of his powers 
 and in the plenitude of his " veine bourgeoise," was painted for de 
 la Roque five years before it was exhibited in 1737, and actually 
 belongs to precisely the same date as the amorous and elegant 
 " Lady sealing a letter." For at the Salon of the following year 
 (1738) Chardin exhibited " un tableau de quatre pieds en carre 
 representant une dame occupee a cacheter une lettre," which had 
 previously figured amongst the sixteen works exhibited by him in 
 1734 at the Place Dauphine.^ The pidure in question, signed and 
 dated "J. S. Chardin 1733," is now to be found, under the title of 
 " Die Brief-Sieglerinn," in the Neues Palais at Potsdam, having 
 been, as I learn from M. Silvy, re-discovered by him, in company 
 with M. Thibaudeau and M. Danlos, some years ago, "derriere une 
 armoire au Garde-meuble du Vieux Palais, Potsdam." Calino, were 
 he writing this, would say that Chardin, who rarely dates, has done 
 so on this occasion on purpose to confound the two de Goncourt. 
 
 The " Brief-Sieglerinn " is an extraordinarily interesting pidture ; 
 and not the least of its interest arises from the faft that the execution 
 is of the same charadter as that of the " Bouteilles de Savon " and 
 " Les Tours de Cartes." In each, we get the same uncompromising 
 mosaic, so to say, of colour. Chardin's brush work, except in 
 certain examples to which I will afterwards refer, is, like his 
 execution in pastel, full of intentional asperities. His pencil has 
 none of the bloom that falls from the crayon of La Tour — his brush 
 declines to soften the accents of his touch, but each was so abso- 
 lutely right that they melt into a perfedl harmony. This charac- 
 
 ' " La plus grande toile representait une Jeune Femme qui attend avec impatience 
 qu'on lui donne de la lumi^re pour cacheter une lettre." See Salon, 1738. 
 
 I 16 
 
La Dame cachetant une Lettre. By Chardin. 
 {Neues Palais, Potsdam^ 
 
teristic is as marked in the companion pidtures, exhibited in 1739, Chardin, 
 as in the " Brief-Sieglerinn," executed probably four or five years Baudouin 
 earher. All three belong to Chardin's early period, and show by Greuze. 
 what conscientious work on a large scale he strengthened himself 
 for the execution of his familiar scenes. The " Brief-Sieglerinn," 
 whilst it shows all the admirable qualities of Chardin's work on the 
 unusual scale of life, is also distinguished by suggestions of 
 opulence which contrast with the habitual simplicity of his favourite 
 scenes. This last is, however, a point not to be exaggerated, for 
 other sitters to Chardin (as the mother and child in " La Toilette 
 du Matin "^) wear costumes as rich as the sacque of black and 
 white striped brocade which clothes the lady who, with her letter 
 in one hand, her sealing wax in the other, leans forward in her 
 chair, indifferent to the caress of the greyhound at her side, whilst 
 her eyes are fixed on the candle inclined towards her across 
 the table by a footman, whose golden-brown coat, with its collar 
 of dark fur, tells above the deep red of the table cover and its 
 Turkish border. The work has suffered here and there from re- 
 touching, but the effedt of the whole is undisturbed, and portions, 
 such as the sculpturesque greyhound, are of great beauty. The simple 
 truthfulness of gesture, the beautiful drawing and modelling of the 
 lady's hands and arms, the masterly rendering of the half seen profile, 
 lovely neck and soft hair crowned by a top-knot of lace, are all 
 indications of the hand of Chardin at his strongest, — his colour and 
 his brush are full. What changes the whole asped: of the work is 
 the introduftion into the background of a conventional red curtain, 
 descending from nowhere and tied up with cords and bands in the 
 prescribed academic style, the sort of thing, in fa6l, with which 
 Ferdinand would have completed a portrait of Mme. de Maintenon. 
 Put in without conviftion, as by a formal imitator of Rigaud, this 
 unlucky curtain imparts an air of unreality to a scene otherwise 
 intensely real. 
 
 We turn from this pidture to another in the same palace, and 
 find " Un jeune Dessinateur taillant son Crayon,"^ also a work of 
 unusual size, executed in 1737, and exhibited at the same Salon of 
 1738, where it was probably bought, together with the "Dame 
 cachetant une lettre," for the Crown Prince Frederick.^ In spite 
 of the state of the background, which has been both repainted and 
 
 ' See the " Maitresse d'Ecole," engraved by L^picie and by Burford. Bocher, 34. 
 
 ' Engraved in mezzotint, 1 740, by Faber. This engraving has " Chardin pinx'. 
 1737," but I could find no date on the pidture. 
 
 ' See R. Dohme. Die Ausstellung von Gemalden alterer Meister. Die Franzo- 
 sische Schule. Jahrbiicher der konigHch Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, 1883. 
 
 117 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 of 
 
 Familiar 
 Scenes. 
 
 cleaned, we receive at once a unique impression of breathing life. 
 This boy in the cocked hat and white coat, of whose head there 
 exists, I think, a study in the colledlion of M. Cheramy^ is evidently 
 a portrait. He is tired, he is bored, he is putting off work ; the 
 red strings of his blue portfolio hang untied over the edge of 
 the table on which he rests his arms ; otherwise, there is no 
 touch of colour, the figure exists in pure light, and affords a 
 striking example of that extraordinary charm, proper to Chardin, 
 which does not lie in the grip which he gets of his subjects, and 
 the precision with which he handles them — in these respedts others 
 are greater than he — but in his instindt for the quality of their 
 environment, for that something which gives personality even to 
 the ambient air. Two other works by Chardin, in the same 
 palace, represent the more usual aspeft of the master's talent. 
 '• La Ratisseuse " and its companion, the original " La Pour- 
 voyeuse,"^ which, as it is signed and dated " Chardin, 1738," must 
 take precedence of the one in the Louvre dated by Chardin in 
 1739.^ Neither of these works is in a satisfa6lory condition, though 
 portions of " La Ratisseuse," which, though not dated, is signed 
 " Chardin," seem to have escaped the restorer. The general effe£t 
 is hard, though the scheme of colour is very pretty. White 
 touches and lovely pale indigo blues are heightened by the prevail- 
 ing browns of the woman's skirt and jacket, a streak of scarlet 
 under-petticoat carries the eye to a great yellow gourd in one 
 corner, balanced by the dark earthenware bowl opposite, where the 
 turnips roll from her hand into the glistening water, painted as 
 none but Chardin could paint. 
 
 As regards this marvellous rendering of details, we are told 
 that when Chardin first went to work for Noel-Nicholas Coypel 
 his master direfted him to paint in a gun for him in a " Portrait de 
 chasse ; " and that the minute care as to place, light, and position 
 with which he determined the pi6torial effect, that he wanted to 
 get through this apparently trivial accessory, impressed Chardin 
 forcibly with the importance, as well as the difficulty, of getting 
 
 ' Said, I believe, to be a portrait of Sedaine. 
 
 " These are the two, I think, engraved by L^pici6 in 1742. It is most probable 
 that the " Pourvoyeuse " of Potsdam is the one exhibited with " La Ratisseuse," and 
 not the one which Chardin sent to the Salon in the following year. There is a third 
 " Pourvoyeuse " in the gallery Lichtenstein, on which I failed to read the date. It is 
 given conjedlurally by M. de Goncourt as 1735. This work is accompanied by a 
 " Ratisseuse" signed and dated 1738. A fourth, with slight variations, is at Schleiss- 
 heim, and is engraved in the second vol, of " Konigliche Gallerie von Miinchen und 
 Schleissheim." 
 
 ' Bought at the sale of M. Laperlier, 
 
 118 
 
the smallest detail absolutely right.* The effort to reach the Chardin, 
 highest possible standard of perfeft representation in the rendering Baudouin 
 of the humblest objefts never flagged throughout Chardin's life, Greuze. 
 with the result that the smallest detail touched by his pencil has 
 all the beauty of reality. " II y a de Chardin," writes Diderot, 
 Nov. ist, 1759, " un Retour de Chasse ; des Pieces de gibier; un 
 Jeune Eleve qui dessine, vu par le dos ; une Fille qui fait de la 
 tapisserie ; deux petits tableaux de Fruits. C'est toujours la nature 
 et la verite ; vous prendriez les bouteilles par le goulot, si vous 
 aviez soif : les peches et les raisins eveillent I'appetit et appellent 
 la main. M. Chardin est homme d'esprit, il entend la theorie de 
 son art, il peint d'une maniere qui lui est propre et ses tableaux 
 seront unjour recherches. II a le faire aussi large dans ses petites 
 figures que si elles avaient des coudees."^ Eight years later, when 
 Chardin exhibited his " dessus de porte " for Bellevue^ at the Salon 
 of 1767, — together with "Les Attributs des Arts" a repetition 
 " avec quelques changements de celui fait pour I'lmperatrice des 
 Russes " — Diderot exclaims, " On parlera de la Tour mais on 
 verra Chardin," his work could not be overlooked. The public, 
 dazzled by the flashy brilliance of fashionable colour, whilst admit- 
 ting that he designed and drew admirably, might be inclined to 
 reproach him with " un coloris quelquefois un peu gris," they were 
 drawn to his work by the force of its perfect truth, in spite of 
 themselves. " Eloignez vous, approchez vous, meme illusion !" 
 
 Out of the most simple materials the great magician could 
 evoke all the mystery and beauty of life. A roll of paper, an ink- 
 stand, two pens, a plaster cast, just the right tone of gray for the 
 background, and we have a masterpiece, such as the work belong- 
 ing to M. Jacques Doucet, or, as in a more important example, 
 " L'atelier de Lemoyne," belonging to M. Groult, the white rolls 
 of paper, and the statuette of Pigalle's Mercury, which furnishes the 
 keynote, are reinforced with books, portfolios, a vase, palette and 
 brushes, and an order which seems to say that the painter to whom 
 all these belonged was no insignificant personage.* By some touch 
 
 ' M^m. in^d., vol. ii., p. 420. ' C. L., vol. ii., p. 358. 
 
 ' " Les quatre attributs de Musique " are now in the colleftion of M."". Jahan. 
 They are, as M. de Chennevieres has observed (G. B. A., 1888), finer examples than 
 "La Musique et les Arts" of the Louvre. One of these, "La Musique Guerriere " 
 has been engraved by H. Guerard (G. B. A., 1890). Two vast canvases of similar sub- 
 jects, " Les Arts et les Sciences " belong to M'"'. Edmond Andr^. 
 
 * M. de Goncourt says that M. Camilla Marcille told him that his father had 
 bought most of his colleftion of "Natures Mortes " by Chardin, amongst which were 
 works as admirable as the " CEillets," now belonging to madame Jahan, for 12 to 2ofr. 
 apiece. Vol. i., p. 71. 
 
 119 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 
 of 
 
 Familiar 
 
 Scenes. 
 
 or suggestion such as this Chardin invariably contrives to fix a per- 
 sonal chara6ter on his groups of inanimate objects. They never 
 seem to have been brought together by haphazard, but always look 
 as if some one had just left them or vv^as just coming back. So 
 strong is the impression of the human presence that w^e pass from 
 work in which it is simply felt to work in which it becomes visible 
 without any lively sense of change — the environment has remained 
 exactly the same. When at last the girl comes into the kitchen, 
 the utensils of which are already familiar to us, nothing is dis- 
 turbed ; it seems as if she had been expected, as if we had been 
 waiting for her appearance. 
 
 It was not, says Mariette, with the famous " deux cuisines " 
 which Chardin painted for Watteau's friend, Antoine de la Roque, 
 that he completely established his reputation. Great as was his 
 success at the Salon of 1737 with " La Fontaine " and " La Blan- 
 chisseuse "^ " ce qui le mit tout a fait en reputation ce fut le tableau 
 de * La Gouvernante ' " exhibited two years later. When it was 
 yet on the easel M. de Julienne had seemed to fancy it, but it was 
 bought by a banker named Despuechs,^ and resold for i,8oolt. to 
 Prince Lichtenstein, who, later on, became the purchaser of three 
 other works by Chardin, one of which was the famous " Aliments 
 de la Convalescence" (1747), all very ill hung when I saw them at 
 Vienna some years ago.^ The example set by the Austrian am- 
 bassador was immediately followed by the French Court, and in 
 the following year the two chief works exhibited by Chardin, 
 " La Mere laborieuse " and " Le Benedicite," were acquired for the 
 King. Boucher's patron, the comte de Tessin, next appears on 
 the scene. He had succeeded his father as " chef des travaux du 
 chateau royal," which he had construdted at Stockholm, and had 
 ordered, for its decoration, quantities of work from French artists, 
 long before he visited Paris as ambassador (1739-1742). From 
 Paris he now sent off " Le neglige " or " Toilette du matin," 
 but not to " sa galerie de Drottningholm," as the de Goncourt 
 
 ' The original " La Fontaine," National Gallery, Stockholm, and " La Blan- 
 chisseuse," in the same gallery, were probably bought at the sale of Antoine de la 
 Roque. A repetition, from the Crozat colle£lion, is at the Hermitage. Another is in 
 the National Gallery, London. It is not of superlative quality, but superior to the 
 example at Richmond in the gallery of Sir Francis Cook (Ex. Guildhall, 1898, No. 68) 
 This last, like its companion, No. 52, is a roughly painted preparation, possibly by a 
 pupil. 
 
 " Despuechs owned the " Tours de Cartes," in which two children are watching, 
 engraved by Surugue in 1744. Mentioned by Bocher, No. 51, as in the coUeftion of 
 M. Moitessier. 
 
 ' A replica of the " Gouvernante " is in the colledion of comte. A. de Vogui. 
 Bocher, 24. 
 
 120 
 
p 
 
 OS 
 
 X 
 
 u 
 
 pq 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 i 
 
imagined, for Drottningholm was and is a Royal palace. The Chardin, 
 pifture was exhibited in Paris (1741) before it left for Sweden, Baudouin 
 where it had a great success, and we find Chardin at once receiving creuze. 
 several other commissions, through Tessin, either for himself or 
 from the Court. " Adtuellement," writes Mariette in 1748, " il 
 fait un pour le prince royal de Suede ^ — une gouvernante qui fait 
 reciter I'Evangile a une petite fille, pour faire pendant avec un 
 autre tableau qu'on a vu expose au dernier sallon et qui apoursujet 
 un jeune eleve dessinant d'apres le Mercure de M. Pigal."^ 
 
 These two pi<5lures are no longer in the Swedish Royal col- 
 lections. They were given, it is believed, by Queen Louise- 
 Ulrique to Count G. A. Sparre, who formed the celebrated collec- 
 tion of pi(ftures at " WanSs en Scanie " where they now are,^ 
 together with two paintings of still- life, one of which is signed, 
 "Chardin, 1734." The National Gallery at Stockholm is, how- 
 ever, in possession of no less than ten works by Chardin, either 
 commissioned by Tessin, or bought for the Crown Prince and his 
 wife at the sale of Antoine de la Roque. From de la Roque's 
 colleftion came into Sweden not only the " deux cuisines," " La 
 Fontaine " and " La Blanchisseuse " in which we recognize " La 
 petite femme s'occupant a savonner," exhibited in 1737* but also 
 the " Jeune ouvriere en Tapisserie qui choisit de la laine," and 
 " L'Artiste-dessinateur," (signed "Chardin") both exhibited in 
 1738. These two small pictures, both on oak panel, are in a fair 
 state of preservation.^ Unhappily the same cannot be said of" La 
 Blanchisseuse," a canvas which has suffered cruelly from heat.*^ 
 The central figure, " la petite femme," in a blue skirt and reddish- 
 brown jacket, and the little boy intent on blowing soap bubbles, as 
 he sits on a stool at her feet, alone show traces of the original 
 beauty of the painter's work. The boy is a delightful baby, wear- 
 ing a droll cap, bordered with red, and a blue coat and waistcoat 
 somewhat dilapidated, which are, like the rest of his clothes, a 
 mile too large, with an unconscious gravity which is full of grace. 
 
 ' See preface to the "Notice descriptive" of the Nat. Gall., Stockholm, by G. Gothe. 
 
 ' No. 14, Bocher. 
 
 ^ Nos. 6and7. Tafvelsamlingen pa Wanas. G. Gothe. The present owner of 
 the coUedion is Count Axel Wachtmeister, to whose liberality I owe a copy of this 
 excellent catalogue. 
 
 * Described, through an oversight, by the de Goncourt as " la petite fille," etc. 
 "Notice descriptive des tableaux, etc.," National Museum, Stockholm. G. 
 Gothe. 
 
 Engraved by Cochin. Bocher, 21. We owe to him clever renderings of " Le 
 Garfon Cabaretier," and L'Ecureuse," Bocher 22 and 16, both of which were in the 
 colledion of M. Camille Marcille, together with a version of the " Ouvriere en 
 Tapisserie " and the " Dessinateur." 
 
 121 R 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 
 of 
 
 Familiar 
 
 Scenes. 
 
 In 1 74 1 Tessin had sent to Sweden "Le Benedicite " and " La 
 mere et sa fille a leur devidoir," both of which, if an inscription on 
 the back of the canvases themselves is to be trusted, are " des copies 
 retouchees par Chardin lui-meme d'apres les originaux nos. 99 and 
 98 au Louvre,"^ and the execution, which has little of the usual 
 chara6ter of Chardin's wealthy brush, supports the statement. The 
 " Mere et sa fille " is in very bad condition, and the " Benedicite," 
 which is well preserved, is peculiarly pale and cold in tone ; if it is 
 wholly by Chardin, " il a surement vu gris ce jour la." In striking 
 contrast to these two works is the magnificent warmth and keeping 
 of the fine still life representing "A dead hare hanging near a copper 
 cauldron," and the very personal beauty of the " Neglige " or " Toil- 
 ette du Matin," also sent to Sweden by Tessin in the same year.^ 
 
 The engraving made by le Bas in 1741 conveys no idea of 
 the exquisite tenderness of the faces of mother and child, nor of the 
 delicate beauty of the colour. In the dim-lit room, in the uncer- 
 tain morning light, the faint blues and pinks of the little one's dress, 
 massed with the white draperies of the dressing table tell out from 
 the splendid amber yellow of the mother's petticoat, above which 
 her handsome gown, broad striped in red and white, is gracefully 
 tucked up. No prettier lesson in coquettish dressing was ever 
 given than the one conveyed by these two figures. Top-knots peep 
 out scarlet from beneath the hood of the mother's black tippet, 
 delicately blue above the fair child's forehead, the little muff in 
 her baby hand is blue velvet and white fur, whilst by the mass 
 book on the red stool, over which falls the red drapery which en- 
 frames the mirror on the toilet, lies another muff of green velvet 
 and sable, cunningly chosen to give the last touch of elegance to 
 her mother's appearance. The accessories — the toilet service, with 
 its silver candlestick, the clock, the " meuble chantourne " on 
 which it stands, all show the ease of graceful life, which, if simple, 
 is of a " simplicite qui roule sur I'or," and one guesses that cos- 
 tumes so finished can scarcely have been donned only to go to 
 church — mass will certainly be followed by less serious engagements. 
 
 Six years later Tessin again bought from Chardin the 
 " Amusements de la vie privee," painted and exhibited in 1 746, and 
 its companion, "L'Econome," painted, but not exhibited, in 1747.^ 
 
 ' "Notice descriptive Nat. Museum Stockholm," No. 783. The "Mere et sa 
 fille" was engraved in mezzotint by T. Burford (Bocher 35) who amused himself by 
 putting a large round hat on the head of the mother. 
 
 " See note to No. 782, Cat. Museum Stockholm, 
 
 ' Engraved by le Bas, 1754, Bocher 22. A sketch of the subjeit was in the 
 colledion of M. Eudoxe Marcille, and is now in that of M"". Jahan. 
 
 122 
 
La Toilette du Matin. By Chardin. 
 {Musk JVational, Stockholm. ) 
 
They were amongst his last commissions.^ Both are on canvas ; Chardin, 
 the first, in which figures a lady with her book and her spinning- Baudouin 
 wheel, is still in fair condition, but I have seen work by Chardin creuze. 
 which has pleased me better. The " Econome "^ has suffered so 
 severely, apparently from injudicious cleaning, that it is withdrawn 
 from the gallery, but, through the kindness of Mr. Erik Folcker, I 
 was allowed to examine what is now but the ghost of a once beautiful 
 picture. These two companion works, in both of which Chardin 
 has treated a rather cold scheme of colour in which green and 
 white predominate, did not leave Paris together. A reference to 
 the catalogues of the Salon will show that the two pictures, " depuis 
 peu partis pour la Suede," which Chardin finds himself unable to 
 exhibit in 1747, were the " Econome " and the '* Jeune fille qui 
 recite I'Evangile ; " these were preceded, in 1746, by the " Amuse- 
 ments de la vie privee," and followed by the '* Eleve studieux," 
 which appeared at the Salon of 1748. 
 
 With slight variations " L'Eleve studieux," *' avec des change- 
 ments " and " La jeune fille " were again submitted to the public 
 in 1753,^ having been ordered by de Lalive de Jully, for whom 
 Chardin also painted in 1757 a "Table d'office" and a "Table de 
 cuisine." Endless and confusing are these repetitions by Chardin 
 himself of his most popular subjefts, and who can hope altogether 
 to avoid the traps which they lay for the unwary ? The MM. 
 de Goncourt thought they had found the " Dessinateur " of 1738 
 and his companion, the " Ouvriere qui choisit de la Laine," in the 
 colledion of M. Camille Marcille, but there is no doubt that they 
 were bought for the prince royal, Adolphe-Frederic, at the sale of 
 Antoine de la Roque, and are now at Stockholm. We have also 
 
 ' The accession to the throne (1751) of Adolphe-Frederic and Louise-Ulrique 
 was followed by the ruin and disgrace of their former favourite, Tessin, who saw him- 
 self obliged to cede to Louise-Ulrique the best part of his colledtion (probably about 
 1757). The remainder was sold on the death of Tessin (1770) at Akero in 1 771, and 
 at Stockholm in 1786. " Notice descriptive," Preface. 
 
 ' It is but fair to say that this is an unusual adventure at Stockholm, where one 
 is struck by the pure state of the piftures. 
 
 ' "M. Chardin a expos^," writes Grimm, 15 September, 1753, "entre plusieurs 
 tableaux tres-m6diocres, celui d'un chimiste occupe a sa ledlure. Ce tableau m'a paru 
 tres beau et digne de Rimbrandt, quoiqu'on n'en a guere parle." (Correspondance litt. 
 vol. i., p. 60). This work figures in the catalogue of the Salon as " Un philosophe 
 occupd de sa le6ture. Ce tableau appartient a M. Boscry, architecSte." This is a mis- 
 print, probably, for Bosery, who built the chapel of the College des Lombards rue des 
 Carmes, 1738. The work itself was a portrait of Aved, and is conjectured to have 
 been the same or a repetition of the work exhibited in 1737, as " Chimiste dans son 
 laboratoire," and engraved by Lepicie in 1744 as "Le Souffleur." It has, like a!l 
 Chardin's portraits, disappeared. The de Goncourt, however, excepted the portrait of 
 an old woman belonging to Mme. la baronne de Conantre. 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 
 of 
 
 Familiar 
 
 Scenes. 
 
 been assured by the same writers that, in Chardin's work, " on ne 
 connait guere de tableau, de panneau, de petite toile, d'etude meme 
 non signee." The sole exception to this rule exists, we are told, 
 in his portraits. Would that it were so ; but on works as important 
 as the " Toilette du Matin " or " Les Amusements de la vie privee " 
 there is no signature, and I learn from Dr. Gothe's excellent catalogue 
 of the works at Wanas that neither the " Eleve studieux " nor the 
 " Jeune fille qui recite " are signed. Even if we get a signature, 
 there is too often no date. We may be sure that " La Fontaine," 
 signed and dated 1733, is the first exemplar of that famous subject; 
 but there are at least four repetitions, and it is impossible to say 
 which of these may be the one exhibited in 1773, concerning which 
 we are told that it belongs to " M. Silvestre, maitre a dessiner des 
 enfants de France ; c'est la repetition d'un tableau appartenant a la 
 reine douairiere de Suede," Possibly it may be that one of great 
 beauty which is in the possession of Mme. Jahan, the daughter of 
 M. Eudoxe Marcille, for this work, still in a most perfect state of 
 preservation, shows excellencies which would delight the heart of 
 a brother painter. The rose-reds of the hanging meat are not 
 less wonderful than the superb quality of the whites. In this col- 
 lection we also find an interesting example of " Le Benedicite," 
 enlarged by a considerable addition on the right in which figures a 
 boy bearing a dish, and " Le Benedicite " stands, perhaps, next to 
 " La Fontaine " in popularity. Repetitions of this subjed figured 
 at the Salons of 1746 and 1761 ; ^ "La Pourvoyeuse " was repeated 
 in 1739 ; we have probably a third example in " Une femme qui 
 revient du marche " in 1769, and " I'Ecureuse " figures at the 
 Salons of 1738 and 1757.^ 
 
 Silvestre, the pupil of Joseph Parrocel, was not the only artist 
 who owned works by Chardin. The names of Roettiers,^ the 
 medallist, of Germain, of Lemoyne, the sculptor,* of Aved, the por- 
 trait painter, who possessed " plusiers," figure on the list of those 
 to whom belonged works exhibited at the Salons ; but Silvestre, 
 the drawing-master to the King and to the " Enfants de France," 
 
 ' In addition to the replicas of the Galerie La Caze and of the Museum at Stock- 
 holm, there is yet another at the Hermitage. 
 
 ^ In this year Chardin obtained lodgings in the Louvre. P.V., April 2nd, 1757. 
 See also Mem. indd., vol. ii., p. 438. 
 
 ° Jacques Roettiers, nephew of Norbert and cousin of Charles-Joseph, was also 
 goldsmith in ordinary to the Crown. He possessed many works by Oudry. Salon, 
 1752, and Mem. inW., vol. ii., p. 393. 
 
 * "Le Singe peintre." Gal. La Caze, No. 172. Engraved by Surugue fils, 1743. 
 There is a repetition in the colledion of Mme. Nathaniel de Rothschild, who also 
 possesses " L'Aveugle " (Ex. Salon, 1753). 
 
 124 
 
La Pourvoyeuse. By Chardin. 
 {Musk du Louvre.) 
 
seems to have been a frequent purchaser, possibly for others, for Chardin, 
 besides the repetition of the pidiure belonging to the Queen Baudouin 
 Dowager of Sweden, and the " Femme qui revient du marche," Greuze. 
 exhibited in 1769, he is credited with the possession of at least five 
 other specimens of the master's skill. Laurent Cars and his fellows 
 bought of course for the purposes of engraving and sale, and, 
 judging from an entry made in his journal by Wille, Chardin, whose 
 prices were always modest, treated his brother artists with especial 
 generosity.^ "J'^^y achete," writes Wille on the 14th August, 
 1760, "deux petits tableaux de M. Chardin; sur I'un il y a un 
 chaudron et un poelon et autres tres-bien faits, 36 liv. ; c'est bon 
 marche, aussi me les a-t-on cedes par amitie." 
 
 This payment, for such work as Chardin put into" his smallest 
 canvas, seems absurd ; but it is clear that, either from modesty on 
 his own part, or because the public were disappointed by too 
 frequent repetitions, he never — even when at the height of his 
 reputation^ — commanded high prices. Mariette gives i,8oolt. as 
 the sum paid for " La mere laborieuse," but Haillet de Couronne 
 says that the i,5oolt. paid by the King for "La Serinette " or 
 "Dame variant ses Amusements"^ was the largest that he ever 
 received. In any case it seems amazing that it should be recorded 
 of this famous artist, whose talent attracted all classes and who was 
 scarcely able to fulfil his numerous commissions,^ that the fortune of 
 his second wife enabled him to live honourably. 
 
 Outsiders, judging only by the size of his canvases, probably 
 thought him sufficiently paid, but Chardin worked very slowly. 
 In the year after his second marriage, Berck writes to the comte 
 deTessin (Odt., 1745) saying that Chardin cannot possibly let him 
 
 ' As an indication of the width of his tastes it is interesting to note that he 
 possessed works by de Troy le pere, van Loo, Boucher and Fragonard. (See Cata- 
 logue de la Vente, 6 Mars, 1 780.) A proof of his friendly relations with La Tour is 
 to be found in the Pro^es-verbaux of the Academy. When Chardin resigned, 
 July 30th, 1774, the post of treasurer, we are told that " M. Chardin sera flatt6 si 
 I'Acad^mie avoit agreable de lui permettre de placer dans I'Acad^mie son portrait peint 
 en pastel par M. De la Tour." 
 
 * His popularity in England may be inferred from the faft that Lipici^'s engrav- 
 ing of "Chateaux de Cartes" was issued with the inscription, "Given gratis to the 
 Purchasers of the ' British Magazine ' for Jan., 1762." 
 
 ' A. N. O'., 2,241. f., 346, vo. It was probably an order for Mme.de Pompa- 
 dour, as it passed into the hands of Marigny. Engraved, as in his cabinet, by Laurent 
 Cars. Sold at M. de Morny's sale for 7,ioofr., in bad condition. See de Goncourt, 
 vol. i., p. 93. 
 
 * In the catalogue of his Vente (March 6th, 1 780) we find repetitions of " La 
 Gouvernante," " La mere laborieuse," " La Blanchisseuse," " Les Tours de Cartes," 
 and " Le jeu de I'Oye." One infers that other galleries than that of Stockholm may 
 contain " copies retouch6es par Chardin lui-meme d'apres les originaux." 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 
 of 
 
 Familiar 
 
 Scenes. 
 
 have two piftures then ordered (" Les Amusements de la vie 
 privee " and " I'Econome ") for a year, and adds, " le prix de vingt 
 cinq louis d'or par tableau est modique pour lui qui a le malheur 
 de travailler si lentement."^ Haillet de Couronne received the 
 details of his life of Chardin from Cochin, who was Chardin's 
 intimate friend, and occupied lodgings near him in the Louvre. 
 He tells us, as does Mariette, that the master's pidlures " cost him 
 great labour." This fa6t, which Chardin seems to have frankly 
 proclaimed, coupled with the account given by Bachaumont of his 
 method of execution, explains the curiosity which has been recorded 
 by Diderot. " On dit de celui ci," he says of Chardin, " qu'il a 
 une technique qui lui est propre et qu'il se sert autant de son pouce 
 que de son pinceau. Je ne sais ce qui en est. Ce qu'il y a de 
 sur, c'est que je n'ai jamais connu personne qui I'ait vu travailler."^ 
 
 Bachaumont seems to have had better luck. He tells us that 
 " sa maniere de peindre est singuliere : il place ses couleurs I'une 
 apres I'autre sans presque les meler, de fafon que son ouvrage res- 
 semble un peu a de la mosaique ou pieces de rapport."^ After 
 reading this one is not surprised to find, in a letter from Cochin 
 to Belle le fils, a receipt, entitled, " Teintes pour I'accord 
 harmonieux d'un tableau dont M. Chardin faisoit un excellent 
 usage." Lake, Cologne earth. Ultramarine ash, were the tints em- 
 ployed, with English linseed oil, " Stil de grain d'Angleterre," and 
 Cochin adds, " J'ay oui dire a M. Chardin qu'avec ces tons diverse- 
 ment et bien modifies, il revenoit sur touttes les ombres de quelque 
 couleur qu'elles fussent. II est certain que ce peintre a ete celui 
 de son siecle qui a le mieux entendu I'accord magique du tableau." * 
 
 Cochin himself was no painter, but he might have learnt from 
 his own art that there is no receipt for the " accord magique d'un 
 tableau." " Qui vous a dit qu'on peignit avec les couleurs ? " asked 
 Chardin gravely of a brother artist who boasted of a certain system 
 by which he purified his colours. " Avec quoi done. Monsieur ? " 
 returned the other in astonishment. " On se sert de couleurs," 
 replied Chardin, " on peint avec le sentiment,"^ and of no one was 
 this more true than of himself. Everything that he touched he 
 touched with feeling as profound as it was personal. The common 
 things, the everyday incidents of family life seen in the homes of 
 the staid and prudent citizens of Paris, stirred his affedlions ; the 
 house-mother, kindly, foreseeing, careful, the little ones playing 
 their very games with a certain gravity as if they had adopted 
 
 • Port, ined., art. fr. de Chennevieres. 
 ' Notes, Appendix, Mem. de Wille 
 
 " Salon, 1767. 
 
 ' Arch, de I'Art fr., vol. ii., p. 1 28. 
 Mem. ined., vol. ii., p. 441. 
 126 
 
something of the sober ways of their elders, these figures were Chardin, 
 sufficient for the exercise of Chardin's most perfed gifts. He Baudouin 
 treated with absolute simplicity the simple pleasures of simple Greuze. 
 lives. All the actors in his innocent dramas live as they really 
 lived, they appear before us in their aftual frame. They wore their 
 serviceable well-chosen garments ; we know every item of their 
 necessary furnishing — the chairs, the table, the brazier, their child- 
 ren's toys, their polished floors, and the very colours which they 
 afFe6led. An orderly, sober world, methodical and regular, so much 
 so that we feel a mild surprise when the unwilling little scholar 
 throws down his shuttlecock and battledore at the feet of his 
 " gouvernante," and sulks impatiently whilst she brushes his hat and 
 gives him unwelcome advice. 
 
 It has been reported that Descamps, looking at Chardin's work, 
 cried out in despair, " Les blancs de Chardin . . . je ne peux pas 
 les trouver ! " ^ But perhaps Chardin's browns are as wonderful 
 as his whites. If we recall the scheme of any one of his works, 
 of the " Pourvoyeuse " for example, we shall remember the living 
 beauty of the flesh, the ivory whites, the warm rich blues, and im- 
 mediately we shall see a certain quality of brown,^ a brown which 
 has an extraordinary power of allying itself either to black or to 
 the most delicate grays. Sometimes, as in the coat of the boy in 
 " Le Toton,"^ now belonging to M. Groult, he aftually breaks his 
 browns with these beautiful grays, from the force and depth of 
 which all the other hues seem to have borrowed a greater value. 
 The grays which his contemporaries loved, and which served them 
 to disperse the rainbow hues with which they loved to play, could 
 not serve the turn of Chardin, tones of a stronger and more sober 
 character became his palette, as he sat with closed doors, his whole 
 powers concentrated in the office of penetrative sight. 
 
 This same wonderful penetration and acuity of vision, accom- 
 panied by kindred peculiarities of execution, distinguish Chardin's 
 work in pastel. It has been suggested that he turned to pastel in 
 order to refresh the interest of his public, but it is more likely that 
 he took up the crayon because he found it less trying to his sight 
 than painting, for all his pastels were produced in his later years, 
 the years in which he was forced to have recourse to the aid of 
 powerful glasses when he worked. In the pastel portrait of 1771,* 
 
 L'Art au XVIII. Siecle, de Goncourt, vol. ii., p. 130. 
 
 Both in the "Mere laborieuse," and " Le Ben6dicit6" in the Louvre we get 
 the same beautiful masses of white, "6cras6es sur les tons bruns." 
 
 Engraved by L^pici^ in 1742. " Le Toton" belongs to the same years as the 
 " Pourvoyeuse " and " Ratisseuse " of Potsdam. 
 * Louvre, No. 678. 
 
 127 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 
 of 
 
 Familiar 
 
 Scenes. 
 
 which is, perhaps, the finest of those which he has left us of him- 
 self, he already wears spectacles ; in the equally brilliant and 
 audacious work belonging to M. Groult, the eyes of the great 
 artist gaze at us, genial and humorous, through glasses which 
 have grown to imposing dimensions, the like of which appear 
 again in the companion portrait to that of his wife executed in 
 1775.^ The portrait of the wife. Marguerite Pouget, in " bonnet 
 blanc tres simple, avec noeud bleu. Fichu blanc, casaquin de soie 
 noir, robe brune," ^ shows once more her husband's favourite scheme 
 of colour. Chardin himself wears a great green shade above his 
 white cap. Both portraits are admirable for their sympathetic 
 yet uncompromising sincerity. " La Tour lui-meme," remarks M. 
 Reiset, " n'a jamais mieux reussi." It is, however, to be noted that 
 Chardin uses the crayon quite differently from La Tour. He is 
 not afraid of leaving his touch just as he has placed it,^ and he does 
 not aim at that effedl of " bloom " which is the ordinary seduftion 
 of the pastellist. His last famous work, the portrait of a young 
 man " peinte au pastel," was exhibited in the Salon of 1779 and 
 attradted the attention of Mme. Vidtoire de France. She asked 
 the price, but Chardin replied that the honour paid by her to 
 his old age was a favour above price, and in exchange for his 
 pidlure received from her a gold snuff-box, by which he was 
 delighted.* 
 
 But, says his biographer, whilst we speak of honours and 
 favours and satisfactions, the fatal end drew near. The year which 
 heralded the ruin of so many of Chardin's friends and fellow- 
 workers brought to him this final favour and a kindly death. For 
 years he had suffered much from various infirmities, and in especial 
 was cruelly afHiCted with stone, but he continued to work to the 
 last and passed away at the age of eighty, tended faithfully by the 
 brave wife,^ who seems to have consoled him for his first unfortunate 
 
 ' Louvre, Nos. 679, 680. Engraved by Chevillet. 
 
 ' Engraved by Abel Luzat. 
 
 ^ This peculiarity will probably enable us by-and-by to determine the drawings 
 which are entitled to bear his name. As I write, I hear from my friend, M. C. 
 Ephrussi, that one has been found of unexceptionable authenticity dated 1769 and 
 bearing Chardin's signature. This drawing, which we reproduce, will furnish us with 
 a test for others which, like some at Stockholm, appear to have claims to consideration. 
 
 * M6m. ined., vol. ii., p. 439. 
 
 * In an undated letter of Cochin to Descamps, written after Chardin's death, he 
 says, " Mme. Chardin demeure maintenant rue du Renard Saint-Sauveur ch6s M. 
 Adger, agent de change. M. Dachet, oncie de M. Adger, avoit epous6 une soeur de 
 Mme. Chardin . . . M. Adger a offert a Mme. Chardin de la recevoir ch^s lui, ou elle 
 couleroit la vie douce, n'ayant plus le souci de rien que de sa sant6. lis ont une maison de 
 campagne . . . , au moyen de quoy elle jouit d'un doux repos." A. de I'A., vol. v., p. 219. 
 
 128 
 
Le chateau de Cartes. By Chardin. 
 {Collection of M. Jacques Douce t.) 
 
marriage,^ and for the loss of that son — premier prix de petnture Chardin, 
 — whose suicide at Venice darkened his father's days.^ Baudouin 
 
 To the last, Chardin had remained faithful to the simple Greuze. 
 subjects and the unconventional standpoint which he had from the 
 first adopted. The pleasures of happy imitation were enough for 
 him ; " to strike true " was the fulfilment of his highest ambition. 
 To this temper of mind, seeking always with unerring instindt the 
 beauty of perfedl truth, the mere observation of the commonest 
 aftions, the most tranquil movements became a source of endless 
 interest and pleasure. A baby learning to say "Grace" before 
 meat, a boy building his " Chateau de cartes," are instindl, 
 when touched by Chardin, with the full pathos of human life. 
 The sentimental complications in which Greuze delighted, and 
 which he may almost be said to have invented, were not only un- 
 necessary to Chardin's art, they were as foreign to his temperament 
 as the mannered airs of Etienne Jeaurat,^ or the suggestive in- 
 decencies of Baudouin ; these modes of the hour could not with- 
 draw Chardin from his undivided allegiance to purely pidtorial 
 motive, nor do we find in the work of Lepicie, who forms a link 
 between Chardin and Greuze, any trace of those tendencies which 
 suggest the Italian distich : 
 
 "Quanto a spirto gentil conviensi Amore 
 Taiito e men bello in animo villano." 
 
 Mariette insists sharply on this distindiion when he condemns 
 Pierre-Antoine Baudouin, " gar9on laborieux et de fort bon carac- 
 tere," for the licentious charafter of his subjefts. He had better, 
 says Mariette, have confined himself wholly to " des sujets galants ;* 
 11 n'auroit peut etre pas tant gagne d'argent, mais il auroit mis sa 
 conscience a couvert et ne se serait pas prepare des remords." 
 Mariette, who had rebuked the admirers of Chardin for preferring 
 the daily actions of homely life to more exalted subjects, had no 
 sympathy with indiscretions, even if disguised with the utmost 
 art and grace. He has, on the other hand no word of approval for 
 
 ' For the documents regarding the first marriage, see de Goncourt, p. 91, and for 
 the second, p. 94. 
 
 " M6m. ined., vol. ii., pp. 438, 439, and 435. Young Chardin had been in the 
 Ecole royale des Eldves prot6g&. His "Alexandre s'endormant avec une boule d'or 
 dans sa main " was in the " Exposition des ouvrages des pensionnaires a Versailles," 
 in April, 1755. M. de Luynes notes it as " par Chardin, k^h. de 22 ans, qui n'est que 
 depuis cinq mois dans I'Ecole." "M^m. du due de Luynes," p. 1 33, vol. xiv. M. Laper- 
 lier possessed a work by him. See de Goncourt, vol. i., p. 102. 
 
 ' 1699 — 1789. 
 
 * The word " galant " had then no worse signification than is implied by our 
 vulgar word " smart " as used in opposition to " low " company. 
 
 129 S 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 
 of 
 
 Familiar 
 
 Scenes. 
 
 " The Life of the Virgin " or for those illustrations to the Epistles 
 and Gospels ordered of Baudouin by M. de Fontanieu for the 
 Royal Chapel and exhibited in 1767 and 1769. After all, indis- 
 cretions, even such as Baudouin committed, are softened by the lapse 
 of time, and those which may have seemed indecent to his contem- 
 poraries appear to us now with something of the gravity of a vision 
 from the dead past. 
 
 " II peignoit fort joliment des guazzes," says Mariette, and it 
 is by his two famous gouaches, " Le Coucher de la Mariee " and 
 " Le Modele honnete"^ (both in the colleftion of M. Groult) 
 that Baudouin is now best known. Although these works have 
 suffered not only from the evils which must necessarily affedt 
 the beauty of things so delicate, but also somewhat from an un- 
 skilful attempt to preserve them, they still show us how brilliantly 
 this miniature painter^ had appropriated the lighter and more 
 sedu6tive qualities of Boucher's talent. He had married Boucher's 
 second daughter in 1758, and we are told that he adored his father- 
 in-law, who was supposed to have suggested some of those com- 
 positions which Baudouin rendered with so much grace and " verve." 
 It must, however, be granted that if he were the faithful historian 
 of the manners of his day, it was only of those manners which 
 Boucher treated in his idler hours, and which afterwards became 
 the theme of Gravelot's delicate pencil in his illustrations of the 
 *' Contes de la Fontaine." In the "Coucher de la Mariee," ex- 
 hibited at the Salon of 1767 and popularized by the fine engraving 
 begun by Moreau le Jeune and finished by Simonet, we find a sub- 
 jeft — open to interpretation as offensive as that which Diderot at 
 once fastened upon it — treated with art the most exquisite and 
 delicate that, in its way, it is possible to imagine, and which we 
 can recognize even now when most of Baudouin's gouaches have 
 suffered from rehandling, under which the original simplicity and 
 breadth of the masterly touch has disappeared. Engravers, how- 
 ever, such as de Launay, Massard and Ponce, by their brilliant 
 versions of " Le Carquois epuise," " Le Lever," " L'Enlevement 
 nodlurne " and " L'Epouse indiscrete," have done much to defend 
 Baudouin's fame from oblivion. In vain the indignant Diderot 
 may cry, " Notre ami Baudouin peu de chose." We cannot endorse 
 his judgment as we look at the refined beauty with which Baudouin 
 has treated the principal figures in his " Modele honnete," at the 
 natural grace of gesture, the lively propriety of movement of the 
 
 ' Both engraved by Simonet. " Le Coucher de la Mariee " appeared at the Salon 
 of 1767, "Le Modele honnete" at that of 1769. 
 
 " He was agr^^ as " peintre en miniature," September 26th, 1761. P. V. 
 
 130 
 
O ^ 
 Q ^ 
 
 m I 
 
 < ^ 
 
 O !5 
 
pretty adlors in the " Coucher de la Mariee." His heroes, like the Chardin, 
 gallants who trouble " Le Confessional," may be only " heros de Baudouin 
 ruelles," ^ but the originality and variety of their types, the genuine Greuze. 
 life by which they are animated, denote that Baudouin possessed 
 faculties of observation and imagination, the brilliance of which go 
 far to atone for the freedom of his pencil. 
 
 Whilst Baudouin was illustrating with adorable grace the pre- 
 vailing tastes of the France whose ruler was then amused by Mme. 
 du Barry, the names of his subjects, such as " La Fille econduite," 
 " Le Cueilleur de Cerises," reminds us of those which were 
 also handled with a clever admixture of different sentiment by 
 his contemporary, Greuze.^ One work, however, by Baudouin, 
 " La petite Laitiere,"^ resembles both in name and manner closely 
 that of Greuze, and shows how nearly allied in feeling were these 
 two men, who, at first sight, seem to have little in common. And 
 that they were allied is true, though Baudouin dedicated gifts, the 
 promise of which was cut short by his early death, ^ to the service 
 of that luxury and licence the readion against which was turned to 
 account by Greuze. The most eloquent literary exponent of this 
 rea6tion was Rousseau ; Greuze became its interpreter, rather 
 against his will, in that unending series of sentimental scenes which 
 set before us those circumstances of domestic drama which Diderot, 
 in his " Fils naturel " and " Le Pere de Famille " unsuccessfully 
 attempted to put on the stage. The vogue of these subjefts was 
 unparalleled, and commanded the services of the greatest engravers 
 of the day. " Le Pere de Famille expliquant la Bible," the early 
 subject by which he startled the professors of the Royal Academy,^ 
 or " L'Aveugle trompe," painted in 1754,^ the work on which he 
 was presented by Pigalle, might both serve as illustrations to the 
 " Contes Moraux " of Marmontel, and it was evident that if he 
 chose to work out this vein of suggestive sentimentality, Greuze 
 was assured of fame and fortune. 
 
 ' In the colleftion of Mme. la vicomtesse de Courval. Exhibited Salon 1765. 
 
 ' 1 725- 1 805. See N. A., vol. 1874, p. 434. 
 
 ' Engraved by Gutenberg. 
 
 * "Baudouin est mort I'hiver dernier . . . cpuis6 par le travail et par les plaisirs. 
 II peignait a gouache ou en miniature, et il s'etait fait un petit genre lascif et mal- 
 honnete qui plaisait beaucoup a notre jeunesse libertine." Corres. litt., June 15th, 
 1770. 
 
 ' See " Lettres a Mile. Voland," Ed. 1841, vol. ii., p. 170, Letter cxxvii., and 
 Notice by Mme. Valori, the granddaughter of Greuze, prefixed to her "Comedie 
 Vaudeville," entitled, "Greuze ou I'Accordde de village." Reprinted in "Rev. univ. 
 des Arts," vol. iv., pp. 248-261, and 362-377, etc. 
 
 ° Ex. Salon 1755. Now in the colledlion of the late Mme. la baronne Nathaniel 
 de Rothschild. 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 
 of 
 
 Familiar 
 
 Scenes. 
 
 His Italian experiences, his determination to take the 
 Academic world by storm one can only regard as a temporary 
 aberration. His tour with the Abbe Gougenot,^ a man whose vast 
 acquaintance with mythological and allegorical subjects seems to 
 have been constantly utilized by the Academy, was of doubtful 
 service to an artist endowed like Greuze. He was for a while 
 thrown completely off the track on which he had made his first 
 success, and the disastrous adventure of his " Severe et Caracalla " 
 (see p. 25), had at least one good result. Checked after a humili- 
 ating fashion^ in his mistaken ambitions, he returned to the source 
 of his first and happier inspiration. His choice of subject, but 
 still more the mixture of sensuality and sentiment, which specially 
 charafterises his treatment of themes not in themselves necessarily 
 suggestive of a moral, shows the influence and nature of the attacks 
 then being made on society. 
 
 From 1759 to 1762 Greuze exhibited, with ever increasing 
 success, works such as "I'Accordee de Village,"^ but the zenith of 
 his reputation was reached in 1765, when he sent to the Salon no 
 less than thirteen works. Of these, the most memorable were 
 " La jeune Fille qui pleure son oiseau mort,"^ " La bonne Mere,"^ 
 " Le Fils puni," and " La Malediction paternelle," both of which, 
 now in the Louvre,^ were reproduced by Robert Gaillard. But 
 he captivated his public, in a large measure, because his treatment 
 of his subjedls, though tainted with the same artificiality and self- 
 consciousness that spoiled the dramas of Diderot, was rendered 
 attractive by a vein of wanton suggestion which found an echo in 
 the dainty disorder in which his heroines are dressed. However 
 piteous the situation, there is certain to be some corner of his pic- 
 ture in which the eye can detect the immature charms of one of 
 his favourite types of girlish beauty, indiscreetly revealed with an 
 inappropriate and picturesque elegance verging on the theatrical. 
 
 ^ Hon. Amateur, R. A., P. V., 1756. Greuze painted portraits of the Abb6 and 
 of his brother and his wife shortly after his return from Italy. The two last were 
 exhibited in Paris, 1888. They were then in the collection of M. le baron de Soucy. 
 
 ' Wille writes, August 23rd, 1769: "M. Greuze presenta, pour sa reception, un 
 tableau historique a I'Acad^mie royale, pour etre re^u comme peintre d'histoire. II 
 y fut reju comme peintre, mais refus6 comme peintre d'histoire. Cela lui causa bien 
 de la peine ; mais personne ne pourroit lutter contre le scrutin du corps en g^ndral." 
 
 ' Louvre, No. 260. It was engraved by Flipart and exhibited in 1761. A 
 study for the subjeft, in the Mus6e Conde, comes from the coUeftion of the Marquis 
 Maison. 
 
 * In the colledion of the late Mme. Nathaniel de Rothschild. Engraved by 
 Flipart and by Morse, G. B. A., 1882, Ex. Salon, 1765. 
 
 ' A drawing for this work belongs to M. Groult. M. J. Doucet has a fine pre- 
 paration for the head in pastel. Engraved by Massard. Ex. Salon, 1769. 
 
 ° Nos. 262 and 261, An "esquisse" of "Le Fils puni," Ex. 1765. 
 
 132 
 
D 
 
 O 
 
 
 w 5 
 
 s 
 
 a 
 o 
 u 
 u 
 < 
 
Even in " Le Pere de Famille expliquant la Bible," his first pidture, Chardin, 
 exhibited in 1755, the instindl which bid him associate with his Baudouin 
 lessons of grace and morality the stimulus of voluptuous charm, Qreuze. 
 has tempted him to give prominence to a girl whose thoughts are 
 far away, and whose kerchief is torn just where it should hide the 
 budding breast. 
 
 This touch of melodrama finds an apology in the firm and 
 brilliant play of line which marks Greuze's best work ; in the 
 vigour and freshness of his flesh tints ; in the enticing softness of 
 expression — obtained sometimes by an abuse of meplats — in the 
 alluring air of healthful life and youth, and the other sensuous 
 attradlions with which he contrived to invest his lessons of bour- 
 geois morality. As Diderot wittily said of " La bonne Mere," 
 " 9a preche la population," and a certain piquancy of contrast re- 
 sulted from the exhibition, in the name of morality, of charms so 
 opulent which has never failed to attraft the general public, and 
 has caused his work to command enormous prices. This is especi- 
 ally the case with his single figures, such as "Le Miroir casse,"-^ 
 of the Wallace coUedtion, " La Cruche cassee,"^ of the Louvre, " La 
 belle Blanchisseuse " at Wanas, " La fille a la lettre," which, like the 
 " Baiser jete," is in the colledlion of Mr. Alfred de Rothschild, " La 
 Fille dont I'oiseau s'envole," once at Bagatelle, and " L'OfFrande a 
 I'Amour," now at Hertford House.^ By far the most seduftive of 
 these works — though I prefer as a piece of painting the " Cruche 
 cassee " in the Scottish National Gallery — is " Le Baiser jete," of 
 which Diderot wrote in 1765 : "II faut que je vous dise un mot d'un 
 tableau charmant, qui ne sera peut-etre jamais expose au Salon. Ce 
 sont les etrennes de Mme. de Grammont a M. de Choiseul. . . . 
 Imaginez une fenetre sur la rue, A cette fenetre un rideau vert 
 entr'ouvert ; derriere ce rideau, une jeune fille charmante sortant de 
 son lit et n'ayant pas eu le temps de se vetir. Elle vient de recevoir 
 un billet de son amant. Get amant passe sous sa fenetre, et elle lui 
 jette un baiser en passant." Four years later, when the pifture, 
 contrary to Diderot's expectations, appeared at the Salon, the critic 
 had fallen out of love with the painter, and saw only the faults of 
 
 ' Ex. 1763. No. 425, Beth. Green. 
 
 * Louvre, No. 263. The first sketch (painted) for this work is in the Nat. Gall, 
 of Scotland, No. 356. 
 
 ' Nos. 447 and 380, Beth. Green. The " Petit Math^maticien " is in the col- 
 leftion of baron Ed. de Rothschild, and a replica is to be found in the Mus& de Mont- 
 pellier, where are also numerous other works by Greuze, including " Le Gateau des 
 Rois " (engraved Flipart. Signed and dated, "J. B. Greuze, 1 774 ") ; " La Jeune Fille 
 au Panier;" " La Priere du matin," etc., etc. In gen. Mon. Civ. Pro., vol. i., pp. 214, 
 215. "La Priere du Matin" was reproduced in the Gaz. B. A., vol. v., p. 2. 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 
 of 
 
 Familiar 
 
 Scenes. 
 
 manner, and the thin quality with which the work may be re- 
 proached, but which are powerless to destroy its unrivalled grace and 
 charm. 
 
 It is, indeed, in his single figures that Greuze is seen at his best, 
 and now and again rises even to the height of excellence, though, in 
 spite of his keen powers of observation, he remained content to 
 follow the routine pra6tice of his day, and his treatment of drapery 
 especially is mannered, and shows the clay-cold quality common 
 to most of his contemporaries. When a youth, coming into the 
 Academy as a pupil of Grondom's, a Lyons portrait painter, the 
 father of Madame Gretry, by whom Greuze was carried to Paris, 
 he received little attention from the professors, and the rapid leap 
 into public notice which he made by " Le Pere de Famille ex- 
 pliquant la Bible," which brought him the friendly patronage of 
 de Lalive de Jully, probably increased his vanity and self-esteem. 
 When in Italy, we find him receiving, as a matter of course, marked 
 attention from Marigny, who wrote to Natoire bidding him give 
 Greuze a room at the " Ecole," and sending a commission for two 
 pictures to be placed in his sister's apartments at Versailles, where 
 he adds, " ils seront vues de toutte la cour."-"^ Greuze declined to 
 follow Marigny's suggestion and do the work in Rome, so it was 
 arranged that it should await his return to Paris, and Natoire may 
 possibly have been glad to hasten his departure, for we are told 
 that when he ventured to criticise one of Greuze's sketches, his 
 guest replied, " Monsieur, vous serez heureux si vous pourriez en 
 faire une pareille."^ "II est un peu vain notre peintre," says 
 Diderot in 1765, " mais sa vanite est celle d'un enfant. Otez-lui 
 cette naivete qui lui fait dire de son propre ouvrage ; Voyez-moi 
 cela. C'est cela qui est beau. Vous lui oterez la verve, vous 
 eteindrez le feu et le genie s'eclipsera. Je crains bien lorsqu'il 
 deviendra modeste, qu'il n'ait raison de I'etre." 
 
 At this moment the brilliant critic was captivated by the 
 freshness of Greuze's talent. He pauses to note that the head of 
 the "Jeune Fille qui pleure son oiseau mort " is that of a girl of 
 sixteen, whilst her hands and arms are those of a woman,^ but 
 turns at once to extol the beauty of the " Fils ingrat " and the 
 " Mauvais Fils puni ;" " if," he says, " these two projedls should ever 
 be carried out, taste has fallen so low that Boucher will find an 
 easier market for his indecent and dull marionettes than Greuze for 
 
 ' No. 43, Vente Marigny. See Correspondance of Natoire, G. B. A. 1870. 
 * A. de I'A., vol. vi., p. 236. 
 
 ' This is also the case with the girl in the life-size half-length, " La Fille a la 
 lettre," in the collection of Mr. Alfred de Rothschild. 
 
 »34 
 
La liKi.ij-; Blanchisseuse. By Greuze. 
 {^Collection of Coutit Axel IVachtmeisler, Wanas.) 
 
his two sublime pidures. Is not," he asks, "his 'Paralytic*^ still Chardin, 
 in his atelier ? Yet it is a masterpiece of art. They heard talk of Baudouin 
 it at Court. They sent for it : it was looked at admiringly, but Qreuze. 
 not bought ; and it cost the artist some twenty crowns to attain 
 the inestimable happiness. . . but I must hold my tongue." 
 
 The fervour of this intense admiration soon cooled. Two 
 years later Diderot was still of opinion that Greuze was certainly 
 superior " dans son genre," and still saw in him one who draws, 
 "qui imagine, qui colore : qui a le faire et I'idee," but in his Salon 
 of 1769 he retradts much of this praise, and, after relating the 
 mortifying adventures which had attended the painter's reception 
 by the Academy, he curtly declares, " Je n'aime plus Greuze." 
 This attitude on the part of Diderot probably also represents that 
 of the curious seftion of Parisian society then influenced by the 
 Encyclopaedists. Irritated by the self-sufficiency and vanity of the 
 man, they were also provoked by his determination to pay homage 
 to traditional conventions and conquer the rank of historical painter, 
 instead of basing his claims to honour on the rendering of scenes of 
 " sublime " morality. In contrast to these turns of feeling, it is 
 interesting to take the steady testimony of Wille, the engraver, 
 who writes in his Journal on Nov. 27th, 1759, " M. Greuze, ce 
 peintre profond et solide, m'a fait present d'un excellent dessin de 
 sa main, etant mon vrai ami. Ce dessin represente une cuisiniere 
 debout contre une armoire, lisant ou calculant dans son livre de 
 depense, etc. II est de toute beaute et hardiment fait au crayon 
 noir et blanc, papier gris." On the i8th December in the same 
 year, Wille notes that he has paid igzlt. for the finest drawing yet 
 made by Greuze, the subje6l of which is a woman roasting chest- 
 nuts which she is selling to some Savoyards, who dispute payment. 
 Further transadtions are noted in the Journal during the following 
 year Quly 17th, 1760) and on the 15th April, 1761, Wille placed 
 his son Pierre-Alexandre with Greuze, as a pupil, an z6t which 
 plainly shows his continued respedt for that master's talent. That 
 Wille was satisfied with the care bestowed by Greuze on his son's 
 training is proved by the handsome presents which, from time to 
 time, he thought well to offer to Mme. Greuze — the beautiful 
 Mile. Babuty, to whose charms Diderot has borne witness, and 
 whose dishonesty and depravity are recorded in the monstrous 
 " Memoire contre sa femme," which was drawn up by her hus- 
 band.^ On one of these occasions (ist Jan., 1762) Wille notes that 
 
 * At the Hermitage. The Musde de Montpellier was a study for the head of 
 the chief figure, " Tete de Paralytique." See Salons 1761 and 1763. 
 " A. de I'A., vol, ii., p. 153. 
 
The he had sent his son Pierre-Alexandre to his master's house with a 
 
 Painters gjiyer coffee-pot, " qu'il a presentee a Mme, Greuze pour ses 
 Familiar etrennes," and there seems to be some hint of the lady's character 
 Scenes. in the words, *' II a ete bien re9u comme de raison " with which 
 the entry concludes.^ Traces of these excellent relations between 
 the painter and his engraver crop up again and again in Wille's 
 curious Journal. In September, 1763, he goes, in the company of 
 Doyen,^ with M. and Mme. Greuze to Champigny, where their 
 child is " en nourrice," and in the last two months of the same 
 year we find him sitting for his portrait to his good friend, and 
 noting that, on the 1st Dec, Greuze painted " mon habit d'apres 
 moi."^ This touch shows us the painter at work, and reveals the 
 careful praftice which makes all his portraits interesting. "Greuze," 
 says Mariette, " has painted various portraits which have a char- 
 after of truth which should make them valuable. But that is per- 
 haps the precise reason why they will have no success. Most 
 people dislike too much simplicity and naivete." In proof of this, 
 Mariette relates that when Greuze was sent for to Versailles to 
 paint the portrait of the Dauphin, his sitter was so well pleased, 
 that he determined, as the most flattering thing he could think of, 
 to propose that he should also paint the portrait of the Dauphine. 
 She was unluckily present, and Greuze, seeing the enormous 
 quantity of rouge with which, in obedience to the reigning fashion, 
 her cheeks were disfigured, hastily replied that he begged to be ex- 
 cused, and, without thinking of what he was saying, made matters 
 worse by adding, "Je ne sfais point peindre de pareilles tetes." 
 
 What Greuze could do, when not embarrassed by a painted 
 mask, is proved by his portraits of men as well as by those of 
 women, as, for example, the admirable Sophie Arnould, now at 
 Hertford House, or the delicate vaporous Mme. de Champcenetz, to 
 whom rouge and other "fards" were not a matter of necessity.^ His 
 portraits of the engraver, Wille ; of Robespierre,^ of Fabre d'Eglan- 
 tine,^ are not precisely examples of powerful work, but they are all 
 remarkable for the wonderful beauty of their atmosphere. If this 
 quality takes something from the virility of his men, it enhances, 
 
 3 
 
 See also December loth, 1763. " 1 726-1806. 
 
 Salon, 1765. This fine portrait bust of Wille is in the colledlion of Mme. Ed. 
 Andre. It was bought at the Delessert sale, and was exhibited Jan., 1846, in the 
 Galerie des Beaux Arts, Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle (see Cat. No. 32), and again in 
 1888. 
 
 * Colleftion Grefulhe. G. B. A., 1877. The portrait of Sophie Arnould was 
 No. 410, Beth. Green. 
 
 Belongs to the Earl of Rosebery. Exhibited, Old Masters, 1896. 
 
 Louvre. No. 209, Galerie La Caze. 
 
 136 
 
 (1 
 
on the other hand, the charm of his portraits of women and child- Chardin, 
 ren. Sometimes, as in his treatment of the head of the young girl ^audouin 
 veiled in black, which belongs to M. Leopold Goldschmidt, Greuze Greuze. 
 even deserves the epithet " profound," applied to him by Wille. 
 " Paul Strogonoff enfant " is one of the most attractive child-por- 
 traits in existence,^ and the painting of the flesh, relieved against 
 white linen, of his " Tete de jeune fille,"^ which hangs near it in 
 the gallery at Besan9on, is but one of many instances of the pecu- 
 liarly sedudtive charafter which is the signature of Greuze when 
 dealing with models whose attraftions were those of nature and 
 healthful youth. These he painted, when painting diredl from 
 life, with admirable direftness ; and it is in his studies, and not in 
 his portraits or in his pidlures, that he shows himself at his best. 
 The study in pastel which he made from his wife for the head of 
 " La Mere bien-aimee,"^ excites our warmest admiration, not only 
 by the marvellous mother-o'-pearl tones of the flesh, which some- 
 times, as in " Tendre Desir,"^ become a little sickly, but by the 
 masterly drawing, especially noticeable in the rendering of the 
 mouth. 
 
 An indefatigable worker, Greuze had, at one time, amassed 
 considerable wealth, but his affairs, originally embarrassed by the 
 venality and extravagance of his wife, sufi^ered irretrievable ruin in 
 the social and political troubles which engulfed the fortunes of the 
 old regime, and he died in 1808, in his lodgings in the Louvre, in 
 great poverty. He left no pupil of mark. Etienne Aubry,^ the 
 young portrait painter, who died at the early age of thirty-six, in 
 1 78 1, was the only one whose work shows character ; of the 
 others who owed their inspiration to Greuze, such as Pierre- 
 Alexandre Wille, Schenau and Benezech, there need be no mention 
 here.^ 
 
 Greuze himself had outlived the movement of which he had 
 been the most brilliant interpreter. To the perfedt joy in life 
 which animated the work of Watteau, had succeeded the licentious 
 suggestiveness of the group led by Baudouin ; for this Greuze had 
 substituted the sensual sentimentalism which appeared to Diderot 
 as the alliance of morality with art. This, in its turn, was swept 
 away. 
 
 ' No. 268, Cat. Mus^e de Besanjon. ' No. 269. 
 
 » In the colleaion of M. Jacques Doucet. * Musee Cond^, No. CXXXIII. 
 1 745-1 78 1. There are some fine drawings by him in the Louvre. 
 Amongst those indirecSly influenced by Greuze was his contemporary Jean- 
 Francois Colson, 1 733-1 803. See engraving of " Le Repos," by F. Courboin. 
 G. B. A., 1898. 
 
 137 T 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE PAINTERS OF PORTRAIT: RIGAUD, LARGIL- 
 
 LIERE, NATTIER, TOCQUE, ROSLIN, DROUAIS, 
 
 LATOUR, PERRONNEAU, AND OTHERS. 
 
 The "^ "^ "TT'HEN Franfois de Troy arrived in Paris from Italy 
 
 ^ain ers % ^/ / ^^ 1 709, " il y trouva son pere entierement livre au 
 Portrait. \>\/ portrait; il n'etoit point encore d'usage," says his 
 
 T T biographer " que les peintres s'attachassent unique- 
 
 ment a ce genre." ^ This is an exaggeration. No doubt a certain 
 change had taken place, but it dates from the day when le Brun — 
 seeing the excellence of Rigaud's portraits especially marked in 
 that of de la Fosse ^ — advised the painter to forego the prolonged 
 stay in Italy, held to be obligatory on every winner of the Grand 
 Prix, and to devote himself to portrait painting " sans reserve." ^ 
 De Troy le pere, and Largilliere, with both of whom Rigaud had 
 formed the most intimate relations from the time of his arrival in 
 Paris (168 1), were no doubt influenced by his determination, and 
 followed the example which he had set at least twenty years before 
 the young de Troy was persuaded to leave Pisa and the attra6live 
 Signora Joanna. 
 
 To Rigaud^ it was an unmixed advantage to have gone 
 through some of that severe academic training necessary to a man 
 who intended to be received as a "peintre d'histoire." It may 
 even be questioned whether he did not exchange it, too soon, for 
 the special studies to which he devoted himself when he decided 
 to follow le Brun's advice. In spite of his great gifts, Rigaud does 
 
 ' M. I., vol. ii., p. 258. ' Painted in 1682. ' M. I., vol. ii., p. 131. 
 
 * 1659-1743. His full name was Hyacinthe-Franfois-Honorat-Mathias-Pierre-le- 
 Martyr-Andr^-jean Rigaud y Ros. R., January 2nd, 1700. Professor, 17 10. 
 Redor, 1733. 
 
 138 
 
Portrait of Alexandre-Francois Despoktes. 
 {Musee du Louvre.) 
 
 By Himself. 
 
not always sustain comparison with Largilliere, and when one Rigaud, 
 
 examines portraits which have been left us by men in whose work ^f^'S^^- 
 
 they were an exception, such, for example, as the magnificent red. Nattier, 
 
 gold, and white " Benedid XIV."^ of Subleyras,2or the " Chasseur "^ Tocque, 
 
 of Francois Desportes ; ^ one is tempted to ask whether it is not D°ouais 
 
 possible that the studies which give to work of this class special Latour, 
 
 distinftion and value may not be too cheaply sacrificed to portrait Perron- 
 
 -,,,,•' ^ •' ^ neau, and 
 
 pamting " sans reserve. others. 
 
 Those who know Rigaud only in his magnificent manner, 
 appropriate to the rendering of the pompous types of the age in 
 which he was born, those who regard his official portraits, such as 
 his famous " Louis XIV.," in the Louvre,^ as the last word of his 
 art, should turn to works in which he has painted persons whose 
 life and position have permitted less formal treatment. His portraits 
 of himself, of the sculptor Desjardins,^ of le Brun, of Cardinal de 
 Polignac,^ of la Quintinie and his wife, and of Lafontaine,^ are 
 triumphs of skill more attraftive, perhaps, if less imposing in 
 character, than that displayed in the " Louis XIV.," or the famous 
 " Bossuet ; " ^ whilst his young due de Lesdiguieres,^*^ and his most 
 beautiful portraits of his wife, Elisabeth de Gouy,^^ and of his 
 mother, Marie Serre,^^ must for ever be reckoned among the 
 masterpieces of French art. 
 
 The importance which Rigaud attributed to this portrait of 
 his mother, is shown by the provisions of a will, made by him on 
 30 May, 1707, some three years before his marriage. In this will, 
 he leaves the bust of his mother, by Coysevox,^^ to Monseigneur le 
 Dauphin, asking him to give it a place in the galleries of Meudon 
 or Versailles. These portraits, two profiles and the full face, which 
 Rigaud had gone to Perpignan, in 1695, ^^ paint, in order that 
 Coysevox might produce the bust in question, were bequeathed to 
 
 ' No. CXXV., Mus^e Condd. 
 
 ' 1 699-1 749. He lived chiefly in Rome. See a letter by him, half French and 
 half Italian, A. de I'A., vol. v., p. 94. 
 
 ' No. 163, Louvre. * 1661-1743. 
 
 ' See "Memoirs of Dangeau,""La goutte du roi continue; il se fait peindre 
 I'apris din6e par Rigaud," March loth, 1701, and also "il se fit reporter chez Mme. 
 de Maintenon ou Rigaud travailla a son portrait;" March nth. A portrait, in 
 armour, at Madrid is said to be of the same date. See Mabilleau, G. B. A., 1895. 
 
 " Nos. 30 and 73, Salle Denon, Louvre, and No. 479, Galerie du Louvre. 
 
 ' No. 241, Galerie La Caze. 
 
 * These two portraits, as well as that of Lafontaine engraved in the " Contes," 
 were formerly in the colleftion of M. Camille Marcille. See G. B. A., 1876. 
 
 ° No. 477, Louvre. '° No. 242, Gal. La Caze. 
 
 " See the engraving by Daulle. " No. 478, Louvre. Engd. Drevet. 
 
 " This bust is in the " Mus^e des Sculptures modernes," Louvre. 
 
 ^Z9 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 of 
 Portrait. 
 
 his nephew, whom " he desires to inspire with that respeft and 
 veneration which he himself feels for his mother," and, moreover, 
 Rigaud entails the possession of these portraits, under strid: con- 
 ditions, on the eldest representative of the family for ever.^ In the 
 same will, too, we find the record of his care for the future of a little 
 girl of eleven, probably a natural daughter, named Hyacinthe- 
 Genevieve, " a present pensionnaire au monastere de Vaucouleurs 
 en Lorraine." There are also indications of his interest in Elisabeth 
 le Juge, the widow of M. le Juge, whom he afterwards married, 
 and to whom he gives the " jouissance et usufruit tant qu'elle vivra 
 de la ferme et dependances siz a Vaux pres Triel, appartenant en 
 propriete audit sieur Testateur, concistant en batiments, terres 
 labourables, prez, vignes, jardins, vergers, avec tous les bestiaux et 
 meubles." ^ 
 
 At this date the position which Rigaud had attained was one 
 of European celebrity. In the previous year he had painted his 
 portrait, at the request of the Grand Duke of Tuscany,^ for the 
 Uffizi. " C'est avec bien du plaisir," writes the Grand Duke, " que 
 i'ay appris par vostre lettre du 29 Aoust que vous aves remis a M. le 
 Cardinal Gualtieri vostre portrait travaille de vostre main." Un- 
 fortunately, this portrait " dont son Eminence le Cardinal Gualtierio 
 voulu bien se charger," was lost, " son equipage ayant pery en mer, 
 le portrait suivit le mesme sort," and, ten years later, Rigaud had to 
 replace it by another, which arrived safely at Florence, together 
 with the short autobiography now prefixed to the biography written 
 by Hulst,^ in the " Memoires inedits des Membres de I'Academie 
 Royale." 
 
 To this biography Hulst has appended a long list, compiled 
 from Rigaud's own notes, of portraits painted and prices received. 
 He was, apparently, an extremely orderly person. We have also 
 not only the autobiography which he sent to Florence, but all the 
 papers relating to his birth, to the title of " citoyen noble " 
 conferred on him by the town of Perpignan, and to his reception 
 into the order of St. Michael. Unfortunately there is, on the 
 other hand, no account of his expenditure (such as has been 
 supposed to exist by M. Jules GuifFrey^), and the list of his sitters 
 and their payments covers only the first eighteen years of his life 
 in Paris, for it stops in 1698, exadlly when Rigaud had reached the 
 height of his reputation. From this fragmentary record, we are, 
 however, able to fix on an average of thirty or forty portraits a 
 
 » A. de I'A., vol. iv., p. 28. 
 
 ' For whom, 1698, he had painted a portrait of Bossuet. 
 ' N. A. de I'A., 1874-75, p. 227. ' 
 
 140 
 
 Ibid., vol. iv., p. 29. 
 Ibid., 1 884, p. 44. 
 
Q 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 o 
 
 w 
 
 Q 
 
 
 
 < 
 
 OS 
 H 
 
 as 
 O 
 
 Pi 
 
year as his usual performance ; occasionally the figures go to Rigaud, 
 
 between fifty and sixty, whilst a considerable number of copies Jff S>1- 
 
 were retouched by his hand. His letter to M. de Gaignieres, who Nattier, 
 
 was arranging a sitting, in January, 1705, with him, for the Marquis Tocque, 
 
 de Pisieux, shows the methodical regularity with which Rigaud D°oy"jg 
 
 worked. "J'accepte," he says, " I'heure que vous me mandez qu'il Latour, ' 
 
 viendra chez moi pour commencer son portrait, puisque le matin Perron- 
 ,. . . ^ -ji-j- -^vru a: neau, and 
 
 lui convient, je vous prie de lui dire que ce soit a neur heures aiiin others. 
 
 que j'aie le temps de faire I'ebauche avant midy, et s'il le faut je ne 
 
 m'engageray pas meme I'apres midy de demain parce que s'il etoit 
 
 necessaire je le continueray la meme journee pour gagner du 
 
 temps." ^ 
 
 In spite of this amazing productiveness, Rigaud does not 
 appear — if we may judge from the inventory made of his efi^efts at his 
 death ^ — to have amassed wealth, and there seems to be an indica- 
 tion of narrow circumstances in the fa6l, recorded by d'Argenville, 
 that an exception was made in his case, " malgre la rigueur du visa ; 
 on lui conserva le meme revenu qu'il avait sur I'Hotel de Ville 
 avec cette difference que ses rentes perpetuelles furent converties en 
 viageres." As he himself said to Louis XV., when asked by him, 
 in 1727, if he were married, "Je suis marie, mais je n'ai pas d'en- 
 fants,Dieu merci!"^ He had not been naturalized, and consequently, 
 he added, " Mes enfants n'auraient pas de quoi vivre, Votre Majeste 
 heritant de tout ce que j'ai pu gagner au bout de mon pinceau." 
 His wife, Marie-Elisabeth de Gouy — for whom in 1698 Rigaud 
 appears to have painted the portraits of her father and mother 
 "gratis" — brought him no fortune on their marriage, in 17 10. 
 The penniless widow of Jean le Juge " huissier au grand Conseil " 
 was, we are told, passionately loved by Rigaud, and she dying in 
 March, 1743, her husband lingered only till the following December. 
 From the faft that Wille appears as a claimant for 2,ooolt., due to 
 him as the price agreed on for an engraving of Rigaud's portrait 
 of Elisabeth de Gouy, it is clear that his last earthly concern was 
 with this memorial of the woman to whom he had been so strongly 
 attached.* 
 
 Wille, in his early days of hardship, had been presented to 
 
 ' A. de I'A., vol. i., p. 159. 
 
 ' Scell6, December 29th, 1 743. N. A. de I'A., 1 884, p. 44. 
 
 ' His great portrait of Samuel Bernard was painted in this year ; on November 
 19th, 1727, Mathieu Marais writes, "Rigaud a fait un portrait merveilleux de M. 
 Bernard pere, c'est un chef d'oeuvre de I'art," but in the following year (July 25th, 
 1728) he remarks apropos of the "Congres de Soissons," that "Rigaud est bien vieux 
 a present pour peindre toute I'assembl^e." 
 
 ' N. A. de I'A., 1884, pp. 54, 57 ; M6m. Wille, vol. i., p. 73. 
 
 141 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 of 
 Portrait. 
 
 Rigaud by Schmidt, and Rigaud, pleased with his work, promised 
 to procure him permission to engrave his portrait of the Due de 
 Belle-Isle then on the easel. There is a pretty scene in the 
 " Memoirs," where Wille describes his eagerness to rush ofF with 
 the portrait on learning from Rigaud at his second visit that he 
 was to be allowed to have it. As soon as he saw me, says Wille, 
 he cried out, as if he were pleased himself: "*J'ai la permission de 
 M. le due de vous remettre son tableau ; done vous etes le maitre 
 de I'emporter quand cela vous fera plaisir.' J'en remerciai ce brave 
 homme des soins qu'il prenoit pour m'obliger et rapidement 
 j'empoignai le tableau pour I'enlever. 'Doucement,' disait il alors, 
 * la vivacite est bonne, mais un peu de patience Test aussi quelque 
 fois ; voicy,' continua-t-il, ' mon valet de chambre qui apporte le 
 cafe, nous le prendrons ensemble, si vous le voulez bien.' Je sentis 
 bien que cette familiarite ne devoit pas m'eblouir ; car M. Rigaud 
 avoit la reputation d'etre haut, meme qu'il etoit severe, cependant 
 je fus convaincu du contraire, car pendant le dejeuner il etoit tres 
 affable, il me parloit de sa jeunesse, des efforts qu'il avoit faits pour 
 etre plus qu'un peintre ordinaire, qu'il s'etoit attache a la nature, 
 I'avoit etudiee sans relache, en un mot qu'il avoit aime son art avec 
 passion ; de plus, il m'invitoit de le venir voir souvent, que par la 
 il verroit parfaitement si je faisois quelque cas de son amitie. II 
 ajoutait encore : ' Je me suis aper9u de votre ardeur pour le talent, 
 continuez, vous irez loin, car vous etes jeune ; mais vous etes eloigne 
 de votre patrie : c'est la que sont vos parents, et c'est ici que je 
 veux vous servir de pere, je vous le promets ; mais conduisez vous 
 bien."'i 
 
 These visits to Rigaud took place probably in the last months 
 of his life, for we know that Wille's portrait of the Marechal de 
 Belle-Isle was completed in 1743. It is evident from what he says 
 that Rigaud's habits were extremely simple, and that is the im- 
 pression conveyed by the inventory of his goods, taken at his death. 
 There is no trace of the luxury shown by the enumeration of 
 Largilliere's^ possessions, as declared by himself, in conformity with 
 the sumptuary edift of 1700.^ From this declaration we learn 
 that Largilliere lived in an opulent fashion in the rue St. Avoye, 
 the most fashionable quarter of Paris, where he is said to have 
 carried on a " commerce de bons tableau."* Unlike many of his 
 
 ' Mim., vol. i., pp. 74, 76, and 106. 
 
 ' 1656-1746. Reed. 30th March, 1686; Professor, 1 705 ; Reftor, 1722. For 
 "scelle " see N. A. de I'A., 1884, p. 86. 
 ' N. A. de I'A., 1874-5, p. 223. 
 • Du Pradel, Livre Commode, 1692, vol. i., p. 239. 
 
 142 
 
Jean Forest. By LARoiLLikRE. 
 {Musee Royal, Berlin.) 
 
fellow artists, Largilliere seems to have retained his prosperity to Rigaud, 
 
 the last, although we are told that " le sisteme endomagea fort sa J:'?*'^''" 
 
 fortune et il eut cela de commun avec Rigaud." Wille, who Nattier, 
 
 visited him, " sans aucune recommandation," before he w^ent to call Tocque, 
 
 on Rigaud, bears w^itness to his splendid living. "Je me rendis," D°ouais, 
 
 he says, " a I'hotel de ce fameux peintre oil il etait loge magnifique- Latour, 
 
 ment dans sa propriete . . . Ce bon viellard me comprit a merveille, Perron- 
 
 1 ^ • j> •.•/ J J 11 r neau, and 
 
 me donna la mam d amitie me mena dans une grande salle remplie others. 
 
 de ses produ6tions."^ This "salle" was in the house which 
 
 Largilliere, at a later date, had built for himself in the rue 
 
 GeofFroy Langevin, and it was specially arranged for the exhibition 
 
 of his own works,^ which he had ceased to send to the Salon 
 
 after 1704. 
 
 Like Rigaud, he had owed much to the protection of the 
 great despot le Brun. By him and van der Meulen he had been 
 well received on leaving England after the death of Sir Peter Lely, 
 to whom he had been assistant. He presented himself to the 
 Academy in March, 1683, but returned to London to paint the 
 portraits of James IL and his Queen, probably in 1685.^ French 
 by birth, if Flemish by training, he soon made good his position 
 in Paris, finding his patrons, for the most part, amongst the magis- 
 tracy and other persons of professional and official distinction. His 
 manner, at first somewhat laboured and restrained, has been well 
 described by M. Mantz in an account of a portrait signed and 
 dated 1685, seen by him at Bruges. "Allure," he says, "sans 
 flamme et un peu appuyee."* The same criticism applies to the 
 fine full-length portrait of le Brun,^ which secured his position in 
 the Academy, where he was received more readily than Rigaud, 
 " sur le talent de I'histoire."^ All his life, Largilliere continued to 
 produce historical compositions, and to give the most varied proofs 
 of skill, turning from portraits and more ambitious work to repeat 
 the fruits and flowers and the landscapes on which he had been 
 employed by his first master, Antoine Goubeau, at Antwerp. 
 
 " Son plus grand travail," says Mariette, " ete le portrait, 
 comme etant le plus utile; aussi y a-t-il fait une fortune con- 
 siderable." Having a fine sense of the pidturesque and brilliant 
 powers of arrangement, he was at his best in works in which he 
 
 ' Mem. Wille, vol. i., p. 64. 
 
 ' G. Brice, '^Description de Paris," 1752, vol. ii., p. 70. The two great decorative 
 paintings which he executed in this house belonged to the late Madame Nathaniel de 
 Rothschild. 
 
 ' See Walpole's "Anecdotes of Painting," p. 578, note. " G. B. A., 1893. 
 
 ' No. 320, Louvre ; engraved by Edelinck. 
 
 ' P. v., March 30th, 1686. 
 
 H3 
 
The had to deal with several groups of figures, such as his Repas de 
 
 Painters Louis XIV. (1687)^ and Mariage du due de Bourgogne (1697),^ 
 Portrait, o^" the fine ex voto given by the town of Paris to the church of St. 
 Genevieve (1694), which is now at St. Etienne du Mont.^ For a 
 work of this class — "un tableau des officiers en charge" — ordered by 
 the town council in 1702, we find that Largilliere received 5,300 It.,* 
 but his prices rose as the years went on, and the town council 
 twenty years later agreed to pay as much as 8,000 It. for a pifture 
 commemorating the arrival in France of the little Infanta of Spain, 
 who should have been married by Louis XV. The picture was, in 
 this case, to have been a " portrait historic" in which figured both 
 the king and the regent, who held before him the portrait of the 
 Spanish princess, accompanied by the usual attendant graces and 
 genii.® A full-length portrait by Largilliere of the little Infanta 
 wearing full court dress, her right hand resting on the cushion where 
 the crown of France lies just beyond her grasp, is now in the Musee 
 du Prado, Madrid, but it bears no resemblance to the large work 
 ordered by the Town Council which was probably stopped when 
 the little princess was sent back to Spain, and even the sketch made 
 for the Town Council has disappeared. 
 
 The great mass of work — and Mariette reckons from twelve 
 to fifteen hundred portraits in Paris alone — which Largilliere 
 turned out, reaches an extraordinarily high level of constant attain- 
 ment, so practised and sure was his hand. The restraint visible in 
 his early work soon relaxed, and portraits such as the " Mile. Barral "® 
 mark the epoch of his emancipation. Rigaud retained to the last 
 a certain element of formality, but Largilliere was the herald of 
 the new century. His sitters may wear the dress of the dying 
 reign, but their painter treats it with a flourish and emphasis which 
 animates, as M. Mantz has noted, the very disposition of their 
 well-ordered wigs. He refle6ts the impatience of their minds, the 
 exuberance of their life awaiting the moment for escape. Even 
 the less excellent portraits, in which we divine the work of his 
 scholars, such as the Elisabeth-Charlotte de Baviere (Nancy) or 
 Jean Pupil de Craponne (Grenoble) show evidence of skill, and his 
 
 ^ Piganiol de la Force, vol. iv., p. I02. 
 
 ^ See Florent le Comte, Salon, 1699, ed. 1702, vol. ill., p. 209. Both those 
 piftures were painted for the Hotel de Ville, and both disappeared during the 
 Revolution. 
 
 ^ In. Gen. Ed. Rel., vol. ii., p. 30. 
 
 * Hist, de I'Hotel de Ville, Leroux de Lincy ; App. i., No. 77. 
 
 " N. A., 1882, p. 135. 
 
 ° No. 148, Musee de Grenoble, Painted in 1701. The inscription is at the 
 back and beneath the re-lining. 
 
 H4 
 
great pidlure of the family of Boutin de Diencourt (Besan9on) ^ Rigaud, 
 struck me as worthy comparison with the best achievements known hfy\ 
 to us of its class. The group of the father, mother, and their seven Nattier, 
 children is admirably brought together, the elder girl, about to sing Tocque, 
 to her brother's accompaniment on the violoncello, making an Drouai's 
 attractive centre figure; the colours of the dresses play on the quiet Latour, ' 
 grays of the architectural background, through the openings in Perron- 
 which we get pleasant glimpses of the foliage of trees and shrubs, other's. 
 A fine tone of orange noticeable in this pifture, and certain beautiful 
 hues of red, which Largilliere affeCted, are noteworthy features of 
 much of his work. Whenever it is possible he employs, as in the 
 portrait of Mile. Barral, red in mass. His fine portrait of Mme. 
 Lambert de Thorigny (Chantilly) ^ is an effedl of white shading 
 into blue gray, relieved by gold brocade and framed in brilliant 
 red — the red, laid in pure local colour, glazed in the shadows. Red 
 is the girdle which divides the white from the rose-gray draperies 
 worn by Madame, mother of the Regent, in her wonderful portrait 
 "en naiade."^ The strange fancy dress is put on with an air of 
 Turkish reminiscence, enhanced by the plenitude of those ample 
 charms,* which remind us of the lazy habits that suggested her 
 epitaph, "Ci-git I'oisivet^, mere de tout vice." To the same epoch 
 belongs the somewhat florid and full-blown half length of Mile. 
 Duclos as Armida, in which we get a deep ruby note.^ Sometimes 
 the hue is more vivid and contrasted with knots of warm blue, as 
 in the gown of his wife Elizabeth Forrest, in his celebrated portrait 
 of her, himself, and their younger daughter, Marguerite-Elisabeth, 
 in the Galerie La Caze,^ but these reds are even more triumphant in 
 charafter when he brings out their beauty by the close neighbour- 
 hood of tones of orange, such as that employed in the dress of the 
 little girl playing with a parroquet in the Boutin de Diencourt 
 picture. The special character of the red shown in the dress of 
 the portrait of a man unknown, one of the finest portraits now at 
 Chantilly,^ also inclines us to attribute it to Largilliere. It may be, 
 
 ' No. 321. Painted probably about 1720. 
 
 ° No. LXXXIII., Ecole Fran^aise. A portrait of Mme. Lambert de Thorigny 
 was exhibited at the Salon of 1699, together with those of her husband and their son. 
 
 ' A life-size example of this portrait is now in the possession of Mme. Lelong, to 
 whom also belongs the half-length of Mme. du Chatelet, with a globe, together with 
 the small repetition — a finer work — of the same subjed. Ex. Salon, 1745. 
 
 * No. LXXXIL, Ecole Fran9aise. 
 
 ' No. LXXXI., Ecole Fran9aise. From the colledion of M. C. Marcille. 
 Largilliere painted another portrait of the Duclos, now at the Comddie Franjaise, of 
 which there is, I am told, a repetition at Ferriires. 
 
 This work is, I think, superior in its air of exuberant vitality to the similar 
 subjea at Versailles. ' No. LXXXIV., Ecole Franjaise. 
 
 H5 f 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 of 
 Portrait. 
 
 as has been supposed, by Tocque, who has often assimilated Lar- 
 gilliere's method and even colour with surprising success, and the 
 admirable charafterization of the head with its expression of unusual 
 sweet gravity gives some probability to this attribution, but I know 
 nothing else by him which is equally forcible and, at the same time, 
 perfeftly harmonious. The red draperies lined and lit with touches 
 of white, broken by the blue ribbon at the throat, are treated with 
 that magnificent pifturesqueness, slightly exuberant and Flemish in 
 chara6ter, by which Largilliere always delights us, proving himself 
 both a born painter and an excellent workman. Yet marked as is 
 the charafter of Largilliere's gift in that choice of colour which, in 
 his later works, reminds us that he had lived in Antwerp, there are 
 portraits by him in which the subje6t forbids this resource, and 
 which reveal a different side of his Flemish training. Take, for 
 example, his portrait of "Gobinet, dofteur en Sorbonne,"^ in which 
 the palette is limited to black and white — collar and bands alone 
 relieving the black gown of the sitter — it is possible that this work, 
 with its close execution and finish, will scarcely strike the eye at 
 first, but the longer it is studied, the more lifelike does it become. 
 
 In all portraits by Rigaud and Largilliere, in those even by 
 lesser men, such as Robert Tournieres,^ the stepfather of le Moine, 
 whose work in this class may sometimes remind us of Rigaud ; we 
 find the praftised habit of careful individualization of the sitter. 
 This essential feature of good portraiture never seems to have 
 troubled Jean-Marc Nattier,^ the painter who eclipsed Largilliere 
 in court favour. He entirely lacked the virility that distinguished 
 the illustrious portrait painters of the previous generation. Bachau- 
 mont notes his gift for catching likenesses, his skill in making each 
 likeness flattering when dealing with women, and adds, " ses habil- 
 lements sont galants, mais manierez et sentent ce qu'on appelle le 
 mannequin . . . il ebauche bien et de bonne couleur et quand il 
 vient a finir il la gaste, elle devient livide . . . son gendre M. 
 Tocque lui est bien superieur."* This desire to please, to flatter, 
 to be " galant " makes Nattier in some respeds the typical portrait- 
 painter of the reign of Louis XV. ; he has undoubted charm in spite 
 of mannerisms verging on the absurd, but his colour, especially in 
 the flesh tints, too often justifies Bachaumont's criticisms. 
 
 The story of his early days vividly refle<5ls the want of cohesion 
 
 1 No. LXXX., Ecole Fran^aise. Mus6e Cond6. 
 
 2 1676 — 1753. The finest portrait by him that I know is that of Charles de 
 Beauharnais in armour wearing a red scarf. No. 213, Mus6e de Grenoble. It has 
 much of the character of Largilliere. 
 
 3 1685— 1766. Ag. May 25th, 1 715. Received 29th O6tober, 1718. Professor, 
 1752. * Notes, Appendix. M6m. Wille. 
 
 146 
 
Portrait of Maurice de Sake. By Nattier. 
 (Royal Gallery, Dresden!) 
 
and diredlion from which the younger generation of artists were Rigaud, 
 
 then suffering. His godfather, Jean Jouvenet, would have had him ^-fy'. 
 
 go to Rome^ (1709), but Nattier had found occupation in making Nattier, 
 
 drawings from the Rubens series in the Luxembourg, more or less Tocque, 
 
 well, for engraving. He tried historical painting, but did not orouajg 
 
 decide to present himself to the Academy till he was over thirty, Latour, ' 
 
 and was then received a year later than his younger rival Jean Perron- 
 T, ■' J o J neau, and 
 
 Raoux. _ ... others. 
 
 His early hopes had been raised, it is said, by the approval of 
 the " Grand Monarque," for when he submitted to Louis XIV. 
 the drawing, which he had made for the engraver Drevet, from 
 Rigaud's famous full-length portrait of the king, he was encouraged 
 with a compliment, " Monsieur, continuez a travailler ainsi et vous 
 deviendrez un grand homme." But the King died and Nattier 
 had to seek occupation elsewhere. We next hear of him in a note 
 of the " Mercure de France " for February, 1721. " MM. Watot, 
 Nattier, et un autre sont charges de dessiner, pour M. Crozat le 
 jeune, les tableaux du roi et du regent." The advent of the Regency 
 was not, however, favourable to Nattier, the Duke of Orleans em- 
 ployed Tournieres to paint the beauties of the Palais Royal, and 
 Nattier even hesitated as to whether he should not leave France. 
 He made a visit to Peter the Great at Amsterdam, and executed 
 for him various portraits and other work which so pleased the 
 Tzar that he despatched him to the Hague to paint the Tzarina 
 Catharine. She, in her turn, wrote descriptions so enthusiastic of 
 Nattier's work, that he was ordered to take his unfinished canvas at 
 once to Paris, where the Tzar then was, for his inspe6tion. Peter 
 was as pleased as Catharine, and supping that night with the due 
 d'Antin, he insisted that the portrait, of which the head alone was 
 finished, should be placed on a dais in the banquetting hall. Taking 
 for granted that Nattier would be delighted to follow him to 
 Russia, the Tzar asked him, the night before his own departure, 
 when he intended to start. Nattier, at first undecided, was now 
 alarmed by the dangers of the adventure, and his refusal to leave 
 France made the Tzar so angry that, on the instant, he ordered the 
 removal of the portrait of his wife from the studio of Boit, where 
 it had been sent that he should copy it in miniature, and thus the 
 work was never either finished or paid for.^ 
 
 Nattier, however, had renounced the doubtful chances of 
 fortune in Russia, only to find himself involved in the common 
 
 • See "J. M. Nattier," by Paul Mantz, G. B. A., 1894, p. 92. 
 ' M. I., vol. ii. "Life of Nattier," by his daughter, Mtne. Tocque. See also A. 
 de I'A. fr., vol. ii., p. 388. 
 
 ^^7 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 of 
 Portrait, 
 
 ruin of the " System."^ Having sold drawings to Law himself for 
 i8,ooolt. in "billets de banque," he saw their value speedily re- 
 duced to nothing ; at the same time he incurred further loss in a 
 family lawsuit, and, contrary to his expe6lation, got no fortune 
 with his wife. These circumstances probably helped his determi- 
 nation to quit " le tallent de I'histoire," on which he had been 
 received as an Academician, and to devote himself to the painting 
 of " portraits histories," which already enjoyed a great vogue in 
 the hands of Jean Raoux.^ 
 
 He had always inclined to this class of work, for as early as 
 171 2 we find him quarelling with Klingstedt, the miniature painter, 
 for the price of a portrait which he had painted, and which " ledit 
 Clinchetet " had attempted to remove without paying for it.^ 
 Mme. Tocque also tells us that the first work produced by her 
 father, after his reception by the Academy on the pifture represent- 
 ing " Perseus showing the head of Medusa at the wedding of 
 Phyneus," which is now at Tours, was a large allegorical portrait 
 of the family of M. de la Motte, " Tresorier de France." She 
 adds, however, that the portraits which made his reputation were 
 those of Marshal Saxe, exhibited on the Place Dauphine in 1725,^ 
 of Mile, de Clermont^ and of Mile, de Lambesc, as Minerva, 
 arming her young brother, the Comte de Brionne, which appeared 
 at the Salon of 1737, and which is now in the Louvre. The 
 " Mademoiselle de Clermont aux eaux de Chantilly " is one of the 
 finest Nattiers of its class, for the style shows a rare combination of 
 ease and dignity, and the drawing is less defeftive than usual. In 
 the same group may be ranked his admirable portrait of the 
 •' Duchesse de Chartres, en Hebe, deesse de la jeunesse," which, 
 exhibited at the Salon of 1745, is now at Stockholm.^ This re- 
 markable work is signed and dated, "Nattier pinxit, 1744," and 
 he utilized the composition frequently, never, perhaps, with better 
 success than in the portrait of " Louise-Henriette de Bourbon- 
 Conti, duchesse d'Orleans," painted in 1751.^ The Duchess, 
 wearing blue and white draperies, and accompanied by the necessary 
 eagle, makes a pleasing pifture in a light scale of colour, the blue 
 employed, as in the portrait of the duchesse de Chartres, is of an 
 unusually fine quality, but it shares the defe6ts common to all 
 Nattier's work. Even Mademoiselle de Clermont loses that 
 brilliant vitality and charader which Rosalba Carriera has recorded 
 
 ' 1721- ' i677-»734. 
 
 ' Bulletin de la Soc, de I'hist. de I'Art, 1877, p. lOi. 
 
 * No. 783, Dresden Gallery. ' No. CXIX., Mus^e Cond5. 
 
 • No. 1,186, Nat. Gal. of Stockholm. ' No. CXX., Mus^e Conde. 
 
 148 
 
H 
 H 
 < 
 
 X 
 D 
 O 
 cd 
 D 
 < 
 
 w 
 
 H 
 < 
 
 U S 
 
 c 
 
 Q 
 
 H 
 g 
 
 O 
 
 «>. 
 
 
 p 
 o 
 
 ^ 
 
 H 
 O 
 
 e 
 
 ^ 
 
 t^ 
 
in the pastel still preserved at Chantilly, and wears the same Rigaud, 
 insipid air, accompanied by the same irreproachable perfedtions ^.^^^\^ 
 which Nattier has conferred with unstinted generosity on all his Nattier, 
 sitters, whether he travesties the duchesses of the house of Orleans as Tocque, 
 Hebes, or depids as Vestals the less attraftive daughters of Louis X V.^ oSuai's, 
 Nattier's work, however, especially on a large scale, early Latour,' 
 showed itself superior to that of Raoux. A fine official portrait by Perron- 
 him — which was painted shortly after the execution of the " Made- other's, 
 moiselle de Clermont," for it is signed and dated, " Nattier pinxit, 
 1732," figured in 1898 at the exhibition of works of the French 
 school in the Guildhall.^ It was described by its owner, M. 
 BischofFsheim, as the " Due de Penthievre, born 1725, and youngest 
 legitimate son of Louis XIV," Here we have a perfeft Comedy 
 of Errors ! For " legitimate" we must of course read "legitimized," 
 but in 1732, the due de Penthievre, son of the comte de Toulouse, 
 and grandson of Louis XIV., was only seven years old, and the 
 subjeft of Nattier's portrait is a man of at least seven or eight-and- 
 twenty. He wears magnificent state robes, and is accompanied by 
 an attendant who draws away from the proud figure, clad in gray 
 and black, the folds of an immense cloak, heavy with gold em- 
 broidery. It is probably the portrait of that Duke of Orleans, the 
 son of the Regent, who was then on the point of retiring to the 
 Abbey of St. Genevieve, where he spent the latter part of his life. 
 In any case the work is so capable that it must have increased the 
 painter's reputation, and, in the following year, when Raoux died 
 and the Grand Prior had to appoint another artist to finish his 
 pidtures in the Temple, Nattier was obviously the proper person to 
 seled:. There, he continued to receive, in the lodgings attached to 
 his post, that crowd of sitters whom he depicted under the most 
 fantastic disguises, — naiads, nymphs, goddesses, all furnished with 
 the most appropriate emblems or attributes. " Nul plus que lui, 
 n'a fait une plus grande consommation d'aigles et de colombes." 
 His situation at the Temple and the patronage of the " plupart 
 des princes et princesses de la maison de Lorraine " did not, how- 
 ever, bring him into dire<5l relations with the Court. It was not 
 until 1740, when the Duchess of Mazarin brought her two cele- 
 brated nieces, the Mademoiselles de Nesle, notorious in later years 
 as the duchesses de Chateauroux and de Flavacourt, that fortune 
 
 ' See the articles by M. de Nolhac, G. B. A., 1896. M. de Nolhac identifies the 
 Vestal of the Galerie La Caze, No. 232, as Madame Henriette. Madame Viftoire as 
 a Vestal is the subjedl of an important Nattier at Hertford House, where we also find 
 " Le Bain," which is said to be a portrait of Mme. de Chateauroux, Ex. Beth. Green, 
 No. 389. 
 
 * No. 77, Exhibition of Pi6lures of the French School, Guildhall, 1898. 
 
 149 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 of 
 Portrait. 
 
 and favour came to his doors. The portraits of these two girls, 
 one as " Point du jour," the other as " Silence,"^ attrafted so much 
 attention that the Queen herself desired to see them, and ordered 
 of Nattier a portrait of Madame Henriette " En Flore," which was 
 immediately repeated, with a companion portrait of Madame 
 Adelaide " en Diane " for Choisy. Both these piftures have been 
 identified by M. de Nolhac^ in the colledtions at Versailles. That 
 of Madame Henriette is signed and dated 1742, and is certainly the 
 original portrait, painted for the Queen,^ for, after his reputation 
 was made, it seems to have been Nattier's practice to sign only the 
 first example of each of his works. In this way we are guarded 
 from accepting as his the numerous repetitions made by his various 
 copyists — Prevost, Coqueret, de la Roche, Hellard and others. 
 
 Now began the great period of Nattier's success, during which 
 he painted that important series of portraits which includes every 
 member of the royal family and every personage of note about the 
 Court of Louis XV. and his Queen.* These Court portraits, many 
 of which are quite simply treated, are amongst his most honour- 
 able achievements. If his Madame Henriette " En Flore " is a 
 charming work, his admirable portrait of her mother is even better, 
 and the Madame Adelaide of the Louvre^ loses no attra6lion from 
 the absence of all fantastic disguise. She wears her blue velvet 
 and sable with a little touch of dignified formality ; her pretty 
 flesh tints are carried out by the white leaves of the book on her 
 lap, and the coat of her little dog and the architectural background 
 — conventionally helped by a red curtain, divided from the figure by 
 a cushion covered in deep orange — has an appropriate and stately 
 air. The portraits of the " dames de France," all of whom Nattier 
 painted three times " en grands tableaux et en pied " were in great 
 favour, and replicas are not uncommon.^ M. Groult, whose " por- 
 trait d'une Inconnue," in blue and white with a rose in her hair, is 
 one of the prettiest and most individual of Nattier's small portraits, 
 
 ' See p. 185, Collns. Priv6esclelaSuede. OlafGranberg, Stockholm, 1886. These 
 portraits, formerly in the Platen coUecStion at Stockholm, have recently been sold by 
 the widow of the late Count Platen to M. Sedelmeyer. Countess Platen, who is now 
 Countess Wedel, has two fine copies of these portraits in her rooms at BerHn. 
 
 ' See the articles by M. de Nolhac, G. B. A., 1895. 
 
 3 I am told that there are other repetitions of these two pidlures at Ferrieres. 
 
 * See " Mem. des portraits que le sieur Nattier peintre de I'Acad. roialle, a fait pour 
 la Cour, etc., etc., depuis I'annee, 1742, jusques en I'annee 1759." Un document 
 sur Nattier, par B. Prost, G. B. A., 1894. 
 
 ' Exhibited Salon, 1760. See letter of Jeaurat of June 5th, 1761, cited by M. de 
 Nolhac, G. B. A., 1895, p. 467. 
 
 ° See the articles by M. de Nolhac, G. B. A., 1895, for the patient rectifications 
 by which the author has identified the portraits of the various Mesdames. 
 
A 
 
 ^ 
 
 Portrait ok Maoame la Duchessk de Chartres en Hi^nsif:. Bv Nattier. 
 (Mi/Sfe National, Stockholm.) 
 
has also a half-length repeat of the Madame Adelaide of the Galerie Rigaud, 
 La Caze, which is in a beautiful state, but " Madame Vidloire en ^.^y\ 
 Vestale," at Hertford House, is amongst the more important. I Nattfe^r 
 am inclined though, on the whole, to agree with Mariette, that Tocqu6, 
 his charming portrait of Marie Leczinska, of which there is a ver- ^°slin. 
 sion at Versailles, is his best work. " Celuy qu'il fit de la Reyne, Latour, ' 
 et qu'on a vu expose au sallon des Tuilleries en 1 748 ^ m'a paru un Perron- 
 de ses meilleurs ouvrages et que je mets fort au-dessus des portraits other's?" 
 des dames de France, qui pourtant ont eu un grand succes." Words 
 which we may apply to the portrait by him of the Queen, which 
 is, I believe, the original, now at Hertford House. In the following 
 year. Nattier painted the Frankfort banker Leerse and his wife, 
 and from the journal of Leerse we get a glimpse of Nattier's praftice. 
 "J'ai ete," he writes on November 3rd, 1749, " chez Nattier, 
 peintre tres fameux, dont je me suis fait tirer de meme que mon 
 epouse. Je n'ai ete assis que trois fois et elle quatre." ^ 
 
 Casanova, who saw Nattier in 1750, tells us that " malgre son 
 age avance, son beau talent semblait etre dans toute sa fraicheur," 
 yet in spite of this youthful vigour and apparently continued vogue 
 Nattier amassed no fortune. He managed his affairs ill, he had a 
 delicate wife and nine children ; but he also reproached himself 
 with lending money too easily, and with spending too much on 
 " curiositez," an avowal which reminds us of the exquisitely 
 enamelled gold snuff box stolen from him when " sortant du spec- 
 tacle des danseurs de corde etabli sur le boulevart."^ It must also 
 be borne in mind that the irregular and incomplete payment 
 for Court commissions contributed greatly, in all probability, to 
 disturb his fortunes. On June 24th, 1755, he writes to Marigny 
 that he cannot comply with the order to finish the portrait of 
 Madame Adelaide for Madame I'lnfante de Parme "si vous n'avez 
 la bonte de me faire delivrer une ordonnance de deux mil ecus au 
 moins a compte sur les tableaux . . . faits et livres a la Cour 
 depuis cinq ans. J'ay eu," he continues, " I'honneur de vous en 
 remettre la memoire des I'annee passe qui se monte a pres de 
 20,000 livres, sans y comprendre les deux portraits en pied de M. 
 le due de Bourgogne ordonnes par Madame la Dauphine Tannee 
 
 ' M. Mantz identified this portrait with the portrait at Versailles (G. B. A., 
 1894, p. 106). M. Prost held that the original, of which there is a copy at Dijon, was 
 lost. It was engraved by Tardieu, 1755, and by others on a smaller scale, G. B. A., 
 1894, p. 444. The portrait at Hertford House, which I take to be the lost original, 
 was exhibited at Beth. Green, No. 41 2. 
 
 ^ These portraits are now in the Stadelsche Institut. See " Deux portraits de 
 Nattier." A. Valabregue, Chron. des Arts, July 15th, 1899. 
 
 " Bull, Soc. de I'hist., 1876, p. 5. 
 
The derni^re."^ At this time Nattier had succeeded in obtainine: from 
 
 of Mme. Adelaide, for exhibition at the Salon, his fine full-length por- 
 
 Portrait. trait of Mme. Henriette — "jouant de la basse de viole "^ — who 
 had died in 1752 ; whether he was equally successful in his petition 
 to Marigny may be doubted. Two years later (1754) he earnestly 
 solicited the pension vacant by the death of Cazes,^ but these 
 royal pensions were paid as irregularly as any other royal debt, and 
 his difficulties continued to increase with his years. His son, to 
 whom he might have looked for help, and for whose expenses at 
 Rome he, having vainly applied to Marigny for his nomination as 
 a pensionnaire, had made himself responsible, drowned himself in 
 the Tiber six months after his arrival ; and Mme. Tocque tells us 
 that her father must have worked to the end in order to maintain 
 his accustomed level of comfort, had not he been confined to his 
 bed during the last years of his life. Struck with apoplexy in his 
 lodgings in the Temple, he left them to die in the neighbourhood, 
 in the house of Challe, who had married one of his daughters.^ 
 
 Another son-in-law, Louis Tocque,^ who had left Paris in 1756, 
 to paint the portrait of the Tzarina Elisabeth, returned in time to 
 be near the old man in his last years.^ " Me vint voir," writes 
 Wille on July 7th, lysgj " M. Tocque pour la premiere fois depuis 
 son retour de Petersbourg, et de Copenhague, oil il avait ete appele 
 pour peindre les souverains de ces pays ; il en est fort content, etant 
 revenu charge de richesses, de presents et d'honneur." Tocque had 
 made his first success with the portrait of the Dauphin, son of Louis 
 XV., standing in his " Cabinet d'etude," which he painted by the 
 King's command in 1739.^ It is a work which shows, especially in 
 the colour, that Tocque, on emancipating himself from the influence 
 of Bertin, had turned to Largilliere as a model, without being able, at 
 once, to master the means by which Largilliere always contrived to 
 bring together the variety of pifturesque detail in which he de- 
 
 ' A. N. O., 1,934, B. apud de Nolhac, " Nattier," G B. A., 1895, p. 34. 
 
 ' Mus6e de Versailles, 
 
 ' A. de I'A., vol. iv., p. 77. Mariette says that he was a pupil of Bon Boullogne, 
 
 whom he closely followed, and adds, " Lorsqu'on a vu un de ses tableaux, on les a vu 
 
 tous." He painted a series of piftures in the choir of the Abbey of St. Germain des 
 
 Pr^s, and there are works by him in the Louvre, but his chief claim on our notice is 
 
 , that he was the master of Chardin. 
 
 * 1718-1778. "Dessinateur du Cabinet du Roi"and Professor of Perspeftive in 
 the Academy. (See Mariette, A. de I'A. fr., vol. i., pp. 388 and 417. M6m. indd., 
 vol. ii., p. 361.) 
 
 " 1696-1772. Augt. 31st, 1731. Received Jan. 30th, 1734. 
 ' N. A. de I'A. fr., 1878, p. 31. See "Louis Tocqu6," by Paul Mantz, G. B. A., 
 1894. 
 
 ' See also P. V. June 30th, 1759. 
 
 * No. 578, Louvre. Ex. Salon, 1739. Engd. Thomassin. 
 
 152 
 
Marie Antoinette at the ace of Sixteen. Hv Dkouais. 
 {Junes Bequest, South Kensington Museum. ) 
 
lighted. Tocque followed up this success by painting the fine full- Rigaud, 
 length portrait of the Queen, Marie Leczinska,^ thehands and draperies J^fS'^" 
 of which are full of movement, for the painter has been looking at Nattier, 
 Rigaud. This remarkable pi(5lure, if it pleased the Court, did not lead Tocqu6, 
 to further patronage, which, at that moment, was entirely absorbed DroJajg 
 by Nattier, the monotonous prettiness of whose style was, necessarily, Latour, ' 
 far more to the taste of fashionable women than that tinfture of pro- Perron- 
 fessional sobriety which clings to Tocque's pencil. He varied, it is others, 
 true, his manner with his models, often getting, it would seem, as in 
 his portrait of Marigny ^ — in which we detect an odd family likeness 
 to his brilliant sister — at the very heart of his sitter, but those who 
 interested him thus may be reckoned within narrow limits. In spite 
 of the successes which he achieved in later life at the courts of Russia 
 and of Denmark, he is most admirable in his portraits of men of the 
 lettered or professional classes. To this group belong his early por- 
 traits of Lemoyne and Galloche,^ his fine portrait of d'Alembert,* 
 the rather hard Dumarsais of the Galerie La Caze, and the " per- 
 sonnage " who, though he is labelled " inconnu " at Nancy ,^ evid- 
 ently belonged to the same world. In this class, too, we must 
 reckon the portrait of Mme. Salle, exhibited by Lord Hindlip at the 
 Royal Academy in 1896,^ and the famous " Dame au Manchon " 
 which figured at the Salon of 1746, the year before his marriage 
 to Marie-Catharine-Pauline Nattier. Of this pidlure, now lost, 
 Lafont de Saint Yenne has given an enthusiastic and detailed de- 
 scription, and the points which he has recorded are so marked in 
 charadler that they seem to authorize the suggestion made by M. 
 Mantz, who attributes to Tocque the charming '* Liseuse," ^ which 
 once bore the name of Chardin in the Galerie La Caze. Unfortun- 
 ately proofs are wanting, and we can only say with him, " Le nom 
 de Tocque ne revoke point I'esprit," and await the chance of some 
 happy accident which may confirm our suspicion.^ At the same 
 Salon appeared, also, that portrait of the Danish Secretary of State 
 for Foreign Affairs, Wasserschleben, which may possibly have led to 
 the visit paid by Tocque, at a later date, to Copenhagen. Both these 
 works, like the others exhibited by Tocque with them, were treated 
 
 ' No. 577, Louvre. 
 
 * Mus6e de Versailles. Ex. Salon, 1755. It was presented by Tocqu6 to the 
 Academy together with that of de Tournehem (Ex. Salon, 1 750), after his return from 
 Russia and Sweden. He received in return from the Academy, Coypel's " Destruftion 
 of the Palace of Armida." 
 
 ' Salle Denon, Louvre. Nos. 55 and 36. * No. 212, Mus6e Grenoble. 
 
 ' No. 416, Musde Nancy. « No. 81. 
 
 ' Engd. bjr Waltner, G. B. A., 1895. 
 
 " Louis Tocqu6, G. B. A., 1894, p. 462. 
 
 153 X 
 
The with perfect simplicity ; Wasserschleben held a letter, Mme. Terisse, 
 
 Painters the "Dame au Manchon," had her hands in her muff, another fair 
 Portrait, sitter is catalogued as " Mme. . . . a sa toilette tenant une Boete a 
 mouches," but the closer intercourse with Nattier, which followed 
 necessarily on his marriage with Nattier's daughter, gradually affedted 
 Tocque. His conception of his subjeft became less simple, his hand- 
 ling less virile, and in his " Jeliote en Apollon " ^ decked with a wig 
 and a lyre we reach the full absurdity of the " portrait historic." It is 
 possible that his sitters, spoiled by the sedu6live embellishments of 
 Nattier, insisted on the flattering disguises to which he had accus- 
 tomed them. Few, indeed, seem to have discovered, what Bachau- 
 mont contrived to find out, that Tocque was the best of all the 
 portrait painters of his day.^ Amongst those who, like the Swede, 
 Alexandre Roslin,^ were much employed by persons whose import- 
 ance lacked the stamp of rank and fashion, Tocque is certainly the 
 chief. His great skill, reserve of means, and seriousness of chara<5ler 
 were allied to remarkable vitality. 
 
 It is in this air of vigorous life which marks the portraits of 
 Tocque that the work of Roslin is generally lacking. In 1753, 
 Diderot, writing of the Salon, says, " II ne faut pas oublier . . . 
 M. Roslin, Suedois, qui a expose plusieurs portraits forts estimes ; 
 ce peintre a une bonne couleur, il sait peindre les chairs.* This 
 quality, however, is by no means constant in Roslin's work, for 
 nothing more leather-like in the way of human flesh was ever painted 
 than the heads of the three princes — Gustavus III., his brother 
 Charles, and Frederick-Adolphus — in the great family portrait now 
 at Stockholm.^ The pidlure was painted in Paris in 1 771, and the 
 excellent treatment of the accessories contrasts with the more than 
 insufficient execution of other portions, and suggests that these 
 princely personages either would not or could not sit to their un- 
 fortunate painter. In an earlier work, the charming portrait by 
 Roslin of himself in the Academy of Arts, and in the portrait of 
 Linnajus, in the Academy of Sciences,^ of which there is a copy 
 
 ' Ex. Salon, 1755. Engd. Cathelin. ' Notes, Appendix. Mem. Wille. 
 
 ' 171 8-1 793. Ag. July 28th and R. November 24th, 1753. His wife, Suzanne 
 Giroust, was also a member of the Academy. Her portrait, in pastel, is in the Louvre. 
 She died young, August 31st, 1772. See "Rev. univ. des Arts," vol. iii., pp. 384- 
 423, 481-505, and vol. v., pp. 129-137. A. de I'A. fr., vol. i., pp. 388, 389, and the 
 ScelI6, N. A., vol. v., 2' S6rie, p. 235. 
 
 * C. L., vol. i., p. 63. Amongst these was the portrait of 'Count G. A. Sparre, 
 now at WanH 
 
 ' No. 1,010, Musee National, Stockholm. 
 
 ° Roslin took leave of the French Royal Academy, April 30th, 1774, prior to 
 starting for Sweden. He there painted this portrait, which is signed and dated 
 "Delineatus, 1775." Ex. Salon, 1779. 
 
at Drottningsholm, we see him at his best. His half-length of Rigaud, 
 d'Angiviller at Versailles, his portrait of Marmontel,^ excellent as ^fS^^" 
 it is, and his full-length portrait of a lady in M. Groult's colledlion, Nattier, 
 are not only less masterly, but also less intelligent than Tocque's Tocqu6, 
 habitual performance. Yet Roslin made himself a great position in D°ouaig 
 Paris, and as early as 1758 we find him associated with Michel Latour,' 
 van Loo, Dumont le Romain, and Pierre, in an order given by the Perron- 
 town of Paris for a series of historical piftures, of which one alone others, 
 can now be identified.^ His work probably pleased the Town 
 Council by a solidity of performance at that time somewhat out of 
 date. It is, indeed, rarely that we get from him anything that has 
 the magic of personal charm and intention such as distinguishes his 
 own portrait of himself, or flesh-painting as good as in the half- 
 length portrait of a man with powdered hair, wearing a violet coat, 
 which is now in the colledtion of Mme. la princesse Mathilde ; for 
 the most part, his canvases, like the full-length of M. Groult's lady, 
 do not rise above the level of sound school exercises.^ 
 
 Portraits of this type hanging by the side of works by Boucher 
 and Fragonard, or challenging the lively pastels of Latour, must 
 have had a strange old-world air. They were no doubt generally 
 felt to be unworthy of the attention of the fashionable world, and 
 the claims of Joseph-Silfrede Duplessis* — that polite pupil of 
 Subleyras, whose work shows no trace of his master's style and 
 warmth — were not such as to entitle him to succeed to the place 
 left vacant when Nattier began to fail. The most illustrious persons 
 were his sitters,^ but he had a serious rival in his contemporary 
 Fran9ois-Hubert Drouais,^ son of that assistant of de Troy, of Oudry, 
 and of Nattier, Hubert Drouais,'' who now and again has painted 
 portraits almost as fine in their way as the work of Chardin. One 
 of these, that of an elderly woman who holds her book with a hand 
 which is a marvel of expressive drawing, is now in the possession of 
 M. Jacques Doucet, and, certainly, Drouais fils never painted any- 
 thing which " comes " as purely as the flesh of this sitter against the 
 touches of white which relieve her red dress. In his early portraits, 
 such as those of Guillaume Coustou le fils ^ and of Bouchardon,^ 
 
 ' Exposition des Portraits du Siecle. 
 
 ' N. A. de I'A., 1882, p. 247 (J. J. GuifFrey). Roslin's work was exhibited at 
 the Salon of 1759. 
 
 ' See " Notes sur Alexandre Roslin par J, L." Chronique des Arts, July, 1897. 
 
 * 1 725-1 802. Ag. July 24th, 1772. R. July 30th, 1774. 
 As, for example, his portrait of the duchesse de Chartres, Mus^e Cond6, well 
 reproduced in No CXXVII. « L'Ecole fran9aise a Chantilly." E. F. Gruyer. 
 
 ' i727-'775- R- Nov. 25th, 1758. ' 1699-1767. R. Nov. 25th, 1730. 
 
 ' Mus6e de Versailles. Ex. Salon, 1759. ' No. 7, Salle Denon, Louvre. 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 of 
 Portrait. 
 
 there is work, however, of a chara6ler which does not prepare us 
 for the immediate lapse of Francois-Hubert Drouais into fashionable 
 portrait painting in the style of Lady Yarborough's pretty "Amelia 
 9th Baroness Conyers."^ Curiously enough, we are told that it was 
 the merit of the two diploma works, presented to the Academy by 
 Drouais on his reception in November, 1758, that occasioned his call 
 to Versailles and the royal commission given to him, in the previous 
 year, to paint the young Dukes de Berri and d'Anjou. In the Jones 
 Bequest at the South Kensington Museum, there is, however, a por- 
 trait, by Drouais, of Marie-Antoinette when a girl, in an elaborate 
 court dress, which is of unusual interest ; not only because it has 
 evidently been painted direft from life, but because, incidentally, it 
 throws light on the way in which Drouais produced those mytho- 
 logical representations of his sitters in which they delighted. Strong, 
 yet careful — delicate, yet uncompromising — this excellent study, 
 which is neither signed nor dated, has aftually served for the execu- 
 tion, as far as the head is concerned, of one of the pleasantest por- 
 traits in the long series of his royal sitters — that of the youthful 
 Marie-Antoinette as Hebe, now at Chantilly, on which we find 
 "Drouais. 1773-"^ As we look at the pale yellow draperies, the 
 lilac scarf and rose ribbons at the waist, the golden cup, the steely 
 silver of the ewer with its gilt mount, repeated in the gray of the 
 background across which flits a pale blue cloud, we recognize a 
 typical work of Drouais fils, " avec son elegance et sa craie " ; it is, 
 nevertheless, a more agreeable example of his art than the hard 
 treatment in an earlier work of the clever group in which the little 
 comte d'Artois, age six, figures, accompanied by his four year old 
 sister, Madame Clotilde, on her white goat.^ This pifture was 
 exhibited at the Salon of 1763, together with the famous portrait 
 of Mme. de Pompadour, which had been painted by Drouais during 
 the last years of her life and completed after her death. " On voit 
 depuis quelques semaines," writes Bachaumont on the ist August, 
 1764, " au palais des Tuileries le portrait en grand de feu Madame 
 la Marquise de Pompadour, par Drouais peintre de reputation. La 
 ressemblance est des plus frappantes et la composition du tableau est 
 aussi riche que bien entendu. Cette derniere partie n'a ete terminee 
 que depuis la mort de cette femme celebre." * 
 
 ' Exhibited at the Guildhall, 1898. No. 80. This work is dated "1764," and 
 was therefore painted only five years later than the portraits of Couston and Bouchardon. 
 
 " No. CXXXV., Ecole Fran9aise a Chantilly. Ex. Salon, 1773. 
 
 ' No. 187*, Louvre. It is signed "Drouais le fils, 1763." 
 
 * The Musde d'Orleans possesses a " Portrait de Mme. de Pompadour " on which 
 is inscribed, to the left, " Peiiit par Drouais fils. La tete retouch^e d'apres nature en 
 juin, 1763." In. gen. Mon. civ. Pro., vol. i., p. 104. 
 
 156 
 
Makiic Anxoinktte en Hkuk. Bv Drouais. 
 {Aii/scc Ci>/iiit\ Cliaiitilly.) 
 
Drouais had owed much to her patronage, but her death left Rigaud, 
 him unshaken in his great position. He was painter to the king ; ^.^'!' 
 painter to Monsieur and to Madame, honours which were ulti- Nattier, 
 mately cumulated by his appointment as " peintre ordinaire " to Tocqu6, 
 the successor of the Marquise, Madame du Barry, whose portrait by D°ouai8 
 him appeared at the Salons of 1769 and 1771. More fortunate Latour, ' 
 than Nattier, Drouais remained in untroubled possession of the Perron- 
 first place in royal favour, and when he died, in 1775, he left a others, 
 record of the Court in the later years of Louis XV. as important 
 as that which we possess in the works of Nattier for the earlier half 
 of the same reign. For the days of Louis XVI. we can only fall 
 back on Duplessis, whilst we reserve a place of honour for the 
 elegance and charm of Vien's celebrated pupil, Madame Vigee le 
 Brun.^ Danloux,^ although he showed a certain acuity of vision, 
 remained — until he went to school in England during the emigra- 
 tion — without any marked claims to recognition. His best work 
 is, I think, the portrait of the last prince de Conde, at Chantilly,^ 
 which is adlually, as M. Gruyer has observed, a piece of English 
 painting. Madame Vigee le Brun, on the other hand, in spite of 
 her travels, was always intensely French, and that taste in costume 
 which, coupled with her ingenious eye-catching arrangements, 
 made her the painter after the Queen's own heart, give to her clever 
 pencil a charm which often induces us to pardon the superficial 
 chara6ter of her intelligence and her art. With the exception of 
 her well-known and flattering portraits of herself,^ perhaps no 
 better example can be found than her princesse de Talleyrand, 
 which is very fair and delicate in efFedl, and charms the eye by a 
 harmony of pale blue, gray, and pure white.^ 
 
 The enormous mass of oil paintings turned out by the painters 
 of portrait during this century seems in no wise to have injured 
 the popularity of the painters in pastel and other mediums. The 
 painters in pastel, in gouache,^ the enamellers, the miniature 
 painters, seem rather to have gained by the challenge to aftive 
 competition. The works of the miniaturists Masse ^ and Hall^ 
 bear witness not only to their skill in all three mediums, but show 
 that on the most diminutive scale — as for example in Hall's fine 
 
 M755-1842. R. June 7th, 1783. 
 
 ' 1 745-1 806. 
 
 ' No. CXLX., Ecole Fran9aise a Chantilly. 
 
 * No. 1,653, National Gallery, London. Nos. 82 and 83, Mus6e Louvre. 
 ' Colin, of M. Jacques Doucet. 
 
 • See "Nicolas Lafrensen, 1 737-1 807," by Henri Vienne. G, B. A., 1869. Many 
 works by him are at the Mus^e National, Stockholm. 
 
 ' 1687-1767. R.July 30th, 1 717. " '739- 1793- 
 
 ^57 
 
The portrait of the princesse Ulrlque, wife of Adolphe-Frederic ^ — they 
 
 Painters could draw with breadth and vigour and accuracy. The pastel 
 
 Portrait, painters, too, were ready to risk the comparison of their delicate art 
 
 with work of dimensions such as had hitherto been reserved for 
 
 the canvas and the brush. 
 
 All eyes are first diredted in the Salle des Pastels at the Louvre 
 to Latour's^ full-length portrait of Madame de Pompadour.^ The 
 beauty of the accessories, and the astonishing skill with which they 
 are rendered, constitute the chief attraction of this celebrated 
 portrait, for the head of the Marquise herself recalls d'Argenson's 
 criticism of her charms, " blonde et blanche mais sans traits," 
 and not even the fair bloom in which Latour's magic has en- 
 veloped his subjeft can prevent the woman herself from suffering 
 eclipse. The pretty face of the favourite fades as we detail the 
 lovely patterning of her skirts, read the titles of her books, and 
 marvel at the exquisite perfeftion with which the instruments 
 which indicate her various accomplishments are brought before us. 
 Look away from this portrait, unique though it be in its magnificent 
 skill, to a pastel of Perronneau's, or, better still, to Chardin's 
 vigorous yet sympathetic rendering of his own head and that of 
 his wife, and their strength and colour will tell even against La- 
 tour's other work in the same room. If there is no delicate bloom 
 on their surface the signs of life are there, and the deep note of 
 human interest is struck with an unfaltering hand. We have been 
 told that " la volonte plus que la nature avait modele la physionomie 
 de Mme. de Pompadour," and it is possibly due to the artificial 
 bearing and expression of his sitter that we miss in this — the greatest 
 page which Latour has left us, which may indeed be held to be the 
 greatest triumph of his art — that air of reality and individuality 
 which delights us in so many of his lesser works. We have but 
 to turn to his portrait of Marie Leczinska in the same room to feel 
 its wonderful attra6lion. Her genial air proclaims her father's 
 daughter, and the happy movement of the mouth and eyes reminds 
 us that the due de Luynes said, " elle entend avec finesse et a des 
 saillies et des reparties extremement vives." 
 
 The passionate desire to be a painter has long been taken to be 
 the motive which induced Maurice de Latour's precipitate flight 
 from St. Quentin when barely nineteen. Recent investigations 
 have, however, brought to light a less honourable reason, for we 
 
 ' No. 351 of the Catalogue of the Colledtion Muhlbacher, sold May 15th and 
 following days, Paris, 1899. 
 
 ' 1704-1788. Agr^d May 25th, 1737. R. September, 1746. Conseiller, 1751. 
 This was the highest rank open to a portrait-painter. ' Ex. 1755. 
 
 158 
 
La princesse de Talleyrand. By Vigee le Brun. 
 {Collection of M. Jacques Douce t.) 
 
t 
 
 know now that he had left his little cousin Anne to pay heavily for Rigaud, 
 the fault to the commission of which he had betrayed her. Anne, ^.^5"" 
 who, with her mother, had no other means of subsistence than the Nattier*, 
 knitting of stockings, was leniently dealt with by " la chambre du Tocque, 
 Conseil" at St. Quentin, whilst Spoede, who had befriended Watteau, D°ou^'g 
 received Latour at Paris.^ Beginning his career thus, like Chardin, Latour, 
 under the wing of the Academy of St. Luke, Latour had some Perron- 
 difficulty in attracting the attention of the public. He had even other's, 
 sought his fortune in London before he announced himself as a 
 painter of portraits: " il les faisoit au pastel," says Mariette, "y 
 mettoit peu de temps, ne fatiguoit point ses modeles, on les trouvait 
 ressemblants, il n'etoit pas cher, la presse etoit grande, il devint le 
 peintre banal." As to the concluding epithet, anyone looking at 
 Latour's portrait of himself as " I'Auteur qui rit,"^ which he 
 exhibited, together with one of Madame Boucher, at the Salon of 
 1737, the year in which he was "agree" by the Academy, will 
 ualify it by remembering that Latour's style was not likely to 
 nd favour with the friend of Caylus, the learned archaeologist and 
 printseller, Mariette. In later passages of the notes which he 
 devoted to Latour, Mariette retracts to a certain extent the harsh- 
 ness of his earlier judgment, and admits that though he never 
 achieved the vivacious colour of Rosalba Carriera, which charmed 
 even the eyes of Watteau, yet he surpassed " I'ltalienne," because 
 he drew better and because he never missed a likeness. " Mes 
 modeles," said he, " croient que je ne saisis que les traits de leurs 
 visages, mais je descends au fonds d'eux memes a leur insu et je 
 les remporte tout entier." 
 
 Latour's charafter is betrayed by this speech, which shows 
 that fully sufficient consciousness of his own value, which, expressed 
 on the slightest provocation with considerable arrogance, made him 
 many enemies, and irritated even his friends. On his arrival from 
 London, Louis de Boullogne, then premier peintre, struck by La- 
 tour's portraits of some of his family, told him frankly, " Vous ne 
 S9avez ni peindre, ni dessiner, mais vous possedez un talent qui 
 peut vous mener loin." No one was more convinced of this than 
 Latour himself. His confidence in his own powers was a part of 
 his genius ; it led him to live by the rule of his own caprice, it 
 brought him the convidtion that no liberty on his part could be 
 misplaced, but it also gave free play to the generous and lovable 
 
 ' N. A. de I'A., 1874-75, p. 303. In this connedWon it may be noticed that 
 Latour bequeathed a sum to his native town, " pour les pouvres femmes en couches." 
 See J. J. GuifFrey, G. B. A., 1885. 
 
 * Louvre, No. 823. 
 
 1 59 
 
The qualities which inspired tender and faithful affedion in those closely 
 
 Painters conne6led with him. 
 
 Portrait. Marmontel has related how Latour would ledture the wits 
 
 and men of letters assembled at Madame GeofFrin's on philosophy 
 and politics/ and for his want of ta<5l at Court there is equally good 
 authority. He had the honour, when engaged on the great portrait 
 of Madame de Pompadour, to paint in the presence of the King, 
 and hearing the talk that went on about the building of palaces, on 
 which at that date the Marquise was spending the treasure of 
 France, Latour struck in with the refledtion that " all that might 
 be very fine, but ships would be much better." The King, it is 
 said, grew red, and " tout le monde regarda comme une betise, une 
 sortie si imprudente, qui ne menoit a rien, et ne meritoit que du 
 mepris." After this one is not surprised to find that Latour 
 recognized his unfitness for Court life ; he painted numerous royal 
 portraits, but on one occasion — after putting off in various ways the 
 pressing invitations of Madame la Dauphine, who wanted her 
 portrait at a moment when she thought she was in good looks — 
 he finally gave vent to his feelings by declaring " qu'il n'est point 
 fait pour ce pays la."^ 
 
 The same eccentric self-will dictated his condudl in all the 
 affairs of life. Innumerable are the stories in which he is made to 
 figure as exceptionally greedy of gain, but he seems to have been 
 magnificent or mean, impartially, just as it suited his humour at 
 the moment. In 1745 — the year in which he exhibited his first 
 royal portraits, those of the king and the dauphin — he quarrelled 
 with his friend Duval d'Epinay, secretaire du roi, about a portrait, 
 the " preparation " for which — together with those for the por- 
 traits of his royal sitters — may still be seen at St. Quentin. Pleased 
 with his model, Latour, instead of painting the head only, in 
 compliance with d'Epinay 's request, painted and demanded pay- 
 ment for a half length, a price which his friend was not prepared 
 to pay. " II commence," says Mariette, " a ne plus connoitre 
 d'ami lorsqu'il est question de ses portraits," and Mme, de Mon- 
 donville fared as ill as d'Epinay. She warned Latour, who had 
 painted and exhibited her husband's portrait,^ with great success at 
 
 ' M6m., ed. Verdi^re, vol. i., p. 208, 359. 
 
 ' Mariette. One of the earliest mentions of Latour's employment at Court 
 occurs in the "Memoirs of the Duke de Luynes," under date December 23rd, 1739. 
 Madame de Mailly's portrait is, he says, being painted " en pastel. C'est un nomm6 
 La Tour." 
 
 ' Formerly in the colledlion of M. Eudoxe Marcille and now in the possession 
 of his daughter, Mme. Jahan. See the passage regarding Jean Joseph Casanea de 
 Mondonville ancien maitre de musique de la chapelle au roi. C. L., Odober, 1772. 
 
 160 
 
Madamk de Pompadour. Bv I.atour. 
 {Musee du Louvre.) 
 
 \ 
 
\" 
 
the Salon of 1747, that she had but five and twenty louis to spend, Rigaud, 
 and as his only reply was to invite her to sit, she sent him this ^?'*e'^" 
 sum, in a box of bonbons as soon as her portrait, which appeared Nattier, 
 at the Salon of 1753, was finished. The bonbons were kept but Tocque, 
 the money returned, and Mme. de Mondonville, not to be outdone orouais 
 in generosity, forwarded to her painter a piece of plate worth thirty Latour,' 
 louis, of which she had observed he was in need. The plate also Perron- 
 was returned, and the lady was made to understand that her debt others, 
 amounted to the i,20olt. of Latour's fixed tariff. The tariff was, 
 however, varied on occasion, as when he charged the wealthy 
 financier M. de la Reyniere, io,ooolt. for the portraits of himself 
 and his wife.^ De la Reyniere left them on Latour's hands, and 
 he, after some time had elapsed, summoned his sitters to pay and 
 remove their portraits, and would have taken his case into court 
 had not a compromise been arrived at through the friendly offices 
 of Jean Restout and de Sylvestre, who was then Red:or of the Royal 
 Academy.^ 
 
 Even when the Pompadour sent him a thousand louis d'or, in 
 magnificent acknowledgment of her great portrait, begun in 1752 
 and exhibited in 1755, Latour thought himself insufficiently paid,^ 
 esteeming his work at double that sum. His portraits of the King, 
 the Queen, and the Dauphin had been royally acknowledged in 1750 
 by his nomination as painter in ordinary and an annual pension of 
 i,ooolt., but there is no doubt that Latour hated anything like a 
 task. He would make an unpaid study if it pleased him rather 
 than submit to the constraint of an imposed model. In this fadl 
 we have the explanation of his puzzling declarations that he hated 
 portrait painting, and of all portraits, probably royal portraits were 
 the most trying. His letters to Marigny and d'Angiviller, in 
 1763,* as to the payment due for five royal portraits, amongst which 
 were those of the dauphine, and her husband, the due de Berri, 
 and the comte de Provence ^ are full of irritation. He describes 
 his difficulties over them, complains of his short sight, and suggests, 
 by insinuation, that he ought to be very well paid, "J'attendray 
 qu'il fixe ses demandes," writes Marigny on the letter of August ist, 
 " pour en rendre compte au roy." In vain Latour endeavoured 
 to evade this decision. He went to Versailles to pay his court on 
 
 ' These portraits were exhibited at the Salon of 1747. That of Mme. de la 
 Reyniere is now in the colleftion of M. Jacques Doucet. The " preparation " for the 
 portrait of M. de la Reyniire at St. Quentin has suffered. 
 
 ^ See Mariette. ' "Journal des Arts," 25 nivose, An, viii. 
 
 * Correspondance in6dite de Latour. Guiffrey, G. B. A., 1885. 
 
 ' Salon, 1763. 
 
 161 y 
 
The the 25th, the fete of the St. Louis, with the sole result that his 
 
 Painters magnificent " tabatiere de chasse en or de couleur " was stolen from 
 Portrait, the right hand pocket of his waistcoat, " en traversant les apparte- 
 ments de Versailles."^ Marigny remained inexorable, and the 
 matter was settled by a letter from Latour, in which he says " Je 
 me trouve done force pour vous obeir de vous assurer que je serois 
 content de 2,ooolt. par portrait, au lieu de 3,ooolt. dont M. 
 Gabriel m'avoit flatte." 2 
 
 Against these proofs of what men reckoned to be rapacity may 
 be set instances of an opposite nature, which suggest that Latour, 
 if determined to sell his work at its full value, was equally 
 resolved to take no more than he believed to be his due. An un- 
 known patron, who had sat for his head only, as a surprise to his 
 wife, in his delight at the success of his scheme, threw his purse 
 with a hundred louis d'or on the table and bid Latour take the 
 whole sum if he liked ; but, nothing moved, Latour accepted 
 only the i,20olt., which was his price. Cochin, too, in his life of 
 Parrocel, tells us that Latour made the noblest use of his influence 
 with Orry the " controleur-general."^ Parrocel was in difficulties 
 in 1743,* and Latour not only bestirred himself to procure the 
 purchase of his pi6lure " L'entree de I'Ambassadeur Turc," but one 
 of the royal pensions becoming vacant through the death of Rigaud, 
 Latour, instead of soliciting it for himself, succeeded, by his lively 
 representations, in securing its division between his friends Parrocel 
 and Restout.^ Fadls such as these prepare us for that side of 
 Latour's charafter which endeared him to many, which won the 
 faithful affedion of " sa divinite " Mile. Fel,^ and which dilated 
 the splendid generosity with which — to a great extent during his 
 lifetime — he disposed of the fortune which he had amassed in 
 favour of the struggling, the poor, the sick of his native town, 
 St. Quentin.^ Thither, after a short stay in his house at Auteuil, 
 
 ' Bulln. Soc. de I'hist., 1876, p. 6. 
 
 " Letter of 7th Odober, 1763. See GuifFrey, G.B.A., 1894. 
 
 ' M. I., vol. ii., p. 413. 
 
 * See " Les derniers des Parrocel," by M. R. Taillandier, A. de A., vol. vi., 
 p. 56. 
 
 ' Mdm. inid., vol. ii., p. 414. 
 
 ' Her relations with Latour seem to have begun 1753-4, when he exhibited 
 her portrait, and ended only in 1784, when he retired to St. Quentin. He may have 
 met her at the Mondonvilles. 
 
 ' In 1776 Latour founded three Prix in connexion with the R. A., and a 
 fourth for the province of Picardy. Letter to d'Angiviller, February ist, 1776, P.V., 
 March 30th, 1776. Later he founded a " bureau de charit^," and an " Ecole gratuite 
 de dessin " at St. Quentin, endowing them with over go.ooof. Letters of 1779. See 
 Correspondance in^d., J. F. Guiffrey. Also M. Tourneux, G.B.A., 1885. 
 
 162 
 
Latour betook himself in his failing years, and there, in tranquil Rigaud, 
 honour, he ended his life. hS?'^ 
 
 "J'allay a I'Academie," writes Wille, 23rd February, 1788, Nattier, 
 " ou il fut fait mention de la mort de M. de Latour arrivee a St. Tocque, 
 Quentin, sa patrie, au commencement de ce mois cy. II etoit age ^Jouais, 
 de quatre vingt quatre ans. Ou est le temps ou nous allions voir Latour, ' 
 
 M. Parrocel au Gobelins, y boire une bouteille avec d'autres amis Perron- 
 , ■ / 1 -^ -1 -J ^ ■ neau, and 
 
 de notre societe de ce temps, il y a aux environs de quarante cmq others. 
 
 ans et plus. Tres peu de mes amis de ce temps la existent, je ne 
 
 vois presque que M. Cochin." The regrets of the old engraver 
 
 call up before us the Maurice Latour of 1742 "carrying his head 
 
 high, his eyes bright and full of fire, the oval of his face cleanly 
 
 cut, his thin lips showing a ready turn for criticism ... his figure 
 
 well knit . . . extremely well dressed, and exquisitely neat." It was 
 
 the year which had been the crowning exhibition of his talent, 
 
 when his famous portrait of the Abbe Hubert, a study for which 
 
 is in the " Musee de St. Quentin," had figured at the Salon. In 
 
 those brilliant days Latour's position seems to have already become 
 
 exceptional ; in the years that followed, all Paris was at his feet. 
 
 Everywhere his magical talent gave him privileges beyond the lot 
 
 of his fellows. He could take his ease at Versailles, or sit with the 
 
 whole company of the philosophers. From the suppers of Mme. 
 
 GeofFrin, or the dinners of Lemoyne;^ from the discourses of 
 
 Helvetius and d'Alembert, or the civilities of Rousseau and Voltaire, 
 
 Latour could escape to drink a bottle at the Gobelins with Parrocel 
 
 and Wille. 
 
 His fame rests, in the main, on his portraits of women, to 
 
 which he contrived to give a piquant and sensual beauty which 
 
 becomes a common characteristic of the most diverse types. His 
 
 admirable heads of the Camargo;^ of Mile. Fel; of Madame Masse, 
 
 of Mile. Puvigny (St. Quentin) all show certain mannerisms, 
 
 certain tricks of treatment which remind us that Latour himself 
 
 told Diderot how difficult it was to please and " faire assez vrai." 
 
 On everyone he confers that dimpled elevation of the corners of 
 
 the mouth, a gift of which nature is chary and which cannot be 
 
 acquired by art. Even in his " preparations," in those first studies 
 
 of which we find so many at St. Quentin, from which his portraits 
 
 were completed, we get the same graceful flatteries by which Latour 
 
 bestowed on his sitters the charms which brought them into harmony 
 
 with the fashionable type of their day. All seem inspired with the 
 
 desire and the power to please. 
 
 ' See the M^m. of Mme. Vig6e le Brun. 
 
 ' A fine " preparation " for this portrait is in the colle£tion of M. Groult. 
 
 163 
 
The In portraits of men he could take greater freedom. Royal 
 
 Painters sitters. Kings and Dauphins, had to be dealt with tenderly ; but in 
 Portrait, handling lesser personages Latour was often at his best. As he 
 frequently made as many as five or six preliminary studies of those 
 who interested him, there are not only an enormous number of his 
 works still to be found in private collections, but various repetitions 
 of the same subjects. Fine studies for his Rousseau and Voltaire were 
 reproduced by M. de Goncourt from the colle(5lion of M. Eudoxe 
 Marcille;^ M. Groult, amongst other examples, owns a remarkable 
 preparation for Latour's laughing portrait of himself. M. J. 
 Doucet, besides a very striking mask of a woman and the portrait 
 of Jacques-Charles Dutillieu, possesses not only the famous Mme. 
 de la Reyniere but the companion portraits of the Marechal de 
 Belle-Isle and his wife; the Louvre collection is of the highest value 
 and contains at least one of Latour's finest male portraits, that of 
 the sculptor Rene Fremin.^ It is, however, at St. Quentin, that 
 one gets the most powerful impression of his extraordinary talent. 
 
 By a fortunate chance, the drawings, which remained in the 
 possession of the Chevalier, Latour's soldier brother, escaped 
 dispersion at his death ^ and have become the property of the town. 
 There, we may see gathered together every variety of the master's 
 work. There, are the preliminary studies, not only for many of his 
 most beautiful portraits of women, for Mile. Fel, for the Camargo, 
 for the Marquise de Pompadour, but the most striking examples of 
 his treatment of the different types of men who came to his studio. 
 Brutal and vigorous in the head of Dupeuche, his drawing-master, 
 delicate and tentative in Rousseau, admirably strong and fresh in 
 d'Alembert, a little effeminate in the refinement of de Julienne, 
 extraordinarily broad in the Abbe Hubert, the crayon becomes 
 harsh and the handling rough in his highly wrought presentment 
 of his colourman, Verzenobre, but softens — whilst keeping all its 
 wonderful vitality of accent — as it touches the friendly features of 
 the old academician Sylvestre. These two last, Verzenobre and 
 Sylvestre, are also interesting as studies in Latour's use of colour. 
 The magnificent full blue of the drapery in Mme. de la Reyniere, 
 reappears in the cloak wound round the shoulders of Verzenobre 
 above which the warm flesh tints of the face — surrounded by white 
 cambric at the throat and surmounted by a strange orange-red 
 
 ' Now in the hands of Mme. Jahan. The Voltaire is a " Voltaire jeune." In 
 the same collection is a fine Madame de Mondonville and a Mme. de Graffigny on a 
 gray-blue background. The Rousseau, exhibited in 1753, was engraved by A. de 
 Saint-Aubin. 
 
 " No. 822. Salle des Pastels. ^ See de Goncourt, vol. ii., p. 219. 
 
 164 
 
Verzenobre. By La Tour 
 {Musee de Saint-Qiientin.) 
 
toque, bordered with fur — acquire an unusual quality. In the Rigaud, 
 Sylvestre, the lilac " bonnet de peintre," worn by the sitter, is ^f &•'" 
 skilfully brought into relation with this warm strong blue in the Nattier, 
 dress, by touches of gray and gold which make a beautiful flower- Tocque, 
 like pattern over its surface, Drouais 
 
 The portraits which make up this remarkable colle6lion have Latour, * 
 all suffered something from the process of "fixing" the pastel.^ Perron- 
 Throughout his life Latour, in his desire to better that which was others, 
 well done, had injured his own work in various ways. Excitable 
 and nervous, he was never satisfied. Bachaumont, who had sat to 
 him twice (1740. 1753.), says : " II se donne beaucoup de peine et 
 ne se contente pas aysement ce qui nuit a beaucoup de ses portraits. 
 II ne scait pas s'arrester a propos : il cherche toujours a faire mieux 
 qu'il ne fait, d'ou il arrive qu'a force de travailler et de tourmenter 
 son ouvrage souvent il le gaste. II s'en degoutte, I'efFace, et 
 recommence et souvent ce qu'il fait est moins bien que ce qu'il 
 avoit fait d'abord, de plus il s'est entete d'un vernis qu'il croit 
 avoir invente et qui tres souvent luy gaste tout ce qu'il a fait. 
 C'est grand dommage le pastel ne veut pas etre tourmente, trop de 
 travail luy oste sa fleur et I'ouvrage devient comme estompe." ^ In 
 this way he spoilt the famous full-length portrait of the President . 
 de Rieu (1741), the portrait of Dumont le Romain (Reserve du 
 Louvre) and the fine portrait of Restout (1743),^ for whom he had 
 a profound respe6t, and whose councils had been, he declared, of 
 infinite service to him. Even the pastel of the Abbe Hubert has 
 suffered, and the head of d'Alembert is one of the few now at St. 
 Quentin, in which we recognize the original freshness and " bloom " 
 of Latour's delicate craft. The fragility of this brilliant art, 
 haunted with fear the thoughts of all those who practised it. In 
 1769, shortly after the return of Latour from his visit to Hauguer 
 at Amsterdam,* Loriot, the celebrated author of the " Table volante 
 de Choisy," boldly asserted that he had discovered " le secret de 
 fixer le pastel " ^ and this incited Latour, unfortunately, to renewed 
 
 1 Catalogue Vente etc., 1808, de Goncourt, vol. ii., p. 324. 
 
 " Notes, Appendix, M^m. Wille. 
 
 ^ These two portraits were Latour's diploma works. That of Lemoync was 
 originally imposed together with that of Restout, but that of van Loo was substituted 
 for it, and afterwards replaced by that of Dumont le Romain. P. V., Odober 31st, 
 1750. The portrait of Restout was admirably engraved by Moitte. 
 
 * M. Tourneux has established the fa6t that the "M. Noggu^re " who received 
 Latour at Amsterdam is the M. Hauguer whose portrait by Perronneau appeared at 
 the Salon of 1763. La Tour bequeathed to him his portrait of the Abb6 Hubert. 
 See Tourneux, " Jean-Baptiste Perronneau," G. B. A., 1896, p. 142. See also letter to 
 Marigny, July 21st, 1766. Correspondance in6d. 
 
 ' Bachaumont, June 31st, P. V. January 8th, 1780. 
 
 165 
 
The attempts, for he writes in despair, in the following year, of the ruin 
 
 Painters which he had wrought on Restout's portrait.^ In vain the Academy 
 
 Portrait, insisted that it should be restored to them in its original state, the 
 
 task was impossible, as the portrait now in the Louvre bears sad 
 
 witness. 
 
 It is, perhaps, because Jean-Baptiste Perronneau ^ brought to 
 the inevitable limitations of this art a calmer mind than was 
 commanded by the irritable genius of Latour, that his work has 
 gained, relatively to the position in which it was formerly ranked, 
 in respe<5l to that of his great rival. A pupil both of Natoire ^ and 
 of Laurent Cars, he was received into the Academy as a " peintre 
 de portraits " at the moment when " le prodigieux Latour etait 
 toujours le roi ' du pastel.' " Painter and engraver, he has left us 
 work in oil — such as the manly half-length portrait of Oudry, 
 dressed in green, leaning on a red chair, and wearing a white wig 
 and ruffles relieved on a gray background (Louvre) which has an 
 intensely personal aspeft, although, for the most part, his treatment 
 of this medium — as in the old man wearing a white cravat, pale 
 blue waistcoat, and brown coat in M. Groult's colledlion — shows 
 less character than his pastels. As soon as these appeared, every con- 
 temporary critic fastened upon him and contrasted him — invariably 
 to his disadvantage — with Latour. No such comparisons are made 
 of Latour with Masse, or of Latour with Loir, and this shows, I 
 think, that there was a feeling that in Perronneau alone Latour had 
 a serious rival, for his work, though by no means as showy or as 
 vivacious as that of " le roi du pastel," is remarkably sound, full of 
 charafter, having sometimes beauty and — as in the charming " Homme 
 a la rose," in M. Groult's collection — even distinction. 
 
 In his " M. et Mme. Ollivier de Marseille," executed in 1748,* 
 that is two years after he became an associate of the Academy, the 
 heads, the hands, especially the right hand of the man, which rests 
 on a table, are admirably drawn. ^ The strength and life of the 
 work is such that one realizes how Latour, irritated by talk of 
 Perronneau's talent, may have been led to play him some scurvy trick 
 in order to show that he could easily eclipse, by his brilliance, any 
 
 ' Letter to Mile, van Zuylen, published by E. Piot, "Cabinet de I'Amateur and 
 de I'Antiquaire," 1861-62. 
 
 ' 1715-1783. Ag., August 27, 1746. R. 28 July, 1753. 
 
 ' See L'Abb6 de Fontenay. 
 
 * Belonging to M. Groult. M. B. Ollivier, peintre de Marseille, was agree by 
 the Academy February 22nd, 1 766, and refu April 29th, 1 769. Was he of the same 
 family ? 
 
 ' To the same period I should be inclined to refer the excellent half-length portrait 
 of a fresh-coloured woman, wearing a white cap and rose-pink gown, relieved on a gray- 
 brown ground, in the same colledtion. 
 
 166 
 
other claims to notice. He sat, it is said, to Perronneau for his por- Rigaud, 
 trait — the more than excellent portrait of Latour which now holds ^f Spl- 
 its own in a masterly way amongst the pastels at St. Quentin — but he Nattier, 
 executed one of himself secretly, and contrived that Chardin, who Tocqu6, 
 was in charge of the arrangements, should place the two side by side orouais 
 in the Salon of 1750, in order that the younger man's work should Latour, ' 
 be killed by that of the elder master. Such is the story told, and Perron- 
 told by Diderot in 1767, many years after the event. We may, others, 
 indeed, doubt, for more than one reason, whether it is accurate. 
 In the first place, he confuses in his own account of the incident, 
 the portrait of Latour by Perronneau with that by Latour of him- 
 self, which figured at the Salon of 1742 ; moreover, at the date in 
 question, Portail, not Chardin, would probably have been in charge 
 of the arrangement of the Salon ^ ; of Chardin, indeed, we know 
 too much to believe that he could have lent himself to a scheme 
 for the humiliation of one of those younger ones to whom he 
 was uniformly generous and indulgent. He was, too, in later years, 
 a personal friend of Perronneau, who, in 1769, writes to Desfriches ^ 
 concerning the hanging of his daughter's portrait, " il a este encore 
 mieux place que les premiers jours — M. Chardin m'a dit qu'il vous 
 le renvoirait." ^ 
 
 In any case, Perronneau was not driven from France, as some 
 have said, by this apocryphal adventure. He was, certainly, a rest- 
 less traveller, but his journeyings took place at a much later date than 
 that of the Latour portrait. " Son instabilite," writes the Abbe de 
 Fontenay, " fut une des singularites de sa vie." He had, apparently, 
 family ties to Paris, where his father, who is described in Jean- 
 Baptiste's marriage contradt as a " bourgeois de Paris," was settled. 
 This contrail, the original of which is still preserved in the 
 "minutier" of the successors to the Maitre Demeure before whom it 
 was signed, is dated November 3rd, 1754, and the marriage took 
 place on the ninth of the same month.* The bride, Louise-Charlotte 
 Aubert, was the daughter of the miniature painter, Louis-Fran9ais 
 Aubert,^ of whom little is known, but the long list of witnesses, 
 amongst whom we find Jean-Louis Gontaut de Biron, due de Biron, 
 pair de France ; Michel Bouvard de Fourqueux, procureur-general 
 de Sa Majeste en sa Chambre des Comptes ; Louis-Jean Gaignat, the 
 
 ' Portail succeeded to Sti^mart in 1 742, he died in 1759, and Chardin discharged 
 these fundlions from 1761. GuifFrey, Expositions du XVIII. Siecle, pp. xxviii, xix. 
 
 " See •' Desfriches, sa vie et ses oeuvres," Jules Loiseleur. 
 
 ' " Jean-Baptiste Perronneau," by M. Tourneux, p. 310 and 312, G. B. A., 1896. 
 
 * See Tourneux, G. B. A., 1896, p. 132. 
 
 ' Some of his drawings have had the undeserved honour of being attributed to 
 Chardin. 
 
 167 
 
The famous bibliophile, and Blondel d'Azincourt, Intendant des Menus 
 
 Painters Plaisirs, figuring at the side of Masse, the miniaturist ; Laurent Cars 
 Portrait, ^^id Marteau, the medalist, who was an uncle of Louise-Charlotte, 
 shows that the families of both Perronneau and his wife were of 
 some consequence, and it is equally plain that Jean-Baptiste himself 
 had achieved a settled and honourable position. Sixteen years had 
 elapsed since he had engraved (1738), as an apprentice of Cars, the 
 frontispiece of the " Livre de diverses Academies dessinees d'apres 
 le naturel par Edme Bouchardon, sculpteur du roi." ^ The little 
 portrait of Mile. Desfriches, which he signed in 1740, does not 
 seem to have shown signs of ability,^ and though he was " agree " 
 by the Academy in 1746,^ the famous portraits of Oudry and of 
 Adam I'Aine,* on which he was eventually received, were not de- 
 livered till 1753, and that, too, after a further delay of six months 
 had been accorded to him in February of the same year.^ This 
 tardy execution of his engagements suggests that Perronneau had 
 then found full employment. Five portraits by him, amongst 
 which were those of the Marquis d'Aubais, in the possession of 
 M. Emile Levy and of Hubert Drouais, which having remained in 
 the family for generations is now in the hands of the distinguished 
 French mediasvalist, M. Noel Valois, were exhibited in 1746 ; the 
 charming child portrait of " Lemoyne fils," a son probably of Jean- 
 Baptiste Lemoyne, wearing a little rose-gray jacket and blue waist- 
 coat, his hair, of silvery fairness, relieved on a background of pale 
 blue, appeared in 1747,^ and the no less delightful "Young Girl 
 with a cat " figured, with the historic portrait of Latour, at the 
 Salon of 1750." 
 
 The great success of his diploma works, the portraits of Adam 
 I'Aine and Oudry, exhibited in 1753 with various others, amongst 
 which we note those of Lord Huntington, of Pierre Bouguer ^ and 
 of the young princesse de Conde (Elizabeth de Rohan-Soubise), 
 probably encouraged Perronneau with the prospeft of settled 
 fortunes and had contributed to determine his marriage, but, for some 
 mysterious reason, this marriage appears to have had a disastrous in- 
 fluence on his career. For about eighteen months, he took his posi- 
 tion and his duties seriously, even attending four sittings of the 
 
 ' Paris, Huquier, 1738. ' Tourneux, p. 8. 
 
 " P.V. August 27th, 1746, Portail and Vernet were also "agriis" in this year. 
 * Nos. I and 66, Salle Denon, Louvre. ^ p, y., February 23rd, 1753. 
 
 ' CoUeaion of M. Groult. 
 
 T " The Girl with the cat" is in the Louvre, and has been admirably reproduced 
 in colour, G. B. A., 1894. 
 ' No. 1,248, Louvre. 
 
 168 
 
M. LE Mas de Puysac. By Perronneau. 
 {Collection of M. Jacques Douce t.) 
 
Academy in 1755.^ Soon, however, the strange fever of change Rigaud, 
 
 seized on him. The death of his father-in-law, which took place j^^^'J'^' 
 
 in the course of this year, may have, in some unexplained way, dis- Nattier, 
 
 turbed his calculations, he may have found the obligations of home Tocque, 
 
 life irksome, or his professional gains may have fallen below his orouai's, 
 
 reasonable expeftations. Something of all this may be inferred from Latour, ' 
 
 various passages in his letters, but we are reduced more or less to Perron- 
 
 . ^ " XIT1 I • 1 • /: L ^ r> J neau, and 
 
 conjedure. What we know is that m 1756, he was at Bordeaux, others. 
 
 where he did some fine work, as the "Jeune Homme a la rose," ^ 
 preserved till lately at the Chateau du Petit Verdus, bears witness. 
 His return to Paris, in the following year, when he exhibited various 
 portraits at the Salon, was only a prelude to a fresh departure. This 
 time he went to Lyons,^ where his visit has been recorded in the 
 " Livre de Raison " of Jacques-Charles Dutillieu, whose portrait, as 
 well as that of his wife, BenoiteSacquin, was executed by Perronneau.* 
 To Dutillieu, he seems to have owed much of the success of his stay 
 at Lyons, and we learn from a letter written to him by Perronneau 
 from Paris in September of the same year, and dated from 
 " L'Empereur Tibere, Quai de la Megisserie, that, on leaving 
 Lyons, he had made a short journey into Italy as far as Turin, and 
 had visited Champagne, where some property left by his father-in- 
 law was in a very unsatisfactory condition. The success of this first 
 visit to Lyons evidently increased his dissatisfadlion with his position 
 in Paris, for the letter contains the significant phrase " quant a 
 Paris, il n'i a point d'argent beaucoup de manquement de parolle de 
 gens qui ne paient qu'en parti." ° 
 
 If Perronneau did not repeat, as he intended, his journey to Italy, 
 he certainly spent some years in Holland, after which he reappeared 
 at the Salon of 1765, with a considerable number of portraits — that 
 of "M. Hanguer, Echevin d' Amsterdam " amongst others — which 
 represented some of the results of his long absence.^ M. Tourneux 
 suggests that we should include, in this series, the fine pastel in the 
 collection of M. Paul Sohege, which is signed but not dated, and 
 
 ' August 30th, and September 6th, loth, 28th. 
 
 " Colleaion Groult. 
 
 ' P. v., January 14th, 1759. 
 
 * These two portraits have been reproduced, G. B. A., 1896. That of Dutillieu 
 has been already mentioned as in the colle6tion of M. Jacques Doucet ; that of Benoite 
 Sacquin belongs to M. L. M. Levy. 
 
 ' Letter in the possession of M. Maurice Tourneux. The only letter known to 
 exist in Perronneau's hand, except those to Desfriches printed by M. Jules Dumesnil, 
 whichwere revised for the use of M. Tourneux by M. E. Marcille, G. B. A., 1896, p. 140. 
 
 ' The portrait of Gerhard Meerman, executed during this absence and engraved 
 by Daull6 for Meerman 's " Origines typographicae " (Leyden, 1 765), is now at the 
 Hague. 
 
 169 2 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 of 
 Portrait. 
 
 which represents, according to an old note on the back, the Marquis 
 de Puente-Fuerte, named, in 1761, Spanish Minister to the States 
 General.^ During her husband's long stay in Holland, as on other 
 occasions, Mme. Perronneau must be presumed to have remained 
 in or near Paris. For this once, at least, her vagrant husband had 
 returned to her with money in his pockets, and for a year or two 
 they seem to have had a quiet time. Perronneau made his appear- 
 ance at the sittings of the Academy once or twice,^ and on the 
 29th December, 1765, he and his wife purchased a house in the 
 country near the barrier of Montreuil.^ With the exception, indeed, 
 of a visit to Orleans, where he found constant welcome from 
 Desfriches* and his family, who seem to have been very old friends, 
 or perhaps connexions, he does not seem to have gone far from 
 home. The visit to Orleans was repeated in 1766, and, on each 
 occasion, he executed portraits of several friends and members 
 of the Desfriches set — works, some of which, as well as a very 
 pretty pastel " Aurora," are still to be seen in the Museum.^ 
 
 This second visit to Orleans was, however, the point of depar- 
 ture for fresh and further journeyings which seem only to have 
 ended with Perronneau's death. The ** Affiches, Annonces et Avis 
 Divers " at Bordeaux, show that he was again in that town on 
 March 25th, 1767, when he lost between the Exchange and the 
 Chateau Trompette a green shagreen case containing a compass, 
 pencil-case, and square, on which was engraved "by Butterfield." 
 Once more, too, various portraits, some of which were seen at the 
 Salon of 1769, betray the reasons for his stay. In the following 
 January he was at Abbeville, whence he wrote to Desfriches, then 
 in Paris, dating his letter, by a slip of the pen, " 90 " instead of 
 " 70." ^ " Je ne sait," he says, " si je ne dois pas continuer a voiage 
 encore quelque annee, je pense que cela me seroit plus surement 
 fruftueux que de minstale avec un logement cher a Paris, ou je 
 serois seul, car le baccanal des enfants me distrairoit : Quoique M. 
 Fourqueux ^ insiste pour que je soient stable a Paris, moy je trouverai 
 
 ' For full details as to the persons figuring in this series, see Tourneux, G. B. A., 
 1896, pp. 142, 143. 
 
 ' P. v., September 2nd and 3rd, 1763, and December 29th, 1764. 
 
 ' Tourneux, G. B. A., 1896, p. 143. 
 
 * A portrait of Desfriches, by Perronneau, figured at the Salon, in 1751. 
 
 ' Reproduced G. B. A., 1896. Mme. Jahan possesses a fine portrait of a lady in 
 a hat, wearing a striped blue gown, signed " Perronneau, 1766." 
 
 ' Published as well as the following letter by M. Dumesnil in " L'Histoire des plus 
 c61ebres amateurs fi-anjais." 
 
 ' Fourqueux, who succeeded Calonne as " controleur g^ndral " was, it will be 
 remembered, one of the witnesses of Perronneau's marriage. 
 
 170 
 
La Jeune Fille au Chat. By Perronneau. 
 (Musee du Louvre.) 
 
bien du temp a perdre et de la misere. Je vairay d'autres villes," Rigaud, 
 and then he proposes to revisit Orleans and to go again to Lyons ul^e * ' 
 and Bordeaux. " Le grand Baudouin, gendre de M. Boucher est Nattier, 
 mort," he adds in his postscript to this letter, the text of which ^oqu6, 
 throws so much light on his personal affairs. The curious phrase Drouais, 
 " baccanal d'enfants " seems to suggest the presence in his home of Latour, 
 a large family. It is, of course, possible that he refers to the ^^l^^^^^ 
 children of others connected with him, whom he had taken into others, 
 his house ; if they were his own, then they must have died off very 
 quickly, for in 1772 we know that he had but one child, a little 
 boy, who was born in 1767, nearly fifteen years after the marriage 
 of his father and mother. This is made clear by another letter, 
 written also to Desfriches, but written from Paris, in 1772, in 
 which further details as to his circumstances are given. 
 
 In this letter Perronneau announces his coming, and adds that 
 " the losses which we have made on * quelque papier publique ' 
 have pinched us, otherwise I should have stayed in Paris, for since 
 I left Orleans I have earned 20,1 00 fr. . . . and, in consequence 
 of what I tell you, I am worse off than when you saw me, thankful 
 indeed that Mme, Perronneau has a house at the Petit Charonne, 
 though that is a folly, since it comes to 27,000 fr., and brings in little 
 beyond the daily expenses of keeping it up, vegetables, and so on, 
 but she is lodged and the air is good. ... I have only a little boy 
 of five and a half,^ whom she has nursed, who is charming (whom 
 I have just painted) that has helped no little to affeft her tempera- 
 ment, she is always sad. ... I venture to say that I have improved 
 in my small way, I have done some vigorous things at Abbeville. 
 ... I have painted in oil in Holland, but this journey has not 
 been so fruitful as that of 176 1 . . . few have given me work, 
 having lost much themselves in France." The same fadls are 
 recapitulated in a second letter of the same year;^ another, dated 
 " Lion, 10 Avril, 1773," is yet more sad : in it he says of his wife, 
 " je ne luy ay pas rendu asse de justice, sur son economie et sur ses 
 soins, sa vertu a este trop haustere et a pris sur sa sante."^ 
 
 The last ten years of Perronneau's life are wrapped in obscurity ; 
 his name appears at the Salons of 1773 and 1777, and his vigour, if 
 we may judge from the fine portrait of the comte de Vaudurant 
 wearing the ribbon of St. Louis which he received in 178 1,* re- 
 mained undiminished to the last. It must have been executed, at 
 
 ' Another boy was born later, as two sons survived their father. 
 
 ' May 14th, 1772, G. B. A., 1896, p. 314. 
 
 ' See Dumesnil, " L'Hist. des plus c^lebres Amateurs fran^as." 
 
 * This was in the de Goncourt collection. 
 
The earliest, only two years before Perronneau's death, which took place 
 
 Painters from fever at Amsterdam on the 19th November, 1783. 
 Portrait. From the declaration made to the Town Clerk, we find 
 
 that though Perronneau had for his burial only a pauper funeral, 
 he had died in a good quarter of the city. There, he had 
 been visited in his last hours by Mondonville fils, to whom he 
 communicated his last wishes, and Mondonville announced the 
 death to the Royal Academy and to the family. His widow, who 
 had the enjoyment of the Charonne house for her life, married — 
 in obedience to her husband's injundlions, before three months were 
 out — J. B. Claude Robin, a painter of some ability to whom Louis 
 had entrusted the execution of the plafond of the theatre at 
 Bordeaux,^ and who headed in 1790 the deputation of the " agrees," 
 claiming " le droit de faire corps et cause commune avec les 
 Academiciens."^ 
 
 To the end there is something enigmatic about Perronneau's 
 life and his family relations. There seems no doubt that he had 
 influential friends, and that if he had chosen to remain in Paris he 
 might have achieved a secure position. It even seems probable 
 that his frequent absences indisposed his critics ; Diderot, for 
 example, in his " Etat aftuel de la peinture," written in 1767, 
 contemptuously dismisses him with " Perronneau fut quelquechose." 
 Yet to this date we can refer some of his best work. His sitters 
 were of every class. Fine ladies, stars of the ballet, members of 
 the Academy, and the great men of the financial world are on the 
 list of those who passed through his studio. The letters of Robbe 
 de Beauveset,^ a would-be poet, to his uncle Desfriches show that 
 in 1758 and 1759 — that is precisely when Perronneau was absent- 
 ing himself constantly from Paris — he was in no need either of 
 employment or of consideration, and the pidure which he incident- 
 ally gives of his methods of work is entertaining : " Ce diable 
 de Perronneau exigea hier, de ma complaisance que j'endossasse la 
 
 ' Engraved by Noel le Mire. 
 
 ' See "Aae de partage," etc., etc. Tourneux, G. B. A., 1896, p. 406, P. V. 
 Jan. lOth, 1784, and "Affiches, Annonces," etc., Samedi, 10 Jan., 1784, p. 19; 
 in 4to, Bib., Nat. LC. 68, communicated to M. Reiset by Bellier de la Chavignerie. 
 See " Notice des dessins, &c., Mus6e du Louvre," p. 407. 
 
 3 Bachaumont says of him, July 3rd, 1762: "M. Robbe, ce poete 6rotique 
 ^galement licencieux et impie, mais dont le cerveau faible s'alt^rait dh qu'il lui survenait 
 quelque petite maladie, est enfin rendu a son 6tat naturel: 11 donne a corps perdu dans 
 le jans^nisme. C'est un Convulsionnaire entr6pide et un a£teur zel6 qui a besoin des 
 secours les plus abondants. II a passe par tous les etats ; il a iti assomm6, perci, 
 crucifix ; sa vocation est des plus decid^es." He is now only remembered by three 
 lines in the Dunciade referring to his satire " Le D6bauch6 Converti." See note, 
 p. 34. M6m. de Bachaumont, ed. P. L. Jacob and C. L., vol. ii., p. 297. 
 
 172 
 
Louis de Silvestre. By La Tour. 
 {Musee de Saint-Quentin.) 
 
casaque de soye de Mons. Cochin qui, pendant ce temps etait aux Rigaud, 
 noces de Mile. Jombert." Of his own portrait, which appears to ^fS'^" 
 have been a commission intended as a gift for his uncle, Robbc Nattier, 
 says, " Ma tete est d'un fini etonnant, pas le plus leger trait ne lui Tocque, 
 est echappe," and Perronneau's minute attention to details went so orouais 
 far as to impose the colour and cut of the coat. " L'habit de soye Latour, ' 
 bleu qu'il me taille releve on ne peut mieux la figure." The work Perron- 
 had been begun many years earlier, but just at this stage, when so other's, 
 far advanced that Robbe begins to warn his uncle that he experts 
 him to pay for the glass and frame in which it should appear at 
 the Salon : " quand je me donne, je me donne in puris naturalibus, 
 c'est a vous de faire les frais de ma friperie," Perronneau went off 
 on his travels leaving it unfinished. Only a chance meeting at the 
 Luxembourg in the following year procured its tardy completion : 
 " Son intention," says Robbe, " est de me pendre au Salon en regard 
 avec Mons. Cochin . . . vous y verrez aussi Vernet, qu'il a rendu 
 avec toute I'ame qu'y aurait mis La Tour."-^ 
 
 This portrait, which is now in the Musee d'Orleans, is of the 
 same class, though scarcely so fine a work, as M. Groult's " Jeune 
 Homme a la rose," the unknown fine gentleman of Bordeaux with the 
 two roses tucked beneath the lace of his cravat. In strong contrast 
 to the grace and elegance of this charming study is the magnificently 
 drawn half-length of the " fermier general," le Mas de Puysac, in 
 the colleftion of M. Jacques Doucet, robed in dull wine-coloured 
 velvet, and the air of fashion in the one, of wealth and consequence 
 in the other, is not better rendered than the objeftionable charafter of 
 the oily fat man, in a yellow waistcoat and lilac coat, whose uncom- 
 promising counterfeit belongs to the Princess Mathilde, or the look 
 of keen observation which stamps Perronneau's portrait of himself, 
 engraved by Laurent Cars ; or his even more admirable portrait of 
 Cars, engraved by Miger.^ If we compare Latour with Perronneau 
 we must agree with M. de Portalis that "malgre I'etonnante vivacite 
 d'execution de son rival et sa grande habilete a traiter les etofFes, 
 La Tour reste en realite au premier rang,"^ but if the crayons of 
 Perronneau do not seem, like those of that marvellous master, to 
 have borrowed their bloom from the wings of the butterfly, it 
 cannot be denied that in every example from his hand there are 
 evidences of a width of judgment, sobriety, and strength, and of a 
 
 ' Extradts from the correspondence of de Beauveset with Desfriches. See 
 Tourneux. Perronneau, G. B. A., i8g6, p. 138. 
 
 " That of himself is in the hands of M. Groult, that of Cars at the Louvre, 
 No. 1,247. 
 
 ' P. 444. "Exposition des pastellistes fran^ais," 1885. 
 
The 
 
 Painters 
 
 of 
 
 Portrait. 
 
 power of reading character which — at the service of a high intelli- 
 gence of his art — place Perronneau in the rank of those rare portrait 
 painters who cannot rest content with a mere superficial resemblance. 
 The art of pastel painting was not only ephemeral, but — even 
 in the hands of a genius like Latour — confined within limits so 
 narrow that those who were jealous of its vogue could maintain 
 with some show of fairness that a mere " peintre de portraits en 
 pastel" was insufficiently qualified for the honours of an academician. 
 Many men met this difficulty by giving proofs of skill in other 
 diredlions. Masse,-^ for example, engraved, and executed miniatures 
 in water colour as well as portraits in pastel, but both miniaturists 
 and pastel painters praftically limited themselves to what may be 
 called the " portrait d'appartement." They never attempted the 
 important landscape backgrounds, which are so often part of a 
 portrait by the painter in oil. Latour ventures now and again on 
 the useful break of a bit of sky, as in his portrait of Sylvestre, but 
 his most considerable effiDrts, his President de Rieu and his Mme. 
 de Pompadour, show us the sitters surrounded by all the circum- 
 stances of their indoor life, and more often than not the pastel 
 portrait received only a background of some helpful tint, which 
 gave a pleasant " effet estompe," a system which was also skilfully 
 employed in the miniatures of Hall.^ This reserve was perhaps 
 the less surprising if we consider the extreme formality with which 
 suggestions of landscape were then treated, as, for example, in the 
 "portraits histories" of Nattier and his immediate successors. The 
 limitations, indeed, which were voluntarily accepted by the pro- 
 fessional portrait-painter, the readiness with which he shut himself 
 within narrow bounds, no doubt influenced the attitude of others 
 towards him. In the Royal Academy he and the genre-painter 
 were classed with the engravers and alike held incapable of exer- 
 cising the funftions attached to the highest ranks of the official 
 body. To sculptors and historical painters the most honourable 
 posts were open. The distin6tions which conferred authority and 
 the onerous duties of the "corps enseignant" were equally forbidden 
 to the portrait-painter, whose ambition was checked by the " grade 
 de conseiller " beyond which he was forbidden to aspire. 
 
 ' See frequent references to Mass^ in the Correspondance de Natoire avec 
 Duchesne. Arch. I'A. fr., vol. ii. 
 
 ' See " Le Portrait Miniature en France," Henri Bouchot, G. B. A., 1893-94. 
 
 174 
 
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CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE TREATMENT OF LANDSCAPE: VERNET AND 
 
 LANTARA 
 
 LANDSCAPE, however popular with the artists of the day, The 
 was always treated by them in an absolutely conventional '^•'^^t- 
 spirit. Nature was regarded by the portrait painter only Land- 
 as " decor," as a means of relieving the costume of his sitter scape : 
 against pleasant shades of green and blue. Nor was the professional and^Lan- 
 portrait painter the worst offender in this respeft. To Franfois tara. 
 Desportes some suggestion of out-of-doors was the necessary 
 complement of the portrait of a " Chasseur," or a " Cerf aux abois 
 entoure d'une meute,"^ and so he puts in what does duty for a 
 landscape with just strength enough to support the masterly hand- 
 ling of his stag and dogs. Oudry — whose early work " Panthere 
 couchee dans sa cage " ^ shows us that he might have been a great 
 animal-painter had he so chosen — gives us his wonderful white 
 " Blanche " with brilliant skill, and disgraces her by her surround- 
 ings ; the sculptural dogs of his "Chasse au loup" run in a landscape 
 that has no existence, and his " Ferme " is a mere dead, dull pano- 
 rama.^ The masses of foliage in Lancret's " Grandval," the rose 
 bushes of Fragonard's " La Guimard," are as formal as if Watteau 
 had never painted the leafy glade of the " Concert " at Hertford 
 House, or the admirable landscapes of his " Amusements Cham- 
 petres," his " Plaisir Pastoral,"* and his " Vue prise dans le pare 
 de St. Cloud. "^ Yet, in the work of a man who loved "mummers," 
 as did Watteau, one would expedl to find, if anywhere, traces of the 
 
 ' Grenoble. Painted for Choisy, and signed, " Desportes, 1 742, age 82 ans." 
 
 ' No. 863, Nat. Gal. Stockholm. This work is signed and dated "J. B. Oudry, 
 1739." Engd. Basan. 
 
 ' Nos. 386, 387, 390, Cat. Mus6e Louvre. The "Blanche" is finer than the 
 examples in the Musee Cond6. 
 
 * CXI v., Ecole Franfaise, a Chantilly. s Madrid. 
 
 ^75 
 
The theatrical element. If, however, he took his friends away from the 
 
 Treat- boards, it was that he might breathe with them the free airs of 
 
 Land-° heaven; if he painted them, as he did again and again, by field and 
 
 scape. grove, he-treated their surroundings in conventions which embodied 
 
 a profound and personal appreciation of nature, coupled with a 
 
 sincerity which gives charm to work as simple as the sketch of a 
 
 village corner — possibly Nogent — in M. Bonnat's colledtion, or to 
 
 the minute rendering of the flowers and herbs which figure in a 
 
 foreground study in the Print Room of the British Museum. 
 
 Boucher treated landscape, as in " Le Moulin " at Hertford 
 House, with an evident view to the stage, and the same tendencies 
 are visible in the " Pastorals " of his pupil, Jean Baptiste Huet,^ 
 although he could draw a fox or a dog with true intention. Frago- 
 nard, except in his sketches, shows traces of the same theatrical 
 instinft. Lantara, it is true, took pleasure in the mere joys of earth 
 and sky, after the fashion which has developed in our modern school, 
 but the true interpreter of the taste of the day was not Lantara, but 
 Joseph Vernet,^ who attained a position only paralleled by the 
 extraordinary credit enjoyed in the previous century by Claude le 
 Lorrain. He had just that touch of scenic manner which pleased 
 his public, and in spite of his theatrical planes and theatrical illu- 
 mination and other conventions which are now out of date, there 
 is an element of healthy strength in his work which shows much 
 honest observation of nature. 
 
 Born and bred at Avignon, Vernet, at an early age, became 
 a capable assistant to his father Antoine, a skilful decorative 
 painter.^ He was but eighteen when the granddaughter of 
 Mme. de Sevigne, Mme. de Simiane, wrote to M. de Caumont, 
 who had ordered work from young Vernet for her hotel at Aix, 
 " M. Vernet est content et moy beaucoup de luy. Les dessus 
 de porte sont admirables, j'en ai pris douze." This letter bears 
 date Jan. 14th, 1732, the year in which Vernet, finding that 
 dessus de porte and the panels of sedan chairs offered an insufficient 
 field for his ambition, set out for Rome in the hope of becoming an 
 historical painter. The sight of the sea between Marseilles and 
 Civita Vecchia revealed his vocation, and on his arrival at his des- 
 tination he seems at once to have sought the teaching of Bernardino 
 Fergioni, a marine painter.* In Rome Vernet lived for twenty 
 
 ' 1745-1811. Ag., July 30th, 1768. R., July 29th, 1769, P. V. See "Les 
 Huet." C. Gabillot. 
 
 " 1714-1789. A., August 6th, 1746, R., August 23rd, 1753. 
 
 ' See " Joseph Vernet et la peinture au X VIII. Siecle," L6on Lagrange. 
 
 ' Mariette. 
 
 176 
 
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tara. 
 
 years, and in Rome he married.^ " Vernet peintre est a Rome," Vemet 
 says Bachaumont. " II excelle aux marines et aux sujets qui repre- ^"^ ^^"" 
 sentent des nuits, des clairs . . . ses paysages ressemblent un peu a 
 ceux de Salvator Rosa, par la touche, ainsi que les figures qu'il y 
 introduit;" but the freedom of gesture to which Vernet's life in 
 the south had accustomed his eyes, seemed strange to the more 
 sober Parisians. " M. Thibout," writes Robbe de Beauveset to 
 his uncle, *' vous attend comme Vernet fait les gens, je veux dire 
 les bras ouverts." 
 
 Though settled at Rome, Vernet had not abandoned the hope 
 of return to France. On three occasions he visited Marseilles, 
 where he is supposed to have encouraged the foundation of the 
 Academy. On one of these occasions, he was encountered by 
 Natoire, then on his way to take up the Diredtorship of the School 
 of France at Rome. " Nous avons fai la connoisance," writes 
 Natoire, " avec M. Vernet et la soua signora esposa que veramente 
 gratiosa. II et aussi a la veille de son depart pour Rome."^ But 
 this letter to Duchesne was written on Oftober 6th, 175 1, when 
 Vernet's position was secure, and Marigny was about to recall him 
 to France. 
 
 The early days had, of course, been hard. Vernet, like most 
 young men of gifts, had to sell, for what he could get, works which 
 in later years realized large sums. " Tel de ses ouvrages," says 
 Mariette, " dont il n'avoit pu avoir, etant a Rome, plus de cent 
 ecus, en a ete vendu mille." According to a story, probably 
 apocryphal,^ — although the reporter tells us that Vernet himself was 
 his authority for these anecdotes of his early days — the patronage 
 of a Cardinal laid the foundation of his fortune ; but it seems more 
 likely that the due de St. Aignan gave him his first important com- 
 mission at the suggestion of de Troy, for in 1739, seven years after 
 Vernet left Aix, we find him executing " Pour M. le Due de St. 
 Aignan un dessus de porte en clair de I'une pour faire pendant aux 
 trois autres que je luy ai deja fait. Deux tableaux representant un 
 I'arrivee de M. le Due a Civetta Vecchia et I'autre I'audiance publique 
 a Monte Cavallo. Un autre de la caravane au mont Vesuve et pour 
 pendant I'interieur de cette montagne. Six dessins a I'encre de Chine 
 fait d'appres nature suivent les vues qu'on m'a ordonne I'an 1739."^ 
 
 In such early works as these, and in early works only, can be 
 
 ' Virginia Parker, daughter of Captain Paricer, an Englishman settled in Rome. 
 ^ Letter, Odober 6th, 1751. A. de I'A. fr., vol. ii., p. 262. 
 ' See Lagrange, p. 25, on the letter by M. Pitra, published in the "Correspond- 
 ance littdraire de Grimm et Diderot," December, 1789. 
 * Lagrange, p. 322. 
 
 177 A A 
 
The traced that rough resemblance to Salvator Rosa which is noted by 
 
 Treat- Bachaumont. Vernet loved nature too well not to have had per- 
 Land- sonal predileftions to express, and long before the call to France 
 scape. came he had won general admiration by the pi6torial art with 
 which he rendered his favourite effefts of atmosphere. " Agree " 
 by the Royal Academy in 1746, Vernet had sent to the Salons of 
 Paris a series of marines — Calms, Storms and Moonlights — which 
 had established his reputation, English names are amongst the 
 first to appear on his list of "commandes," for " M. Dania, Anglois," 
 orders " un tableau en rochers, cascade, etc.," in 1738. The 
 Queen of Spain demands "la vue de Caprarola" in 1745 ; Frederick 
 the Great ordered work in 1748; Philip Bouchardon gave two 
 commissions, probably for the Court of Sweden, in the following 
 year ; ^ two pictures were ordered by Mme. de Pompadour for the 
 King in 1750 ;^ and in 1753 came, with his reception by the 
 Academy, his crowning successes in the Salon, and the famous 
 royal order for the " Ports de mer de France," widely known 
 through the engravings of Cochin and Lebas.^ 
 
 We have a complete journal of Vernet's movements whilst 
 painting this famous series, now in the Louvre, in his " Livres de 
 Raison." There should have been twenty subje6ls, but fifteen only 
 were completed.* Vernet lost heavily by their execution, although, 
 as he himself admitted, he was paid, with exceptional regularity, 
 the 6,ooolt. agreed on as the price of each pi6ture. " J'ay toujours 
 observe," he says in a letter to Marigny, dated from Avignon, 
 September 6th, 1756, " I'exaftitude avec laquelle j'ay ete paye des 
 Guvrages que j'ay fait pour le Roy ; je pense etre le seul qui lesoit 
 aussi exailement."^ Even thus it is calculated that he had been 
 able to earn at Rome as much as i8,ooolt. by work which, ex- 
 pended on his royal commission, brought him in but 5,ooolt.^ 
 Nor were the conditions under which he worked extremely pleas- 
 ant : Marigny was a hard task-master. Underpaid, and suffering 
 miserably from the hardships of life in the port of Cette, Vernet 
 
 ' Rev. Univ. des Arts, vol. vi., p. 107. 
 
 ' She had originally desired four, but her brother took toll of two, for which he 
 seems to have paid by giving Vernet lodgings in the Louvre. See letter to Vernet, 
 December 9th, 1791, Paul Bonnefon, " Autour de Horace Vernet," Chron., May 7th, 
 1898. 
 
 ' A. de I'A. fr., vol. iv., p. 139. 
 
 * Mariette says but thirteen. Vernet's works, as may be expefted, are by no 
 means uncommon. Besides fine examples in many private colleftions, the important 
 series in the Musee de Montpellier may be specially mentioned. Mon. Civ. Pro., vol. 
 i., p, 237. He had many pupils and imitators, whose work may often be taken for 
 that of their master. 
 
 ' Lagrange, p. 150. ' /*/'</., note B. 
 
 178 
 

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proposed to carry out his pi6ture at Bordeaux from the studies Vemet 
 which he had made on the spot. Marigny at once refused per- f^^g^^^"" 
 mission, " Quelque envie que j'aye de vous procurer dans vos 
 travaux tous les agrements possibles, je ne puis consentir au desir 
 que vous aves, apres vos etudes faittes de ce port de finir votre 
 tableau a Bordeaux, et je crois devoir vous faire observer que le 
 Roy paye vos tableaux de fa9on a exiger de vous que vous leur 
 donnes toutte la perfeftion possible, et que ne sauries mieux les finir 
 que sur les lieux. Ainsy je compte que vous acheverez votre tableau 
 du port de Cette a Cette meme, d'autant que de tous les ports du 
 royaume c'est le seul dont le sejour ne soit pas agreable et vous 
 n'aurez que quelques mois a vous priver des commodites que vous 
 n'y trouveres pas." Marigny also had views as to the style in 
 which the " Ports " should be depifted. He objected to the selec- 
 tion of pidlorial motives, and added much to Vernet's difficulties by 
 insisting that stress should be laid solely or principally on features 
 which denoted their maritime importance.^ 
 
 For ten years Vernet was unceasingly engaged in this, his 
 most important work. A short stay in Paris,^ after two years spent 
 in Toulon, enabled him to renew his touch of the general public, 
 but he promptly returned to the South. At Bordeaux, in 1758, 
 his son Carle was born ; the next station was Bayonne, but the 
 prescribed itinerary — successfully carried out so far — prattically 
 ended in 1762 with La Rochelle, whence Vernet had to visit 
 Rochefort, in order to make studies for his picture of that port, 
 then supposed to be menaced by the English fleet, which also 
 rendered work at Lorient, Brest, or St. Malo impossible. Belle 
 Isle had fallen into the hands of the enemy, Calais and Le Havre 
 were free, but the situation of public affairs distradted all interest 
 from a projedt originally begun under different auspices. Vernet 
 seized the occasion to betake himself with his family to Paris, and 
 the series came to an end in 1763 with the Port de Dieppe. " Les 
 ports de mer ... en sont restes la faute d'argent," says Mariette, 
 but he adds, " Cela lui a du etre assez indifferent et est meme 
 tourne a son avantage." 
 
 In Paris, Vernet seems to have been very well received, and 
 we find in his journal the most methodical entry of the houses at 
 which he was free to dine or sup.^ Eager admirers flocked to the 
 
 ' A, de I'A. fr., vol. iv., p. 153. ' June 15th to Odober fth, 1755. 
 
 ' " On soupe chez M. de la Frete tous les mardy et vendredy. — M. I'Abb^ 
 Terray ne dine pas chez lui les jeudy, vendredy et dimanche. — M. Rollin dine chez lui 
 le mardy, le jeudy et le dimanche. — M. de la Rayniere le vendredy et le mercredy . . . 
 — I'ambassadeur d'Espagne tous les jours surtout le dimanche." 
 
 179 
 
The lodgings which, after a short halt in the " Maison neuve de St. 
 
 Treat- Sulpice," he occupied in the Louvre, where his near neighbours 
 
 Land- were Chardin, le Guay, Jacques Roettiers, Cochin and Desportes. 
 
 scape. Vernet's patrons, says Mariette, filled his pockets with gold. All 
 the well known names appear on his list — M. de Julienne, the 
 marquis d'Argenson, the dues de la Rochefoucauld, and de 
 Luynes, de Grammont, and de Liancour, but M. de la Borde, 
 banquier de la Cour, distinguished himself above others, paying 
 Vernet 4o,ooolt. for eight paintings which decorated La Ferte, 
 and which " ont ete faits en un clin d'ceil." Many, too, were the 
 commissions which he received from the King and from Mme. 
 Dubarry, for whom he worked both at Versailles and at Luciennes.^ 
 To their names we may add those of the King of Poland, of the 
 Prince desAsturies, the Elector Palatine,and"M.le Comptedu Nord 
 ou le Grand Due de touttes les Russies." No patron is, however,quite 
 so magnificent as the Empress herself, who orders, as Vernet notes 
 with pride, " un grand tableau. Je suis le maitre de lamesure, des 
 sujets et du prix." Nor must we forget " Milord Mountralh " of 
 Grosvenor Square, " M. Windem," " Milord Aigremont," and 
 Milords St. Jean, Milton, Charlemont, Pembroke, Dartmouth, 
 Schelburn, the " due de Bridswater," and the "chevalier Fesheston- 
 Haugh," " Mrs. Shukborgh," and " Lady Walpol," who gave her 
 commission personally, in 1755, as she passed through Toulon. His 
 vogue with the English was so great that he could not execute the 
 quantity of works for which he received orders. Mme. GeofFrin, 
 to whose salon Vernet was immediately made welcome, com- 
 missioned him to paint, in 1764, a "Wild landscape with rocks 
 and mountains," for " Milord Temistocle," in whom we recognise 
 Lord Tavistock, and amongst other conspicuous names we note 
 that of Garrick, of Henry Hoare, Fleet Street, who also orders, for 
 Lord Arundell, in 1771, a "Clair de lune et une Tempeste de 
 mer," of John Sargent, M.P., and of Hogarth's brother-in-law. Sir 
 J. Thornhill, who is entered for four paintings, which on January 
 14th, 1766, are " promis pour un an d'appresent." 
 
 In Vernet's " Livres de Raison " — begun in 1735 and con- 
 tinuing down to 1788 — which are preserved at the Bibliotheque 
 d'Avignon, we have a complete source of information both for the 
 details of his work and the incidents of his life. Orders for pi6tures, 
 accounts, receipts for driving off mosquitoes, or for blacking shoes, 
 are jumbled up in their pages with entries of engagements, or ad- 
 dresses, with drafts of letters and such notes as " M. Berieu a com- 
 
 ' A. de I'A. fr., vol. iii., pp. 333-364, "No. 247 Commandes." Lagrange. Ex. 
 Salon, 1773. See also "Catalogue du Musee du Louvre." 
 
 180 
 
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mence a montrer a danser a Mme. Vernet," or " le parfrennier du Vernet 
 due de Chartres, a commence a avoir soin du cheval de Carle." ^"^ ^^"' 
 This inchoate mass of material has been grouped by M. Lagrange 
 in three divisions : the first gives us a chronological list of Vernet's 
 work ; the second forms a journal of his life and that of his family, 
 whilst a third, " Les Adresses," shows us something of the world 
 in which he lived. He did not shine in conversation, if we may 
 judge by the specimen preserved in the Correspondence of Grimm 
 and Diderot.^ Music seems to have been his delight and great 
 distraction.^ His friendship with Pergolese, who is said to have 
 written his " Stabat " in Vernet's studio, was a feature of his life in 
 Rome, and we get the pleasantest imaginable pifture of life in the 
 art world of Paris when Madame Vernet, Nattier's two daughters, 
 Mme. Challe and Mme. Tocque, and the two Mmes. Coustou met 
 regularly for music at Carle van Loo's on the invitation of his wife, 
 who was a daughter of the musician Sommis. Musical evenings 
 were varied by excursions to Sevres or to St. Cloud, whilst the New 
 Year brought with it the picnic " Souper des dames " in the galleries 
 of the Louvre. 
 
 But Mme. Vernet's health became a constant source of anxiety, 
 and at last her reason gave way. To the household disorder and 
 expense occasioned by this calamity was added the drain of numer- 
 ous poor relations, and thus Vernet, towards the close of his career, 
 found his means much straitened, although at one time (1775) he 
 had been in possession of a fortune of more than 28,ooolt. a year.^ 
 In 1779 we find him gratefully acknowledging the favours con- 
 ferred on him, when he succeeded to a royal pension vacated by 
 the death of the sculptor Adam and, in the same year, he sold 
 " trois tabatieres d'or, celle de Madame GeofFrin et celle de Madame 
 d'Egmont iiool. et celle de Madame de la Frete 16 louis 384 1., 
 ce qui fait 1,4841.," but this sale does not seem to have been caused 
 by want of money, and the inventory of his goods taken when he 
 died in 1789,* indicated that if his circumstances were no longer 
 those of great affluence, he had clearly not been overtaken by the 
 horrible poverty in which so many of his contemporaries ended 
 their days. 
 
 His second son, the well-known Carle Vernet,^ married Fanny 
 
 ' " La proportion colossale," continua I'artiste, " me d6plait, et je voudrais que le 
 statuaire ne fit jamais plus grand que nature," C. L., vol. iii., p. 204. 
 ' See Diderot, Salon 1765. Also Lagrange, pp. 139 and 255. 
 ' See " Finances. Argent qui j'ay plac6" (1775). Lagrange, p. 426. 
 ' Scelle, Dec. 3rd, 1 789. 
 
 ' See Paul Bonnefon, " Autour de Horace Vernet," Chron., G. B. A., 1898. 
 
 181 
 
The 
 Treat- 
 ment of 
 Land- 
 scape. 
 
 Moreau, the daughter of Moreau le Jeune, and became the father 
 of the more celebrated Horace. He had early shown that passion 
 for the sketch book and the horse which characterised his whole 
 career. The pages of the " Livres de Raison " shows his father's 
 pride in his talent and close interest in his smallest concerns. Per- 
 haps the most striking feature of Vernet's character was his constant 
 solicitude for the well being of everyone connected with him — not 
 only his children, his son Livio, the more promising Carle, the 
 beloved daughter Emilie, who became the wife of Chalgrin, and 
 whose unhappy death on the scaffold her father did not live to see — 
 but every member of his family, every one who had rendered him 
 the smallest service, could count on his generosity and gentle con- 
 sideration. For the maintenance of his unfortunate wife he made 
 the most liberal provision, but the tenderness of his care for her is 
 best indicated by an entry in November, 1785, of" tourte et com- 
 missionaire pour ma femme " when she had been more than ten 
 years separated from him, " a cause de demence," and on every 
 page of his note books we find the significant words, " envoye a ma 
 scoeur " or " prete a mon neveu." 
 
 Of the twenty-two children of Antoine Vernet, Joseph himself 
 had alone attained any measure of worldly success. His brother- 
 in-law, Honore Guibert, to whom we owe the finest work in the 
 Petit Trianon, seems to have succeeded in establishing an indepen- 
 dent position in Paris, but his brother, Fran9ois Vernet, though by 
 no means without talent, led a miserable existence. He was the 
 painter of the four panels (marines) of the sedan chair of Marie 
 Antoinette ; she had employed him in her private apartments at 
 Versailles ; he had also painted in the " Salle de I'Opera " and the 
 " salle a manger " at Choisy,^ but all this work remained long un- 
 paid, it is indeed more than likely that much of it was never paid 
 in full. Many months after his death the elder Vernet writes, 
 " souvenir pour mon frere. II est du chez la Reine 645I. De la 
 Tribune 802I." On Joseph Vernet fell the burden of his support, 
 and that of his numerous family, nor were the widow and her chil- 
 dren allowed to suffer want. 
 
 The work of Vernet, in spite of its personal chara6ter, con- 
 tributed little to the development of modern landscape art, but it 
 expressed with admirable felicity the pictorial sentiment of his day. 
 The great tempera landscapes of Poussin, in the Palazzo Doria, are 
 far nearer to the spirit in which we now regard natural objedts than 
 the gracious calms or blustering storms of Vernet. As a lad at 
 Avignon he may have loved the land for its own beauty, but the 
 
 ' Lagrange, p. 238. 
 182 
 
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days in Rome, spent with Solimena and Panini, set on him an Vcmct 
 
 indelible stamp. Their influence accorded with the decorative ^"^ ^^"" 
 
 instindt which he had inherited from his father, and, coupled with 
 
 his ambition to become an historical painter, determined the final 
 
 charafler of his art. In the first place, like a true decorator, what 
 
 he looked for was colour. In the notes which he made on his 
 
 drawings, as in that for his picture of Antibes, we get indications 
 
 of the finest shades and of the gradations of each hue in shadow.^ 
 
 He sees the mountains gray-azure ; the sea a darker ash-gray, with 
 
 a dash of violet ; the yellow-green of the mulberry trees and the gray 
 
 of the olives are told off from the light bluish-green of the pines. 
 
 But these exadt indications, which are so exaft that we can see 
 
 Antibes before us as he writes them, are to him notes only of the 
 
 decor of his pidlure. " Others," he would say, " may know better 
 
 how to paint the sky, the earth, the waves, no one knows better 
 
 how to paint a pidlure." He could not conceive a scene except as 
 
 a background for the play of human interests, and therefore peopled 
 
 his foregrounds with groups studied in as stridl compliance with 
 
 academic rules as if in each instance he had been competing for 
 
 the Grand Prix. 
 
 From this subjedtion Vernet never emancipated himself, and 
 so we find M. Robert de Montesquiou, his latest critic, denying to 
 him any touch of genius. " C'est a un Canaletto sans genie que 
 font penser ce port de Toulon, ce port de Marseille de Joseph 
 Vernet. Sans genie encore ces Corot. . . . Hubert Robert sans 
 genie dans ce tout de meme joli tableau des Lavandieres, au groupe 
 agreable, mais surtout, parmi tant de tempetes de carton et de clairs 
 de lune en tole entre tant de soleils levants ou couchants aux tons 
 de coing, Claude Lorrain sans genie !"^ Here we have, perhaps, 
 the truth, but it is truth with a very acid flavour, and we may still 
 be grateful to the old painter who enlivened his perspective of 
 Toulon with figures so witty that they recall the pencil of Cochin, 
 and who furnished themes so favourable to the lucid and brilliant 
 burin of an engraver such as Balechou. 
 
 To France Vernet had returned too late ever to see French 
 landscape, if, indeed, he ever had the time necessary to renew his 
 store of impressions. Once or twice he notes " belles sites a voir," 
 but he carried in his mind a measure by which all were tested. 
 He is said to have known Lantara,^ and even to have added figures 
 to some of his works, but these I have never succeeded in identify- 
 
 ' Note B, Lagrange. ' " Les trois Vernet," G. B. A,, 1899, p. 80. 
 
 ' 1729-1778. 
 183 
 
The ing, nor do I find Lantara's name in the pages of the " Livres de 
 
 men^*of R^ison." It is scarcely likely that there can have been any inti- 
 
 Land- macy between them. " Lantara," says M. Charles Blanc, " est un 
 
 scape. de ceux qui ont acquis un nom en France uniquement parcequ'ils 
 
 ont vecu au cabaret et sont morts a I'hopital ;" but his biographer, 
 
 M. Bellier de la Chavignerie, maintains that there was nothing 
 
 disgraceful in the laziness and love of good cheer for which Lantara 
 
 was noted ; and the " Paysage ; effet du matin " of the Louvre 
 
 honourably asserts the claims of his simple talent, little known and 
 
 long forgotten. 
 
 " II faisait volontiers," said M. A. Lenoir, " un paysage pour 
 un gateau d'amandes ; " and his weakness was so well known that 
 it furnished the subjedl of a one ad: play, entitled, " Lantara ou le 
 peintre au Cabaret," which was brought out at the Vaudeville in 
 1809. The habits which he had acquired in early youth stuck to 
 him through life. The son of a weaver at Oncy, he had been em- 
 ployed as a herd-boy by the father of M. Gille de Reumont, and 
 whilst engaged in this occupation attra<5led the attention of his 
 master. Brought forward by him, after having received some 
 teaching from a painter at Versailles, Lantara's abilities found ready 
 recognition, but the constraint of a regular life and the society of 
 wealthy patrons was unbearable to him, and he escaped on more 
 than one occasion from the houses of rich amateurs who would 
 have had him paint under their own eyes, to consort with workers 
 of a humbler class with whom he had made friends. The obvious 
 explanation is that, like Burns and others of his class, Lantara was 
 only at ease in low company, but it is incomplete. Lantara painted 
 for his own pleasure. In love with the warm light and delicate 
 air which denotes bright outdoor weather, his simple rendering of 
 the familiar scenes of his own land has a sincerity which atones for 
 uncertain draughtmanship and lack of that conscientious execution 
 which he might have gained from a sounder training. Training, 
 though, would not have given him the feeling which clothes his 
 " Effet du matin " Mn the veritable haze of dawn. This picture, signed 
 and dated 176 1, is a fair example of Lantara's work, but such exam- 
 ples are not common. He does not seem to have produced much. 
 Careless of the future, he usually lived, as long as he could, on 
 the proceeds of his last sale, and if sickness came upon him 
 took refuge in the hospital, for, as Watteau said, " on n'y refuse 
 personne." In the hospital Lantara died. In the morning of Dec. 
 2nd, 1778, he entered " La Charite," where he had previously 
 been kindly cared for ; six hours later he had passed away. 
 
 ' This picture figures in the Louvre Catalogue, but is no longer hung. 
 
 184 
 
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Such a man as Lantara was little likely to make a marked place Vemet 
 in the world of his own day, but his work has, nevertheless, apart ^"^ ^^"^ 
 from its own merits, a certain historical interest. Alone, amongst 
 those who treated landscape in his time, Lantara habitually went to 
 nature with dired:ness and simplicity, and rejefted those favourite 
 elements of composition — Greek ruins and mythological personages. 
 His contemporary, Hubert Robert,^ belonged wholly to the official 
 world, and was strongly influenced by Vernet and by the school 
 which had produced Vernet. In all his large works, such as the 
 fine series in the Louvre which was opened by his diploma work, 
 "Le Portde Ripetta,"^ the scenic element, accompanied by a strong 
 vein of archasological interest, is predominant, and, in spite of 
 brilliant lighting, masterly treatment of the sky, and general work- 
 manlike excellence of execution, it becomes wearisome except in 
 works fulfilling, as do the four fine panels of the dining room of 
 La Muette, the decorative purpose for which they were intended. 
 The remarkable example in the collection of M. Leopold Gold- 
 schmidt — to which some admirable groups of figures were added by 
 Boucher — shows precisely the same tendencies ; it is only in rela- 
 tively unimportant studies, such, for instance, as three brilliant 
 sketches of the little Trianon^ with a sparkle of figures on a back- 
 ground of foliage and sunlit trees, that he ventures on that freer in- 
 terpretation which may justify us in regarding him to some extent 
 as, like Lantara, a forerunner of the school which developed itself 
 in the following century. 
 
 Even in work by Hubert Robert, which has been most plainly 
 influenced by Vernet, there is, however, more than one sign of 
 change and difference to be noted. The groups of figures which 
 Vernet introduces into his piftures have nearly always some 
 dramatic signification — the gates of the chateaux fly open to wel- 
 come the bridegroom and his bride, his sea-coasts are dreadful with 
 all the incidents of shipwreck, or his landscape is alive with hurry- 
 ing groups affrighted by the angry flames of a neighbouring con- 
 flagration. No such exciting activities disturb the purely decorative 
 intention of themes treated by Hubert Robert. The figures, fre- 
 quently added — according to the common practice of the day — by 
 a stranger hand, pursue the most peaceful avocations, or do nothing, 
 in poses which have an agreeable relation with the general lines of 
 the composition. 
 
 The present school of landscape painters hold as a main tenet 
 that all figures must be treated as a part of the landscape subjedt : 
 
 ' 1733-1808. R. 1766. " No longer hung. 
 
 ' Colleaion of M. Groult. 
 
 185 BB 
 
The 
 
 Treat- 
 ment of 
 Land- 
 scape. 
 
 Vernet, Hubert Robert, Lantara, and all their contemporaries 
 regarded them always as additions — independent objedts staged on 
 a background which was handled in a totally different style. This 
 system lent itself readily to the putting in of figures by different 
 hands — Boucher and Fragonard embellish the canvases of Hubert 
 Robert, and Taunay ^ and Demarne,^ who with rare exceptions both 
 used landscape as a background only, to be decorated with groups 
 of figures or animals, perform a like office for Lantara. Leprince ^ 
 sometimes contented himself, in early drawings, executed before 
 his Russian tour, with pure landscape subject, but he treats it, as 
 might be expefted from a pupil of Boucher, in a decorative spirit. 
 Scarcely anyone cared to paint pure landscape, and trust to the 
 charm of nature without the introdu6lion of some element of human 
 interest. Now and again, in provincial museums, we may come 
 across the works of a humble artist such as Lazare Bruandet,* " un 
 peintre de paysage," as Wille truly says, "qui a du merite," but he 
 made even less mark on his day than Lantara, and for the most part 
 landscape studies, even by reputed landscape painters, were made 
 chiefly to serve as a canvas on which to embroider appropriate 
 themes. 
 
 We hear, from Wille also, that the " paysages de M. Louther- 
 bourg de Strasburg " ^ " furent trouves charmants " by the members 
 of the Royal Academy. " Je me levay," he adds, " de ma place 
 pour courir I'embrasser et I'introduire dans I'Assemblee," but 
 Loutherbourg was wholly insensible to the spell of our present 
 conception of landscape, and he very soon sought for livelier matter 
 than that by which he had won his great success at twenty-two. 
 As for Fran9ois Casanova, on whose " maniere de peindre " Vernet 
 himself made careful notes, although we find him described in all 
 the dictionaries as " peintre de paysages et de batailles," his work 
 shows that he understood and treated landscape almost invariably as 
 a background for those " Reconnoissances de cavalerie," or " Com- 
 bats de cavalerie," with which we associate his chief successes. 
 
 After having fallen into absolute discredit, the art of the 
 eighteenth century has now, in some respedls, more than recovered 
 
 * 1 735-1830. ' 1 744-1 829. 
 
 ' Leprince is so much more interesting as a draughtsman and engraver than as a 
 painter that I have reserved the notice of his work, together with that of the great 
 group of draughtsmen and brilliant designers amongst whom Gravelot and Moreau 
 occupy the first rank, for a volume in which I hope to speak of the " Engravers and 
 Designers of the Eighteenth Century " at a future date. 
 
 * 1 754-1 804. See "Vue prise dans la foret de Fontainebleau," No. 53, Mus6e 
 Louvre. 
 
 * 1740-1814. R. 22nd Aug., 1767. 
 
 186 
 
the position to which it is entitled. I say, more than recovered, Vemet 
 advisedly, for the revolution in taste which at first fastened on the ^^'^ ^^"" 
 enchanting art of Watteau, the brilliant decorations of Boucher 
 and Fragonard, the beautiful honesty of Chardin, which singled out 
 from among the " little masters " draughtsmen such as Gravelot 
 and Moreau le jeune, has ended by lifting to equal heights the 
 tribe of graceful, skilful artists " qui voient mal ce qu'ils rendent 
 bien," of whom Baudouin stands first and chief. 
 
 Honourable and noble drawings from the life — such as even 
 Boucher could give us on occasion — are infinitely delightful ; 
 genuine passion, even touched as Fragonard has touched it in " Le 
 Verrou," need not offend ; but what shall we say of the little frigid 
 full-dress indecencies which give a fictitious value, in the eyes of 
 certain amateurs, to a class of drawings which would otherwise rank 
 as mere well-executed fashion-plates? Works such as "L'Heureux 
 moment" and " Le Repentir tardif" by Nicolas Lavreince, which 
 we have recently seen exciting the keenest competition at the sale 
 of the Miihlbacher colleftion, might well lead the least illiberal to 
 sympathise with the intolerant crusade of David and his allies. 
 Unfortunately, under the pretence of seeking a higher ideal, David 
 and his friends impoverished the technical resources and the just 
 means of genuine artistic expression. The fatal bias towards 
 archsBology, which, at that date, perverted so many brilliant tem- 
 peraments, was marked in David, and contributed to bring under his 
 influence those to whom the poetic vision of Prud'hon, his elegance 
 of form and tenderness of modelling, appealed in vain. The revela- 
 tion which was offered by Prud'hon's gracious art was neglefted, 
 and, ruled by David, the French School was once more led into that 
 very rut of academic tradition, from which it had supposed itself 
 on the way to escape, and from which it was tardily delivered in 
 the following century by the magnificent efforts of Delacroix and 
 the Romantists. 
 
 187 
 
Fete Champetre. By Pater. 
 {Jones Bequest, South Kensington Museum.) 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 LIST OF WORKS EXHIBITED AT THE SALON 
 
 BY . 
 
 Baudouin, Pierre- Antoine. 
 
 Boucher, Francois. 
 
 Chardin, Jean-Baptiste-Simeon. 
 
 Drouais, Francois-Hubert. 
 
 Fragonard, Jean-Honore. 
 
 Greuze, Jean-Baptiste. 
 
 Lancret, Nicolas. 
 
 Latour, Maurice-Quentin de. 
 
 Loo, Carle van. 
 
 Nattier, Jean-Marc. 
 
 Perronneau, Jean-Baptiste. 
 
 T0CQ.UE, Louis. 
 
 Troy, Francois de. 
 
 Vernet, Claude- Joseph. 
 
 Extrafted from " Expositions du XVIII. Sidcle," par J. J. GuifFrey. The irregu- 
 larities of spelling have been reproduced : 
 
 BAUDOUIN (PIERRE-ANTOINE). Pierre- 
 
 1763 Un Pretre, cat^chisant de jeunes Filles. Tableau a gouasse. P 
 
 Plusieurs Portraits et autres Ouvrages en miniature, sous le meme No. douin. 
 
 1765 Plusieurs petits sujets et portraits en miniature sous le meme numdro. 
 Plusieurs petits Tableaux a gouasse. 
 Un Confessional. 
 
 Les Enfans Trouvds ; dans I'Eglise de Notre-Dame. 
 Une jeune fille querellde par sa m^re. 
 Plusieurs Portraits a gouasse. Sous le meme numdro. 
 1767 Le Coucher de la Marine. 
 
 Le Sentiment de I'Amour et de la Nature cedant pour un temps a la Ndcessitd. 
 Tableaux peints a gouasse. 
 
 189 
 
List of 
 works ex- 
 hibited at 
 the Salon. 
 
 1767 Huits petits tableaux en miniature repr&entant une suite de la Vie de la Sainte 
 
 Vierge. 
 Le premier Feuillet du Volume des Epitres et Evangiles, command^ pour le 
 
 service de la Chapelle du Roi, par M. de Fontanieu, Conseiller d'Etat 
 
 Intendant G^n^ral des meubles de la Couronne. 
 Plusieurs portraits et autres sujets peints a gouasse et en miniature sous le meme 
 
 num^ro. 
 1769 Plusieurs feuillets du Livre de I'Epitre et de celui de I'Evangile, destines pour 
 
 la Chapelle du Roi. 
 Le Module honnete. 
 Autre tableau a gouasse. Sous le meme no. 
 
 1740 
 
 1742 
 
 BOUCHER (FRAN(;;OIS). 
 
 1737 Quatre tableaux ceintr^s, repr^sentant divers sujets champetres. 
 Deux petits Ovales, repr6sentant les quatre Saisons. 
 
 1738 Un tableau chantourn6 representant Venus, qui descend de son Char soutenue 
 
 de I'Amour, pour entrer au Bain. 
 Un Tableau representant I'education de I'Amour par Mercure. 
 
 1739 Un grand Tableau en largeur de 14 pieds sur 10 de haut, representant Psichd 
 
 conduite par Zephire dans le palais de I'Amour. Ce tableau doit etre 
 
 execute en Tapisserie pour le Roy, a la Manufadlure de Beauvais. 
 Un tableau de forme Chantourn6, dessus de porte, pour I'Hotel de Soubise 
 
 representant I'Aurore et Cephale. 
 Un Paysage ou paroit un Moulin. 
 Un Tableau en largeur de 5. pieds sur 4. de haut, representant la naissance de 
 
 Venus, ou cette Deesse paroit sortir du sein des Eaux avec les Graces, ac- 
 
 compagn^e des Tritons, des Nereides, et des Amours. 
 Autre de meme grandeur, repr&entant une Forest. 
 Un Paisage aussi de pareille grandeur, ou I'on voit un Moulin. 
 Un petit Tableau en largeur de 2 pieds et demi sur 2 de haut, representant un 
 
 Repos de Diane, sortant du Bain avec une de ses Compagnes. 
 Autre, de meme grandeur, representant un Paysage d'apr^s nature, des environs 
 
 de Beauvais. 
 Un Esquisse de Paysage en largeur de 3 pieds sur 2, representant le Hameau 
 
 d'Isse, qui doit etre executee en grand pour I'Opera. 
 Huit Esquisses de difFerens sujets Chinois, pour etre executez en Tapisseries a 
 
 la Manufadture de Beauvais; designes sous le meme Numero. 
 Autre, representant une Leda. 
 Autre, Un Paysage de la Fable de Frere Luce. 
 1743 Un Tableau ovale, representant la naissance de Venus. 
 
 Son pendant de meme forme. Venus a sa Toilette, sortant du bain. 
 
 Un Tableau Chantourne, de 6 pieds de largeur sur pareille hauteur, repre- 
 sentant la Muse Clio, qui preside a I'histoire et a I'eioge des grands 
 Hommes : elle est representee assise, ecrivant sur un grand Livre support^ 
 par les ailes du temps, regardant les Bustes et Medaillons des Heros, places 
 au Temple de Memoire. 
 
 Autre de meme forme faisant Pendant, represente la Muse Melpomene : elle 
 preside a la Tragedie ; c'est pourquoy on la represente tenant d'une main 
 une Epee ou Poignard ensanglante ; et de I'autre des Sceptres et des 
 Couronnes. 
 
 190 
 
1743 Autre repr^sentant un Pa'isagc, ou paroit un Moulin a eau ; et une Femme Frangois 
 donnant a manger a des Poules. Boucher. 
 
 Son Pendant repr^sente une vieille Tour, et sur le devant des Blanchisseuses. 
 Autre petit Paisage de forme chantournee reprisentant un vieux Colombier, et 
 un espece de Pont ruin6, sur lequel est une Femme et son enfant qui 
 regarde un Pescheur, 
 174s Un Tableau chantourni, reprdsentant un sujet pastoral. 
 Un Esquisse a gouasse, reprdsentant Venus sur les Eaux. 
 Plusieurs Desseins sous le meme Numero. 
 
 1 746 Un Tableau de forme chantournee, reprdsentant I'Eloquence avec ses Attributs. 
 Son Pendant de meme forme, reprdsente TAstronomie. Ces deux Tableaux 
 
 sont placez dans le Cabinet des Mddailles a la Bibliotheque du Roy. 
 Autre de forme ovale repr6sentant Venus qui ordonne a Vulcain des Armes 
 pour Ende. Tir6 de I'Eneide de Virgile. 
 
 1747 Un Tableau ovale, reprdsentant les Forges de Vulcain. Ce Tableau est 
 
 destin6 pour la Chambre a coucher du Roy a Marly. 
 Deux Pastorales, aussi en forme ovale ; sous le meme No. 
 Un Tableau Esquisse en grisaille, reprdsentant un sujet alldgorique d'une Th6se 
 
 dddide a Monseigneur le Dauphin. 
 
 1 748 Un Tableau ovale, reprdsentant un Berger qui montre a joiier de la Flute a sa 
 
 Bergere. 
 Autre petit carr6, repr6sentant une Nativitd. 
 1750 Un Tableau en hauteur de 5 pieds et demi sur environ 4 de large, reprdsentant 
 une Nativit6 ou Adoration des Bergers, pour la Chapelle du Chateau de 
 Belle Vue. 
 Quatre Pastorales de forme ovale ; la premiere reprdsente deux Amans surpris 
 dans les Bleds ; la seconde, un Berger accordant sa Musette prds de sa 
 Bergere ; la troisidme, le Sommeil d'une Bergere, a laquelle un Rustaud 
 apporte des Fleurs de la part de son Berger, et la quatridme, un Berger qui 
 montre a joiier da la Flute a sa Bergere ; sous le meme No. 
 Deux Paysages d'environ 2 pieds et demi, ornds de Figures sur le devant, 
 appartenans a M. Langlois ; aussi sous le meme No. 
 1753 Deux grands Tableaux en hauteur de onze pieds sur neuf de large, sous le 
 meme No. dont I'un reprdsente le Lever du Soleil, et I'autre le Coucher. 
 Ces Tableaux doivent s'executer en Tapisserie, a le Manufacture Royale 
 des Gobelins, pour les Sieurs Cozette et Audran. 
 Quatre Tableaux sous le meme No. representans les quatre Saisons, figurdes 
 par des Enfans. Ces Tableaux sont destines pour le Plafond de la Sale du 
 Conseil a Fontainebleau. 
 Deux Pastorales dessus de Porte, du Chiteau de Belle-Vue. Sous le meme no. 
 1757 Un Tableau de 10 pieds en quarrd, reprdsentant les Forges de Vulcain. Ce 
 Tableau est au Roi, et est destine a etre execute en Tapisseries dans la 
 Manufacture Royale des Gobelins. 
 Le Portrait de Madame la Marquise de Pompadour. 
 176 1 Pastorales et Paysages sous le meme Num6ro. 
 1763 Le Sommeil de I'Enfent Jesus. Tableau ceintre de 2 pieds de haut, sur un pied 
 
 de large. 
 1765 Jupiter transform^ en Diane pour surprendre Calisto. Angelique et Medor. 
 Tableaux ovales d'environ 2 pieds de haut, sur i pied et demi de large. 
 Du cabinet de M. Bergeret de Grancourt. 
 Deux Pastorales, sous le meme Numero. Tableaux de 7 pieds 6 pouces de 
 haut, sur 4 pieds de large. 
 
 191 
 
List of 
 works ex- 
 hibited at 
 the Salon. 
 
 ^7^5 Quatre Pastorales, dent deux sent ovales, sous le meme numero. 
 Ces Tableaux ont environ 15 pouces de haut, sur 13 de large. 
 Autre Pastorale. Tableau ovale d'environ 2 pieds de haut, sur i pied 6 pouces 
 
 de large. 
 Une jeune Femme attachant une lettre au col d'un pigeon. Tableau d'environ 
 
 2 pieds 6 pouces de haut, sur 2 pieds de large. 
 Un Paysage oii Ton voit un Moulin a I'eau. De 2 pieds de large, sur i pied 
 
 6 pouces de haut. 
 1769 Une Marche de Bohemiens, ou Caravanne dans le gout de Benedetto di Cas- 
 
 tiglione. Tableau de 9 pieds de large, sur 6 pieds 6 pouces de haut. 
 
 C HARDIN (JEAN-BAPTISTE-SIMEON). 
 
 "737 Une Fille tirant de I'eau a une Fontaine. 
 Une petite Femme s'occupant a savonner. 
 Un jeune Homme s'amusant avec des cartes. 
 Un Chimiste dans son Laboratoire. 
 Un petit Enfant avec des attributs de I'enfance. 
 Une petite Fille assise, s'amusant avec son d^jeuni. 
 Une petite Fille jouant au Volant. 
 Un Bas-relief peint en bronze. 
 
 1738 Un petit Tableau repr^sentant un Gar^on Cabaretier qui nettoye son Brot. 
 Un Tableau reprdsentant une jeune Ouvri^re en Tapisserie. 
 
 Un Tableau repr&entant une R^cureuse. 
 
 Un Tableau repr^sentant une Ouvri^re en Tapisserie qui choisit de la Laine 
 
 dans son panier. 
 Son pendant, un jeune Ecolier qui dessine. 
 Un Tableau de quatre pieds en quarr6, repr^sentant une Femme occup^e a 
 
 cacheter une Lettre. 
 Un petit Tableau repr^sentant le Portrait, du Fils de M. Godefroy Joyalier, 
 
 appliqu6 a voir tourner un Toton. 
 Autre repr6sentant un jeune Dessinateur, taillant son crayon. 
 Le Portrait d'une petite Fille de M. Mahon, Marchand, s'amusant avec sa 
 
 Poup6e. 
 
 1739 Un petit Tableau repr6sentant une Dame qui prend du Th6. 
 
 Un petit Tableau reprdsentant I'amusement frivole d'un jeune homme faisant 
 
 des bouteilles de savon. 
 Un petit Tableau en hauteur repr^sentant la Gouvernante. 
 Autre repr^sentant la Pourvoyeuse. 
 Autre reprdsentant les tours de Cartes. 
 La Ratisseuse de Navets. 
 
 1740 Un Tableau representant un Singe qui peint. 
 Autre ; le Singe de la Philosophic. 
 
 Autre J la M^re laborieuse. 
 
 Autre ; le Benedicite. 
 
 Autre ; la petite Maitresse d'Ecole. 
 
 1741 Un Tableau repr&entant le ndglige, ou Toilette du matin ; appartenant a 
 
 M. le Comte de Tessin. 
 Autre, repr&entant le Fils de M. le Noir, s'amusant a faire un Chateau de 
 cartes. 
 
 192 
 
1743 U" Tableau repr^sentant le Portrait de Mad. le tenant une Brochure. Jean- 
 
 Autre petit Tableau, repr^sentant des Enfans qui s'amusent au jeu de I'Oye. „.^Pr^ ^' 
 Autre faisant pendant, ou sont aussi des enfans faisant des tours de Cartes. Chardin. 
 
 1746 Un Tableau, r^p^tition du Benedicite avec une addition pour faire Pendant a 
 
 un Teniers, place dans le Cabinet de M. . 
 
 Autre Amusements de la vie privee. 
 
 Le Portrait de M. ayant les mains dans son manchon. 
 
 Le Portrait de M. Levret, de 1' Academic Royale de Chirurgie. 
 
 1747 Un Tableau, reprdsentant la Garde attentive, ou les alimens de la Conva- 
 
 lescence. Ce Tableau fait Pendant a un autre du meme Auteur, qui est 
 dans le Cabinet du Prince de Leichstenstein et dont il n'a pu disposer, ainsi 
 que de deux autres qui sont partis depuis peu pour la Cour de Su^de. 
 
 1 748 Un Tableau repr^sentant I'Eleve studieux, pour servir de Pendant a ceux qui 
 
 sont partis I'annde derni^re pour la Cour de SuWe. 
 1 75 1 Un Tableau de 18 pouces sur 15 de large. Ce Tableau repr&ente une Dame 
 
 variant ses Amusemens. 
 1753 Deux Tableaux Pendans, sous le meme No. L'un repr^sente un Dessinateur 
 
 d'apr^s le Mercure de M. Pigalle, et I'autre une jeune Fille qui recite son 
 
 Evangile. Ces deux Tableaux tir^s du Cabinet de M. de la Live, sont 
 
 r6p^t6s d'apr^s les Originaux places dans le Cabinet du Roy de Suede. Le 
 
 Dessinateur est expose pour la seconde fois, avec des changements. 
 Un Tableau representant un Philosophe occupe de sa leilure. Ce Tableau 
 
 appartient a M. Boscry Archite6te. 
 Un petit Tableau representant un Aveugle. 
 Autre representant un Chien, un Singe et un Chat, peints d'apr^s nature. Ces 
 
 deux Tableaux tires du Cabinet de M. de Bombarde. 
 Un Tableau representant une Perdrix et des Fruits appartenant a M. Germain. 
 Deux Tableaux pendans, sous le meme No. representant des fruits ; tir& du 
 
 Cabinet de M. de Chasse. 
 Un Tableau representant du Gibier, appartenant a M. Aved. 
 1755 Des Enfans se jouant avec une Chevre. Imitation d'un Bas-relief de Bronze. 
 
 Un Tableau d'Animaux. 
 1757 Un Tableau d'environ 6 pieds, representant des Fruits et des Animaux. 
 
 Deux Tableaux, dont l'un repr^sente les preparatifs de quelques mets sur une 
 
 Table de Cuisine; et I'autre une partie de Dessert sur une Table d'office. 
 
 lis sont tir^s du Cabinet de I'Ecole Fran9oise de M. la Live de July. 
 Une femme qui 6cure. Tableau tird du Cabinet de M. le Comte de Vence. 
 Le Portrait en Medallion de M. Louis, Professeur et Censeur Royal de 
 
 Chirurgie. 
 Un Tableau d'une piece de Gibier, avec une Gibeciere et une Poire a poudre. 
 
 T\xi du Cabinet de M. Damery. 
 1759 Un Tableau d'environ sept pieds de haut, sur quatre de large, representant un 
 
 retour de Chasse. II appartient a M. le Comte du Luc. 
 
 Deux Tableaux de deux pieds et demi, sur deux pieds de large, representant des 
 pieces de Gibier avec un Fourniment et une Gibecidre. lis appartiennent 
 a M. Trouard Architefte. 
 
 Deux Tableaux de Fruits d'un pied et demi de large, sur treize pouces de haut. 
 lis appartiennent a M. I'Abbe Trublet. 
 
 Deux autres Tableaux de Fruits de meme grandeur que les prdcedens ; du 
 Cabinet de M. Sylvestre, Maitre a Dessiner du Roi. 
 
 Deux petits Tableaux d'un pied de haut, sur sept pouces de large. L'un re- 
 
 193 C C 
 
List of 
 works ex- 
 hibited at 
 the Salon. 
 
 pr&ente un jeune Dessinateur I'autre une Fille, qui travaille en tapisserie. 
 
 lis appartient a M. Cars, Graveur du Roi. 
 1 761 Le BenedUite. R6p^tition du Tableau qui est au Cabinet du Roi, mais avec 
 
 des changemens. II appartient a M. Fortier Notaire. 
 Plusieurs Tableaux d'Animaux. lis appartient a M. Aved, Conseiller de 
 
 I'Acad^mie. 
 Un Tableau representant des Vanneaux. II appartient a M. Silvestre, Maitre 
 
 a dessiner du Roi. 
 Deux Tableaux de forme ovale. lis appartient a M. Roettiers, Orfdvre du Roi. 
 Autres Tableaux, de meme genre. 
 1763 Un Tableau de Fruits. 
 
 Un autre representant le Bouquet. Ces deux Tableaux appartiennent a M. le 
 
 comte de S. Florentin. 
 Autre Tableau de Fruits, appartenant a M. I'Abb^ Pommyer, Conseiller en 
 
 Parlement. 
 Deux autres Tableaux repr&entans, I'un des Fruits, i'autre le debris d'un 
 
 Dejeuner. Ces deux Tableaux sont du cabinet de M. Silvestre de 
 
 rAcad6mie Royale de Peinture, et Maitre a dessiner de S. M. 
 Autre petit Tableau, appartenant a M. Lemoyne Sculpteur du Roi. 
 Autres Tableaux sous le meme No. 
 1765 Un Tableau reprdsentant les attributs des Sciences. 
 Autre, representant ceux des Arts. 
 Autre, ou Ton voit ceux de la Musique. Ces Tableaux de 3 pieds 10 pouces 
 
 de large, sur 3 pieds 10 pouces de haut, sont destines pour les appartements 
 
 de Choisy. 
 Trois Tableaux, dont un ovale, reprdsentant des Rafraichissemens, des Fruits 
 
 et des Animaux. Ces Tableaux ont 4 pieds 6 pouces de largeur, sur 
 
 3 pieds 6 pouces de haut ; celui ovale a 5 pieds de liaut. 
 Plusieurs Tableaux, dont un reprdsente un Corbeille de raisins. 
 1767 Deux Tableaux reprdsentant divers Instruments de Musique. Ces Tableaux 
 
 ceintrds, d'environ 4 pieds 6 pouces de large, sur 3 pieds de haut, sont au 
 
 Roi, et destines pour les appartemens de Belle-Vue. 
 1769 Les Attributs des Arts, et les Recompenses qui leur sont accorddes. Cc 
 
 Tableau, repetition avec quelque changemens de celui fait pour rimpdra- 
 
 trice des Russes, appartient a M. I'abb? Pommyer, Conseiller en la Grand' 
 
 Chambre du Parlement, Honoraire Associd libre de I'Academie. II a 
 
 environ 5 pieds de large, sur 4 pieds de haut. 
 Une femme qui revient du Marchd. Ce Tableau aussi repetition avec change- 
 mens appartient a M. Silvestre, Maitre a dessiner des Enfans de France. 
 Une Hure de Sanglier. Ce Tableau a 3 pieds de large, sur 2 pieds 6 pouces de 
 
 haut, est tire du Cabinet de Monseigneur le Chancelier. 
 Deux Tableaux representants des Bas-reliefs. 
 Deux Tableaux de Fruits. 
 Deux Tableaux de Gibier. 
 1771 Un Tableau reprdsentant un Bas-Relief. 
 
 Trois Tetes d'Etude, au Pastel. 
 1773 Une Femme qui tire de I'eau a une Fontaine. Ce Tableau appartient a M. 
 
 Sylvestre, Maitre a dessiner des Enfans de France. C'est la repetition d'un 
 
 Tableau appartenant a la Reine Douairiere de Su^de. 
 Une Tete d'dtude au pastel. 
 1775 Trois Tetes d'Etude au pastel. 
 
Drouais. 
 
 1777 Un Tableau imitant le bas-relief. Fran^ois- 
 
 Trois Tetes d'Etude au pastel. Hubert^ 
 
 1779 Plusieurs tetes d'6tude au pastel. 
 
 DROUAIS (FRANCOIS-HUBERT). 
 
 1755 Le Portrait de Madame . Tableau de 7 pieds de haut sur 5 pieds de large. 
 
 Six Portraits. 
 1757 Monseigneur la Due de Berry, tenant des Fruits et Monseigneur le Comte de 
 
 Provence jouant avec un Chien dans le meme Tableau. 
 S. A. R. Monseigneur le Prince de Conde et Madame la Princesse de Cond^, 
 
 peints dans le meme Tableau en habits de jardinier et de jardiniere. 
 M. le Prince de Gu^men^e et Mademoiselle de Soubise, peints dans le meme 
 
 Tableau, sous les habits de Vendangeur et de Vendangeuse. 
 M. le Prince de Bouillon, et M. le Chevalier de Bouillon, peints sous les habits 
 
 de Montaguards, faisant danser la Marmotte. 
 Monseigneur I'Archeveque d'Alby, Tableau de 4 pieds de haut sur 3 pieds de 
 
 large. 
 
 Deux Portraits, Tun Madame la Marquise de I'autre Madame . 
 
 Le Portrait de Monsieur le Chevalier de peint en Buste. 
 
 1759 Un Concert champetre, dont les Figures sont des Portraits. Ce Tableau a 
 
 dix pieds de haut sur neuf de large. 
 Le Portrait en pied de M. le Comte de . Tableau de sept pieds de haut 
 
 sur cinq de large. 
 M. le Comte et M. le Chevalier de en Savoyards. Tableau de quatre 
 
 pieds trois pouces de haut sur treize pieds trois pouces de large. 
 Le Portrait de M. Bouchardon, Sculpteur du Roi. 
 Le Portrait de M. Coustou, Sculpteur du Roi, 
 Une jeune fille tenant des raisins ; Portrait. 
 Le Portrait de M. le Comte de , en Hussard. Tableau de dix-huit pouces 
 
 de haut sur quinze de large. 
 Un Portrait de femme de meme grandeur. 
 1761 Les Portraits de MM. de Bethune jouants avec un chien. Tableau de 4 pieds 
 
 de large sur 3 de haut. 
 
 Le Portrait d'une Dame jouant de la Harpe. Tableau de 3 pieds 6 pouces de 
 
 haut sur 2 pieds 9 pouces de large. 
 Le Portrait d'une Demoiselle quittant sa Toilette. 
 
 Le Portrait d'un des Enfans de M. le President Desvieux. Tableau ovale. 
 Un jeune E16ve. Ce Tableau est tir6 du Cabinet de M. le Marquis de 
 
 Marigny. 
 
 Plusieurs Portraits. 
 1763 Les Portraits de Monseigneur le Comte d'Artois et de Madame, dans le meme 
 Tableau. Tableau de 4 pieds de haut sur 3 pieds de large. 
 Les Portraits de M. le Prince d'Elbeuf, de Mademoiselle de Lorraine et de 
 Mademoiselle d'Elbeuf. Le sujet du Tableau est I'amour enchain^ et 
 d^sarm^. 
 
 M. le Prince de Galitzin, Ambassadeur de Russie a la Cour de Vienne. Tableau 
 
 de 3 pieds 2 pouces de haut, sur 2 pieds 6 pouces de large. 
 Le Portrait d'une Dame. Tableau de 5 pieds de haut, sur 4 pieds de large. 
 Une Petite Fille, jouant avec un chat. 
 La Petite Nourrice. Tableau Ovale. 
 
 '95 
 
List of 
 works ex- 
 hibited at 
 the Salon. 
 
 1765 
 1767 
 
 1769 
 
 1771 
 
 1773 
 
 1775 
 
 Plusieurs Portraits. 
 
 Le Portrait de Madame la Comtesse de Brionne. 
 
 Plusieurs Portraits. 
 
 Le Portrait de S. A. S. Madame la Princesse Josephine de Carignan. 
 
 Le Portrait de Madame la Comtesse du Barry. 
 
 Plusieurs Portraits. 
 
 Le Portrait de Madame la Comtesse de Provence. Tableau ovale de 2 pieds 
 
 2 pouces de haut, sur 2 pieds 9 pouces de large. 
 Le Portrait en pied de feu S. A. S. Monseigneur le Comte de Clermont. 
 
 Tableau de 7 pieds 2 pouces de haut, sur 5 pieds 3 pouces de large. 
 Le Portrait en pied de Madame la Comtesse du Barry, repr&entant une Muse. 
 
 Tableau de 6 pieds 5 pouces de haut, sur 4 pieds 5 pouces de large. 
 Plusieurs Portraits. 
 Le Portrait du Roi. 
 Le Portrait de Madame la Dauphine. 
 Le Portrait de Madame la Comtesse de Provence. Tableaux ovales destines 
 
 a orner le Cabinet du Roi a Choisy. 
 Le Portrait de Madame la Comtesse du Barry. 
 Le Portrait de feu M. le Comte de Clermont. 
 Plusieurs Portraits. 
 Le Portrait de Monsieur, en pied, en grand Habit de I'Ordre du Saint Esprit. 
 
 Sur une toile de 7 pieds 5 pouces de haut et de 5 pieds 3 pouces de large. 
 
 Pareil Tableau a hi donn6, par Monsieur, a la Ville d'Angers, Capitale de 
 
 son Apanage. 
 Le Portrait de Madame la Comtesse d'Artois en habit de Cour. Buste de forme 
 
 ovale. 
 Le Portrait de Madame Clotilde, Princesse de Piedmont, pin^ant de la guitarre. 
 Le Portrait de Mademoiselle. Petit Ovale. 
 Plusieurs Portraits. 
 
 FRAGONARD (HONORE). 
 
 1 765 Le Grand-Pretre Cor^sus se sacrifie pour sauver Callirhoe. Ce Tableau est au 
 Roi, et est destind a etre exdcut6 en Tapisserie, dans la Manufacture Royale 
 des Gobelins. II a 12 pieds 6 pouces de largeur sur 9 pieds 6 pouces de 
 hauteur. 
 
 Un Paysage. Tableau de 22 pouces, sur 18. 11 appartient a M. Bergeret de 
 Grancour. 
 
 Deux Desseins: Vues de la Ville d'Este a Tivoli. lis appartiennent a M. 
 I'Abbe de Saint-Non. 
 1767 Tableau ovale, repr^sentant des grouppes d'Enfans dans le Ciel. Tire du 
 Cabinet de M. Bergeret. 
 
 Une Tete de Vieillard. Tableau de forme ronde. 
 
 Plusieurs Dessins. 
 
 GREUZE (JEAN-BAPTISTE). 
 
 1755 L'Aveugle tromp6. De 2 pieds de haut, sur i pied 7 pouces de large. 
 
 Un Pere de famille qui lit la Bible a ses Enfans. De 2 pieds et demi de large, 
 
 sur 2 pieds de haut. 
 Un Enfant qui s'est endormi sur son Livre. De 2 pieds de haut, sur i pied 
 7 pouces et demi de large. 
 
 196 
 
Greuze. 
 
 1 755 Une Tete d'apr^s nature, de 2 pieds et demi de haut sur 2 pieds de large. Jean- 
 
 Le Portrait de M. de Silvestre Diredeur de I'Acad^mie. ??F.Vf-^ 
 
 Le Portrait de M. Le Bas, Graveur du Cabinet du Roi. 
 1757 Quatre Tableaux dans le Costume Italien, dont deux de 2 pieds 3 pouces sur 2 
 pieds 1 1 pouces de large, et les deux autres de i pied 1 1 pouces de haut 
 sur I pied et demi de large. 
 Une Mere grondant un jeune Homme pour avoir renvers^ un Panier d'CEufs 
 
 que sa Servante apportoit du March^. Un Enfant tente de raccommoder 
 
 un oeuf cass6. 
 Une jeune Italienne cong^diant (avec la Geste Napolitain) un Cavalier Por- 
 
 tugais travesti, et reconnu par sa Suivante : Deux Enfans ornent ce sujet 
 
 I'un retient un Chien qui abboye. 
 La Paresseuse Italienne. 
 Un Oiseleur qui, au retour de la chasse, accorde sa Guitarre. Ces deux 
 
 Tableaux appartiennent a M. Boyer de Fonscolombe et sont tir6s de son 
 
 Cabinet a Aix en Provence. 
 Le Portrait de M. Pigalle, Sculpteur du Roi. 
 
 Le Portrait de M. en ovale. 
 
 Un Matelot Napolitain. 
 Un Ecolier qui ^tudie sa lejon. 
 
 Deux Tetes, I'une un petit Garjon, I'autre une petite Fille. 
 Esquisse a I'encre de la Chine, reprdsentant des Italiens qui jouent a la More. 
 Autres Ouvrages du meme Auteur. 
 1759 Un Tableau reprdsentant le Repos, caradteris6 par une Femme qui impose 
 
 silence a son Fils, en lui montrant ses autres enfans qui dorment. Ce 
 
 Tableau appartient a M. de Julienne. 
 La Simplicity representee par une jeune Fille. Ce Tableau est ovale. II a 
 
 deux pieds de haut. 
 La Tricoteuse endormie. Du Cabinet de M. de la Live de July. II a deux 
 
 pieds de haut sur un pied huit pouces. 
 La D6videuse. Tableau appartenant a M. le Marquis de Bandol, de deux 
 
 pieds trois pouces sur un pied dix pouces. 
 Une jeune Fille qui pleure la mort de son oiseau. Tableau ovale. 
 Le Portrait de M. de , jouant de la Harpe. II a trois pieds sept pouces de 
 
 haut sur deux pieds neuf pouces de large. 
 Portrait de Madame la Marquise de accordant sa Guitarre. II a deux 
 
 pieds dix pouces sur deux pieds trois pouces. 
 Portrait de M. , Dodleur de Sorbonne. II a deux pieds trois pouces sur un 
 
 pied dix pouces. 
 
 Portrait de Mademoiselle de , sentant une Rose. 
 
 Portrait de Mademoiselle De Amici, en habit de caraftere. II a deux pieds de 
 
 haut sur un pied huit pouces de large. 
 Portrait de M. Babuti, Libraire. 
 
 Trois Tetes, dtudes appartenantes a M. Silvestre, Maitre a dessiner du Roi. 
 Deux Tetes appartenantes a M. Mass6, Peintre du Roi, Conseiller de 
 
 I'Acad^mie. 
 Une Tete appartenante a M. Wille, Graveur du Roi. 
 Autre Tete. 
 
 Deux Esquisses a I'Encre de la Chine. 
 1761 Le Portrait de Monseigneur le Dauphin. Buste de 2 pieds de haut sur un 
 
 pied six pouces de large. 
 
 197 
 
List of 
 works ex- 
 hibited at 
 the Salon. 
 
 1 76 1 Le Portrait ed M. Babuti. 
 
 Le Portrait de M. Greuze, peint par lui meme. 
 
 Le Portrait de Madame Greuze en Vestale. Ces trois Tableaux sont de 
 
 meme grandeur. lis ont 2 pieds de haut sur i pied et demi de large. 
 Un Manage, et I'instant oil le pere de l'Accord& delivre la dot a son Gendre. 
 
 Ce Tableau appartient a M. le Marquis de Marigny. II a 3 pieds 6 pouces 
 
 de large sur 2 pieds 6 pouces de haut. 
 Un jeune Berger qui tente le sort pour s^avoir s'il est aim6 de sa Bergere. 
 
 Tableau ovale, haut de 2 pieds. 
 Une jeune Blanchisseuse. Tableau de un pied six pouces sur un pied de large. 
 Une tete d'une Nymphe de Diane. 
 Plusieurs Tetes peintes. 
 
 Un dessein repr^sentant des enfans qui ddrobent des Marrons. 
 Autre Dessein d'un Paralytique soign6 par sa famille, ou le fruit de la bonne 
 
 Education. 
 Autre, un Fermier bruM, demandant I'Aumone avec sa famille. 
 1 763 Les Portraits de Monseigneur le Due de Chartres et de Mademoiselle. Tableau 
 
 de 3 pieds 6 pouces de hauteur sur 2 pieds 6 pouces de largeur. 
 Le Portrait de M. le Comte d'Angevilld. Tableau de 2 pieds de haut, sur i 
 
 pied 6 pouces de large. 
 Le Portrait de M. le Comte de Lup6. Tableau de 2 pieds de haut, sur i pied 
 
 6 pouces de large. 
 Le Portrait de M. Watelet. Tableau de 3 pieds 6 pouces de haut, sur 2 pieds 
 
 6 pouces de large. 
 Le Portrait de Mile, de Pange. Tableau de 1 5 pouces de hauteur, sur i pied 
 
 de largeur. 
 
 Le Portrait de Mme. Greuze. Tableau ovale de 2 pieds de haut, sur i pied 
 
 6 pouces de large. 
 Une petite Fille, lisant la Croix de Jesus. Ce Tableau est du Cabinet de M. de 
 
 Julienne. 
 Une Tete de petit Garfon. Du Cabinet de M. Mariette. 
 Autre Tete de petite Fille. Du Cabinet de M. de Presle. 
 Autre Tete de petite Fille. Du Cabinet de M. Damery. 
 Le Tendre Ressouvenir. Ces cinq Tableaux ont chacun 1 5 pouces de hauteur, 
 
 sur I pied de largeur. 
 Une jeune Fille qui a cass6 son Miroir. Tableau du Cabinet de M, de 
 
 Bossette, d'un pied 6 pouces de haut, sur 15 pouces de large. 
 La Pi^t^ Aliale. Tableau de 4 pieds 6 pouces de large, sur 3 pieds de haut. 
 
 II appartient a I'Auteur. 
 1765 Une jeune Fille, qui pleure son oiseau mort. Ce Tableau ovale, de 2 pieds de 
 
 haut, appartient a M. de la Live de la Briche, Introdufteur des Am- 
 
 bassadeurs. 
 L'enfant gat6. Ce Tableau de 2 pieds 6 pouces de haut, sur 2 pieds de large 
 
 appartient a M. le Due de Praslin. 
 Une Tete de Fille. Ce Tableau appartient a M. Godefroi. 
 
 Une autre petite Fille, tenant un petit Capucin. Ce Tableau appartient a 
 M. de la Live de July, Introdufteur des Ambassadeurs. 
 
 Autre Tete de petite Fille. Ce Tableau appartient a M. le Chevalier Damery. 
 
 Une Tete en Pastel. Ce Tableau appartient a M. le Baron de Besenval, 
 Inspedteur g^n^ral des Suisses. Ces quatre Tableaux ci-dessus et de meme 
 grandeur, ont i pied 3 pouces de haut, sur i pied de large. 
 
 198 
 
1765 Le Portrait de M. Watelet, Receveur G^n^ral des Finances. Tableau de 4 Jean- 
 
 pieds 6 pouces de haut, sur 3 pieds 6 pouces de large. Baptiste 
 
 Le Portrait de M. WiUe, Graveur du Roi. Greuze. 
 
 Le Portrait de M. Caffiery, Sculpteur du Roi. 
 Le Portrait de M. Guibert. 
 Le Portrait de Mme. Tassart. 
 Le Portrait de Mme. Greuze. Ces cinq Portraits, de meme grandeur, ont 2 
 
 pieds 6 pouces de haut, sur 2 pieds de large. 
 Le Portrait en Pastel de M. de la Live de July, Introdudteur des Ambassadeurs. 
 La Mere bien-aimde "j 
 Le Fils ingrat j-Esquisses. 
 
 Le Fils puni J 
 
 1769 L'Empereur Sdv^re reproche aCaracalla son fils, d'avoir voulu I'assassiner dans 
 
 les defiles d'Ecosse et lui dit : Si tu desires ma mort, ordonne a Papinien 
 
 de me la donner avec cette 6p6e. 
 La Mere bien aimde, caressee par ses enfans. De 4 pieds de large, sur 3 pieds 
 
 de haut. 
 Une jeune Fille qui fait sa priere au pied de I'autel de I'Amour. Hauteur 5 
 
 pieds, largeur 4 pieds 6 pouces. 
 Une jeune Fille qui envoie un baiser par la fenetre appuy^e sur les fleurs qu'elle 
 
 brise. De 4 pieds de haut, sur 3 pieds 6 pouces de large. Ces deux 
 
 Tableaux appartiennent a M. le Due de Choiseul. 
 Un jeune Enfant qui joue avec un Chien. Hauteur 2 pieds, sur i pied 6 pouces 
 
 de large. 
 Le Portrait du Prince herdditaire de Saxe. Hauteur i pied 6 pouces, largeur 
 
 I pied 3 pouces. 
 Le Portrait de M. Jeaurat. Hauteur 2 pieds 6 pouces, largeur 2 pieds. 
 
 Le Portrait de M. de . Hauteur 2 pieds 6 pouces, largeur 2 pieds. 
 
 Trois Tetes d'Enfans. 
 
 Dessins : 
 La mort d'un Pdre de famille, regrettd par ses enfans. 
 La mort d'un Pere d6natur6, abandonn^ de ses enfans. 
 L'Avare et ses Enfans. 
 La B6n6di6tion paternelle. 
 Le depart de Barcelonnette. 
 La Consolation de la Vieillesse. 
 1800 Le depart pour la chasse. Portrait du C et de sa Femme, dans un pay- 
 sage. 
 
 Deux tableaux faisant pendans. Un enfant hesitant de toucher un oiseau, dans 
 
 la crainte qu'il ne soit mort. 
 Une jeune femme se disposant a ^crire une lettre d'Amour. Ces deux 
 
 Tableaux appartiennent au Cit. de I'Epine, horloger. 
 Portrait. Une jeune Fille prdludant sur un forte piano. 
 Deux Portraits d'hommes. 
 Trois Tetes de dilKrens caraft^res, meme num^ro : 
 
 La peur de I'orage. 
 
 La crainte et le d^sir. 
 
 Le Sommeil. 
 Deux pendans, meme num^ro : 
 
 L'innocence tenant deux pigdons. 
 
 Une jeune fille bouchant ses oreilles pour ne pas entendre ce qu'on lui dit. 
 
 199 
 
List of 
 works ex- 
 hibited at 
 the Salon. 
 
 LANCRET (NICOLAS). 
 
 1737 Un Festin de Noces de Village, ceintr6 haut et bas. 
 Une Danse au Tambourin. 
 
 Un Colin-Maillard. 
 Un sujet Champetre. 
 
 1738 Un Tableau representant une Danse champetre dans une Isle. 
 Autre representant un Concert champetre. 
 
 Quatre Sujets tirez de la Fontaine : 
 
 La Gascon puni. 
 
 La Femme avare et le Galant Escroc. 
 
 Le Faucon. 
 
 Les Trocqueurs. 
 L'Hyver. 
 
 1739 Un petit Tableau, representant un Paysage, oii est un Berger tenant une cage. 
 Un petit Tableau, ou sont des Enfans qui jouent au pied-de-boeuf. 
 
 Un Tableau de 3 pieds sur 4 de large, representant un D6jeun6 et repos de 
 
 Chasse. 
 Un petit tableau representant la Cinqui^me scene du Philosophe marie. . . . 
 Autre plus petit representant une Dame a sa Toilette prenant du CafFe. 
 De I'autre cote, pour Pendant, Les Deux amis : sujet tire des Contes de la 
 
 Fontaine. 
 A cote la troisieme Scene du Glorieux ; Comedie de M. Destouches. 
 
 1740 Un Tableau representant une danse champetre. 
 
 1 742 Un Tableau de 4 pieds sur 3 et demi de large representant le Sieur Grandval 
 
 dans un Jardin ornes de Fleurs, Vases et des Statues de Melpomene et de 
 
 Thalie. 
 Autre d'environ la meme grandeur, representant une Dame dans un Jardin, 
 
 prenant du CafFe avec des Enfans. 
 Deux Sujets des 4 Saisons. Le premier de 15 pouces de haut sur 18 de large 
 
 representant le Printemps. Le second faisant son pendant, represente 
 
 I'Ete. 
 
 LATOUR (MAURICE-QUENTIN DE). 
 
 1737 Deux Portraits en Pastel, I'un representant Madame Boucher, et I'autre celui de 
 
 I'auteur qui rit. 
 
 1 738 Le Portrait en Pastel de M. Restout, Professeur de I'Academie, dessinant sur 
 
 un Portefeuille. 
 Un Portrait en Pastel, representant Madame de habiliee avec un Mantelet 
 
 Polonais, reflechissant un livre a la main. 
 Un Portrait en Pastel de Mademoiselle de la Boisiere, ayant les mains dans un 
 
 Manchon appuyee sur une Fenetre. 
 Portrait de Madame Restout, en coefFure. 
 
 1 739 Le Portrait en Pastel de M. de Fontpertius, Conseiller au Parlement. 
 Le Portrait de M. Dupouch, appuye sur un Fauteuil. 
 
 Un Portrait en Pastel representant le Frere Fiacre de Nazareth. 
 
 1740 Un Portrait en Pastel, representant M. de Bachaumont. 
 Autre representant Madame Duret, dans une bordure ovale. 
 
 Un Portrait jusqu'aux genoux, de M. de qui prend du Tabac. 
 
 1 74 1 Un Tableau en Pastel de 6 pieds 2 pouces d'hauteur, sur 4 pieds 8 pouces de 
 
 large, representant M. le President de Rieu, en Robe rouge, assis dans un 
 
 200 
 
Fauteuil, tenant un Livre dont il va tourner le feiiillet avec les attributs Maurice- 
 qui composent un Cabinet, comme Bibliotheque, Par-a-vent, Table et un Quentin 
 Tapis de Turquie sous les pieds. deLatour. 
 
 1 741 Autre Tableau repr&entant le Buste d'un N6gre qui attache le bouton de sa 
 
 chemise. 
 
 1742 Le Portrait de Madame la Pr^sidente de Rieux, en habit de Bal, tenant un 
 
 Masque. 
 Celuy de Mademoiselle Sal6, habill^e comme elle est chez elle. 
 Celuy de M. l'Abb6 assis sur le bras d'un Fauteuil lisant a la lumiere un 
 
 in folio. 
 Celuy de M. du Mont le Romain, Professeur de I'Academie Royale de Pein- 
 
 ture et de Sculpture joiiant de la Guitarre. 
 Un petit Buste de I'Auteur, ayant le bord de son Chapeau rabatu. 
 
 1743 Un Portrait au Pastel, repr&entant M. le Due de Villars, Gouverneur de 
 
 Provence, Chevalier de la Toison d'Or. 
 
 Autre repr<§sentant M. . 
 
 Autre, repr^sentant Mademoiselle de . 
 
 1745 Plusieurs Portraits au Pastel ; 
 
 Le Roy. 
 
 Le Dauphin. 
 
 M. Orry Ministre d'Etat, Controleur General, peint en grand. 
 
 M. ' Amy de I'Auteur, aussy en grand. 
 
 Plusieurs autres Portraits au Pastel. 
 
 1 746 Quatre Portraits au Pastel. 
 
 1747 Plusieurs Portraits au Pastel. 
 
 1 748 Portraits au Pastel reprdsentant : 
 
 Le Roy. 
 
 La Reine. 
 
 Le Dauphin. 
 
 Le Prince Edouard. 
 
 M. le Mar^chal de Belle isle. 
 
 M. le Mardchal de Saxe. 
 
 M. le Mar^chal de Lowendal. 
 
 M. le Comte de Sassenage. 
 
 M. . 
 
 M. . 
 
 M. de Moncrif de I'Academie Franfoise. 
 
 Madame . 
 
 M. du Clos de I'Academie Franfoise et Belles Lettres. 
 
 Madame . 
 
 M. Du Mont le Romain, Adjoint a Refleur. 
 
 1750 Plusieurs Tetes au Pastel. 
 
 1 751 Plusieurs Tetes au Pastel. 
 
 1753 Le Portrait de Madame le Comte tenant un papier de Musique. 
 Celui de Madame de Geli. 
 
 Madame de Mondonville, appuy& sur un Clavessin. 
 Madame Huet avec un petit Chien. 
 Mademoiselle Ferrand mdditant sur Newton. 
 Mademoiselle Gabriel. 
 
 ' Une note manuscrit de la main d'Antoine Duchesne, prevot des Batiments du Roi . . . nous 
 apprend que cet ami de Latour s'appelait M. Duval et que ce portrait etait " le roy des portraits de 
 Latour." 
 
 201 D D 
 
List of 
 works ex- 
 hibited at 
 the Salon. 
 
 1753 M. Le Marquis de Voyer, Lieutenant Gdn^ral des Armies du Roy, Inspefteur 
 
 G^n^ral de la Cavalerie, Honoraire Associ^-libre de I'Acad^mie Royale de 
 
 Peinture at de Sculpture. 
 
 M. le Marquis de Montalembert, Mestre de Camp de Cavalerie, Gouverneur 
 
 de Vilieneuve d' Avignon, Associ6 libre de I'Acad^mie Royale des Sciences. 
 
 M. de Silvestre, Ecuyer, Premier Peintre du Roy de Pologne, Diredteur de 
 
 I'Acad^mie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. 
 M. de Bachaumont, Amateur. 
 M. Watelet, Receveur G6n6ral des Finances, Honoraire, Associ^-libre de 
 
 1' Academic Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. 
 M. Nivelle de la Chauss^e, de I'Acad^mie Fran^oise. 
 M. Duclos, des Academies Fran^oise et des Inscriptions, Historiographe de 
 
 France. 
 M. I'Abb^ Nolet, Maitre de Physique de M. le Dauphin, de I'Acad^mie Royale 
 
 des Sciences et de la Soci^t6 Royale de Londres. 
 M. de la Condamine, Chevalier de Saint Lazare, de I'Academie Royale des 
 
 Sciences, de la Socidt6 Royale de Londres, et de I'Academie de Berlin. 
 M. Dalembert, de I'Academie Royale des Sciences, de la Soci6te Royale de 
 
 Londres, et, de celle de Berlin. 
 M. Rousseau, Citoyen de Gen6ve. 
 
 M. Manelli, jouant dans TOp^ra du Maitre de Musique, le role de I'Impressario. 
 1755 Le Portrait de Madame la Marquise de Pompadour, peint au Pastel: de 5 pieds 
 
 et demi de haut, sur 4 pieds de large. 
 1757 Plusieurs Portraits peints en Pastel. 
 1759 Plusieurs Portraits en Pastel. 
 1 76 1 Plusieurs Tableaux en Pastel. 
 1763 Portraits en Pastel : 
 
 Monseigneur le Dauphin. 
 Madame la Dauphine. 
 Monseigneur le Due de Berry. 
 Monseigneur le Comte de Provence. 
 Le Prince Clement de Saxe. 
 La Princesse Christine de Saxe. 
 Autres Portraits. 
 1 769 Plusieurs Tetes. 
 1773 Plusieurs Tetes. 
 
 LOO (CARLE VAN). 
 
 1737 Le Grand Seigneur donnant un Concert a sa Maitresse. 
 Le Grand Seigneur qui fait peindre sa Maitresse. 
 Jupiter et Junon. 
 
 Un D6jeun6 de Chasse ceintr6 haut et bas de neuf pieds sur huit de large. 
 
 1738 Un Tableau dessus de porte chantourn^, representant Venus a sa Toilette. 
 Un grand Tableau ceintre de douze pieds sur dix representant la defaite de 
 
 Porus par Alexandre. 
 Un Tableau representant I'amitie de Castor et Pollux. 
 
 1739 Un grand Tableau ceintr^ en hauteur de 16 pieds sur 9 de large, representant 
 
 I'Adoration des Rois, destine pour I'Eglise des Missions Etrang^res. 
 
 Un grand Tableau ceintre par le haut, d'environ 10 pieds de largeur, represen- 
 tant la defaite de Porus, destine pour le Roy d'Espagne. 
 
 202 
 
1739 Autre en hauteur de 8 pieds sur 4 de large, repr^sentant S. Sebastien destin^ Carle van 
 
 pour une Eglise de Lyon. Loo. 
 
 1740 Tableau de la Ville, au sujet de la Paix proclamee a Paris au mois Juin 1739. 
 Autre. Un petit ovale reprdsentant le Portrait de la Fille de M. Carle van Loo 
 
 &g6e d'environ trois ans. 
 
 1 74 1 Un grand Tableau reprdsentant une Vierge avec I'enfant J6sus. 
 Autre repr^sentant S. Andre qui embrasse sa Croix. 
 
 Autre plus petit, repr^sentant la Modestie. 
 Un Fleuve. 
 Une Nayade. 
 
 1 742 Un grand Tableau en hauteur de 1 pieds sur 6 de large, representant S. Pierre 
 
 qui gu6rit le Boiteux a la Porte du Temple. 
 Autre plus petit, chantourn^, representant la Raison, designee sous la figure 
 d'une Femme, arm6e d'un Casque et d'une Ep6e, qui tient un Lion en 
 lesse. 
 
 1745 Un grand Tableau en largeur de 22 pieds sur 12 de haut, representant Thes^e, 
 
 qui aprds avoir vaincu le Taureau de Maraton, I'amene au Temple 
 
 d'Apollon pour le faire sacrifier. 
 Trois Tableau, dessus de Porte en hauteur de 8 pieds sur 4, pour la Biblio- 
 
 th^que du Roy. 
 Le premier, la Poesie amoureuse. 
 Le second, I'inventrice de la Flute. 
 Le troisieme. Les trois Protedleurs des Muses, 
 
 1746 Un Grand Tableau de 12 pieds de haut sur 6 de large, reprdsentant I'Annon- 
 
 ciation. 
 Autre de meme grandeur, representant la Visitation de la Vierge. 
 Autre, de 14 pieds sur environ 6 de large, representant la Presentation de N. S. 
 
 au Temple. 
 Autre d'environ 13 pieds sur 9 de large, representant le Voeu de Louis XIII, 
 
 pour la prise de la Rochelle. 
 
 1747 Le Portrait en pied de la Reine. 
 
 1750 Un grand Tableau en largeur de 16 pieds sur 12 de haut, representant le sacre 
 
 de S. Augustin. Valire, Eveque d'Hyppone, ayant resolu de faire S. Au- 
 
 gustin son CoUegue ou Coadjuteur dans I'Eglise d'Hyppone, le fit ordonner 
 
 par Megalius, Eveque de Calame, Pan 395. Ce Tableau est destine pour 
 
 I'Eglise des Augustins de la Place des Vi6toires. 
 Autre de 5 pieds de haut sur 3 de large ; il represente I'Amourdebout qui tient 
 
 negligemment son Arc et paroit mediter sur I'usage qu'il va faire de ses 
 
 traits. Ce Tableau appartient a M. le Noir. 
 Un Tableau de Paysage orne de Figures et d'Animaux j il a 8 pieds de large 
 
 sur 3 et demi de haut. 
 Autre plus petit, representant une Vestale. 
 Une Vierge et I'Enfant Jesus tenant sa Croix. 
 Autre, representant Venus dans le Bain. 
 Une Tete de Vieillard, peinte d'apres nature. 
 
 1751 Le Portrait du Roy en pied. 
 
 Un grand Tableau en largeur de 16 pieds sur 12 de haut, representant le Sacre 
 de Saint Augustin. Ce Tableau est destine pour I'Eglise des Augustins 
 de la Place des Vi6toires. 
 
 Autre de 10 pieds de haut sur 6 de large, representant une Nativite. Ce 
 Tableau est destine pour I'Eglise de S. Sulpice. 
 
 203 
 
the Salon. 
 
 List of 1 753 Un grand Tableau en largeur de 1 6 pieds sur 1 2 de haut, repr^sentant la dispute 
 v!w^^^^' ''^ ^' ■^^g^s'''^ contre les Donatistes. Ce Tableau est destines pour 
 
 !i!„ cti«^ r^Iise des Augustins de la Place des Vidtoires. 
 
 Autre en hauteur de huit pieds sur cinq, repr^sentant la Vierge et I'Enfant 
 
 Jesus. 
 Autre de meme forme et grandeur, repr^sentant S. Charles Borromde, Ar- 
 
 cheveque de Milan, pret a porter le Viatique aux malades de cette Ville. 
 
 Ces deux Tableaux sont destines pour I'Eglise de S. Merry, 
 Sainte Clotilde, Reine de France, faisant sa pri^re aupres du tombeau de 
 
 St. Martin. Tableau ceintr^ de huit pieds et demi de haut sur cinq de 
 
 large, fait pour le Roy et plac6 dans la Chapelle du grand Commun, a 
 
 Chosy. 
 Un petit Tableau de 27 pouces sur 22, repr^sentant Jupiter et Antiope ; tir6 
 
 du Cabinet de M. de Vandieres. 
 Le Portrait de M. Carle- Vanloo, peint par lui-meme, haut de cinq pieds sur 
 
 quatre. 
 1755 Un Tableau de 16 pieds de large sur 12 pieds de haut, repr^sentant St. Augustin 
 
 baptist a I'age de 30 ans avec son fils et Alipe son ami ; par St. Ambroise. 
 Un Tableau de la meme grandeur, repr^sentant St. Augustin prechant devant 
 
 Val^re, Eveque d'Hippone. Ces deux Tableaux se sont destines pour le 
 
 Chceur des Petits Peres Place des Victories. 
 Le representation d'un Bas-relief en marbre, compost par I'Auteur. Un jeu 
 
 d'Enfans et de jeunes Faunes fait le sujet. 
 Deux Tableaux ovales, repr&entant I'un la Peinture, et I'autre la Sculpture. 
 
 Ces trois Tableaux sont tir^s du Cabinet de M. le Marquis de Marigny. 
 Deux Tableaux, dans Tun desquels sont repr^sent&s deux Sultanes travaillant 
 
 en Tapisserie, et dans I'autre une Sultane prenant le caiFe qui lui pr&ente 
 
 une N6gresse. Ces deux Tableaux sont tir^s du Chateau de Belle- Vue. 
 Un Tableau de 5 pieds de large sur 4 pieds de haut, repr6sentant une Con- 
 versation. 
 1757 Amimone et Neptune, sujet tir^ des Amours des Dieux. Ce Tableau est au 
 
 Roi, et est destin6 a etre ex^cutd en Tapisserie a la Manufacture Royale 
 
 des Gobelins. II a 1 pieds en quarrd. 
 Le Sacrifice d'lphig^nie. Tableau de 14 pieds de haut sur 20 pieds de large, 
 
 destin6 pour le Roy de Prusse. 
 Trois Tableaux en rond, I'un une Femme qui prend du cafF(5, I'autre une 
 
 Femmequi lit, et la troisieme une Femme endormie. 
 Un Dessein, Esquisse du Portrait de Mademoiselle Clairon, qu'on se propose de 
 
 peindre de grandeur naturelle, en M^d^e 
 Une Bataille, Esquisse. 
 Un Corps de Garde, Esquisse. 
 1759 Un sujet de M6d6e et Jason, dans lequel Mademoiselle Clairon est peinte en 
 
 M^d6e. Ce Tableau a 10 pieds de large sur 7 de haut. 
 
 Un Tableau repr&entant des Baigneuses. II a 7 pieds de haut sur 6 pieds de 
 large. 
 
 1 76 1 La Magdeleine dans le D&ert. Ce Tableau doit etre plac6 dans I'Eglise de 
 S. Louis du Louvre, il a huit pieds de haut sur cinq de large. 
 Un Tableau reprdsentant une Ledture. II a cinq pieds de haut sur quatre de 
 large. 
 
 Une ofFrande a I'Amour. Tableau de cinq pieds de haut sur trois de large . 
 
 L' Amour mena9ant. Tableau d'environ trois pieds sur deux et demi. Deux 
 Tableaux representant des jeux d'enfans. 
 
 204 
 
1763 Un Tableau de 3 pieds 8 pouces de largeur sur 2 pieds 7 pouces de hauteur. Jean- 
 
 Ce Tableau appartient a M. le Marquis de Marigny. Marc 
 
 Les Graces enchaindes par I'Amour. Tableau de 7 pieds 6 pouces de haut, sur '^ attier. 
 
 6 pieds 3 pouces de large. Ce Tableau est pour la Pologne. 
 1765 Auguste fait fermer les portes du Temple de Janus. Ce Tableau de 9 pieds 
 
 8 pouces de haut sur 8 pieds 4 pouces de large, est destine pour la Galerie 
 
 de Choisy. 
 Les Graces. 
 La chaste Susanne. Ces deux Tableaux, de meme grandeur, ont 7 pieds 6 
 
 pouces de hauteur, sur 6 pieds 2 pouces de largeur. 
 Sept Esquisses pour la Chapelle de S. Grdgoire aux Invalides. 
 Etude d'une Tete d'ange pour cette meme Chapelle. 
 Tableau A116gorique. De 2 pieds 5 pouces de haut, sur 2 pieds. Ce Tableau 
 
 appartient a M. le Marquis de Marigny. 
 
 NATTIER (JEAN-MARC). 
 
 1737 La Justice qui chatie I'lnjustice. 
 
 Un Tableau de 6 pieds sur 5 de large, representant Mademoiselle de Lambesc, 
 de la Maison de Lorraine, sous la figure de Minerve, armant et destinant 
 M. le Comte de Brionne, son fr^re au metier de la Guerre. 
 
 Madame la Marquise d'Ussd. 
 
 Un Dessein representant Mademoiselle de Clermont en Deesse des Eaux de la 
 Sant6. 
 
 1 738 Un grand Tableau en hauteur de dix pieds sur environ six de large, representant 
 
 le Portrait en pied de M. le Chevalier d'Orleans, Grand Prieur de France 
 
 Commandant sur un Port de Mer. 
 Un Tableau representant Mademoiselle de Rohan, fiUe du Prince de Guimenee, 
 
 marine depuis peu a M. le Marquis de Creveeoeur, fils du Prince de 
 
 Massera en Espagne, sous la forme d'Hdbd, Ddesse de la Jeunesse. 
 Autre representant Mademoiselle de Canisy, Epouse de M. le Marquis d'Antin, 
 
 Vice-Amiral tenant une Perruche. 
 
 1740 Un Tableau de 4 pieds en quarre, representant la Prudence. 
 
 1 741 Deux grands Portraits : 
 
 Celuy de Madame la Princesse de Rohan, tenant un Livre. 
 Madame la Comtesse de Brae, en Aurore. 
 
 1 742 Un Tableau representant le Portrait de feiie Mademoiselle de Clermont, Prin- 
 
 cesse du Sang, Surintendante de la Maison de la Reine, representee en ' 
 Sultane sortant du Bain, servie par les Esclaves. 
 Autre plus grand, representant le Portrait de Madame Bonier de la Mosson, 
 revenant de la Chasse. 
 
 1 745 Marie-Adeiaide de France, representee en Diane. 
 
 Un Portrait, representant M. le Due de Chartres peint en Guerrier. 
 
 Celuy de Madame la Duchesse de Chartres, representee en Hebe Deesse de la 
 
 Jeunesse. 
 Autre de Madame la Duchesse de Chaulnes. Aussi en Hebe. 
 Un Tableau chantourne, representant la Force. 
 Un Buste de M. le Grand Prieur. 
 
 Le Portrait de Madame la Marquise du Chdtelet tenant le Livre de I'lnstitution 
 Physique qu'elle a compose. 
 
 1746 Le Portrait de M. Bonier de la Mosson dans son Cabinet. 
 
 205 
 
List of 1746 Madame Desfourniel, representee en H6b6. 
 
 works ex- jyj jg Beseval, en Guerrier. 
 
 the Salon. Madame , representee en Flore. 
 
 Madame representee en Erato Muse de la Poesie Lyrique. 
 
 Le Portrait au Pastel de M. Logerot. 
 
 1747 Le Portrait de Monseigneur le Dauphin, representee en Cuirasse. 
 Le Portrait de M. le due de Chaulnes, en Hercule. 
 
 1 748 Le Portrait de la Reine. 
 
 Le Portrait des deux Dames de France, qui sont a I'Abbaye de Fontevrault $ 
 
 Madame Louise tenant des fleurs. 
 Madame Sophie tenant son Voile. 
 Le Portrait au Pastel de M. de Meaupeou, Premier President. 
 
 1 750 Le Portrait de M. le Comte d'Argenson, Ministre de la Guerre, tenant le Plan 
 
 de Fontenoy. 
 Madame la Comtesse d'Argenson, tenant une petite caniche. 
 Madame Marsolier a sa Toilette avec Mademoiselle sa Fille. 
 
 1 75 1 Le Portrait de Madame la Dauphine. 
 
 Mesdames designees sous les attributs de quatre Elements. Madame, Duchesse 
 
 de Parme. Madame Henriette. Madame Adelaide. Madame Viftoire. 
 1753 Le Portrait de Madame, fille de M. le Dauphin, a I'age d'un an, jouant avec un 
 
 petit Chien. 
 Le Portrait de Mademoiselle Infante Isabelle, en pied. 
 
 La Portrait de M. le Prince de Conde, en cuirasse, peint jusqu'aux genouils. 
 Le Portrait en Buste de Madame Dufour, Nourrice de Monseigneur le Dauphin. 
 Le Portrait de Madame Boudry, representee en Muse, qui dessine. Dans le 
 
 fond du Tableau se voit le Parnasse. 
 1755 Le Portrait en pied de Monseigneur le Due de Bourgogne. 
 
 Le Portrait en pied de Madame Henriette de France, jouant de la Viole. 
 
 Le Portrait de S. A. S. Madame la Princesse de Conde. 
 
 Deux petits Tableaux, I'un le Portrait de Monsieur , I'autre le Portrait de 
 
 Madame , sous le meme No. 
 
 Le Portrait de feue Madame de Roissy. 
 1757 Le Portrait de M. le Comte de Montmorenci. Tableau de 2 pieds et demi 
 
 de haut sur 2 pieds de large. 
 Celui de Madame de Villette, de meme grandeur. 
 Celui de Madame de Maison-Rouge, peinte sous la figure de Venus qui va 
 
 atteler des Pigeons a son Char. Tableau de 3 pieds 3 pouces sur 4 pieds 
 
 3 pouces de large. 
 
 Celui de Madame meme grandeur. 
 
 Celui de Mademoiselle Balety. 
 1759 Le Portrait de Madame de France. Tableau de sept pieds et demi de haut, 
 
 sur six pieds de large. 
 Une Vestale. Tableau de quatre pieds et demi de large, sur quatre pieds de 
 
 haut. 
 Autres Tableaux du meme Auteur. 
 1761 Le Portrait de feue Madame Infante, en habit de Chasse. Tableau de cinq 
 
 pieds sur quatre. 
 
 206 
 
PERRONNEAU (JEAN-BAPTISTE). Jean- 
 
 1746 Cinq Portraits dont trois au Pastel : Perron- 
 
 Celuy de M. le Marquis Daubail, en cuirasse. neau. 
 
 Celuy de M. Drouais, Peintre de I'Acaddmie. 
 
 Celuy de M. Gilcain, Peintre. 
 
 Celuy du petit Demoyel, tenant une poule huppde. 
 
 Celuy d'un jeune &olier, frere de I'auteur tenant un Livre. 
 
 1747 Un Portrait au Pastel, du Fils de M. le Moyne, Sculpteur ordinaire du Roi, dge 
 
 de cinq ans. "^ 
 
 Autre, representant M. en habit de Bal, 
 
 Autre, M. Huquer d'Orl^ans. 
 
 Autre, peint a I'Huile, representant Madame de Villeneuve, les mains dans son 
 
 Manchon. 
 
 Autre, representant M. C . 
 
 Le fils de M. Huquer, tenant un Lapin. 
 
 1748 Six Portraits : 
 
 Celuy du Rev^rendissime , Abb6 Regulier de Paris, peint a I'Huile. 
 
 Autre au Pastel, de M. Olivier en Habit de velours, appuy^e sur une 
 
 Table. 
 Celuy de Madame son Epouse, habillde d'une Robbe de Pequin. 
 
 Celuy de M. de I'Academie Royale de Musique. 
 
 Mademoiselle Am6d6e de I'Op^ra en Domino noir. 
 Madame [i" et z"*' ^dit. Mademoiselle Delepde la jeune] en Habit 
 
 couleur de rose. 
 
 1750 Le Portrait de M. de vu de cot^ ayant un habit de velours noir. 
 
 M. C , tenant son chapeau. 
 
 M. de la Tour, Peintre du Roy, en surtout noir. 
 
 M. , en Robe de Chambre. 
 
 M. I'Abbe de . 
 
 M. Thiboust, Imprimeur du Roy, peint a I'huile. 
 Madame son Epouse, au Pastel. 
 
 Madame , ayant un bouquet de giroflde. 
 
 Madame , ayant un bouquet de barbeau. 
 
 Madame Du , badinant avec un ^ventail. 
 
 M. Kam, en habit de velours noir. 
 
 Mile. , en robe bleue. 
 
 Mile. , tenant un petit chat. 
 
 Madame , en robe verte. 
 
 Le Portrait de M. Beaumont, Graveur de I'Hotel de Ville peint a I'huile. 
 
 1 751 Le Portrait au Pastel de M. le Comte de Bonneval. 
 M. Ruelle, premier Echevin. 
 
 Madame son Epouse. 
 
 Monsieur et Madame . 
 
 Madame de Saint. 
 Mademoiselle Silanie. 
 
 Mademoiselle . 
 
 M. Desfriches. 
 
 M. . 
 
 Mademoiselle Rosalline. 
 
 M. . 
 
 207 
 
List of 
 works ex- 
 hibited at 
 the Salon. 
 
 1 751 Le Portrait, peint a I'huile de Madame du Ruisseau. 
 1753 Le Portrait de Madame la Princesse de Cond6. 
 Le Portrait de Milord d'Hunlington. 
 
 Le Portrait de M. Oudry, Professeur de I'Acad^mie Royale de Peinture et de 
 
 Sculpture. 
 Le Portrait de M. Adam I'ain^, Professeur de I'Acad^mie Royale de Peinture 
 
 et de Sculpture. Ces deux Portraits sont les morceaux de Reception 
 
 de I'Auteur a I'Acad^mie. 
 Le Portrait de Madame Le Moyne, femme de M. Le Moyne, le fils, Professeur 
 
 de la dite Academic. 
 Le Portrait de M. Julien le Roy. 
 
 Celui de Madame . 
 
 1755 Le Portrait de S. A. R, Monseigneur le Prince Charles de Lorraine. 
 
 Le Portrait de S. A. R. Madame la Princesse Charlotte de Lorraine, Abbesse 
 
 de Remiremont et de Mons. 
 Le Portrait de Madame Vauville tenant un Bouquet de Barbeaux. 
 
 Le Portrait de Madame en Chasseuse. 
 
 Le Portrait de Mademoiselle . 
 
 Cinq Portraits d'hommes, sous le meme num^ro dont un peint a huile. 
 1757 Plusieurs Portraits en Pastel. 
 1759 Ouvrages en Pastel : 
 
 Le Portrait de M. Vernet. 
 
 Le Portrait de M. Cars. 
 
 Le Portrait de M. Cochin. 
 
 Le Portrait de M. Robb6. 
 
 Quatre autres Tetes. 
 
 1 763 M. et Mme. Trudaine de Montigny. 
 Portraits en ovale : 
 
 M. Asselart, Bourguemestre d'Amsterdam. 
 
 M. Hauguer, Echevin d'Amsterdam. 
 
 Madame de Tourolle, 
 
 M. Guelwin. 
 
 M. Tolling. 
 
 Madame Perronneau, faisant des noeuds. 
 1765 Portraits a I'huile : 
 
 M. Mauj6. 
 
 Mademoiselle Perronneau. 
 
 M. Denis. Tableau ovale. 
 
 Une Tete. Portrait. Tableau ovale. 
 
 Portraits au Pastel : 
 
 Mademoiselle de Bossy. 
 
 Mademoiselle Pinchinat, en Diane. Tableau ovale. 
 
 Madame Miron. 
 
 1767 Plusieurs Portraits. 
 
 1769 Le Portrait de Madame Journu la m^re. Tableau a Thuile, de 2 pieds 3 pouces, 
 sur I pied 10 pouces. 
 
 Le Portrait de M. Darcy. De meme grandeur, a I'huile aussi. 
 
 Ouvrages en pastel. 
 
 Le Portrait de M. le Normond du Coudray. Tableau d'un pied 10 pouces, 
 sur I pied 6 pouces. 
 
 208 
 
1769 Mademoiselle Gaugy en Pastel. Tableau d'un pied 8 pouces, sur i pied Louis 
 
 5 pouces. Tocque. 
 
 1773 Le Portrait de M. V, R. Tableau en Pastel de 27 pouces sur 22, 
 
 Le Portrait de M. Duperel. Tableau a I'huile, de 27 pouces sur 22. 
 Le Portrait d'un Vieillard, ^g6 de 83 ans. Tableau ovale de 23 pouces sur 19. 
 Autres Portraits. 
 1777 Portrait de M. Coquebert de Montbret, Consul-g6n6ral dans le Cercle de 
 
 Basse-Saxe. Tableau ovale, peint a I'huile. 
 1779 Plusieurs Portraits de Femmes en Pastel. 
 
 TOCQUE (LOUIS). 
 
 1737 Madame la Marquise de Thibouteau. 
 
 Le Portrait de M. Mass6 de I'Acad^mie. Peintre en Mignature. 
 
 M. Rindvel, Hollandois, en pied, jouant de la Viole. 
 
 M. Nerault, Garde-meubles du Roy et chevalier de I'ordre de Saint-Michel. 
 
 Madame la Comtesse de Marchainville. 
 
 Madame Naux. 
 
 1738 Le Portrait de M. Sti6mart, Peintre de l'Acad6mie et garde des tableaux du 
 
 Roy. 
 Un tableau repr^sentant le Portrait de Madame Harant en CoefFure et en 
 
 mantelet. 
 Un tableau representant M. Babot Joyalier. 
 Un tableau representant M. Pitre, Joyalier appuy^ sur un Livre. 
 Autre representant M. Rinduel le jeune, Hollandois, tenant un livre de 
 
 musique. 
 
 1739 Un tableau en hauteur de 6 pieds representant M. le Dauphin en pied, dans un 
 
 Cabinet d'Etude. 
 Le Portrait en buste de Madame Trusson, Femme de Chambre de Mesdames 
 
 de France. 
 Celuy aussi en buste de M. Mass6, Marchand jouaillier. 
 Le Portrait de M. Daud6 Chevalier de S. Michel, D^puti des Etats de la 
 
 Province de Languedoc. 
 Le Portrait de M. Laugeois Intendant des Finances, de Monseigneur le Due 
 
 d'Orl6ans ayant la main appuy6 sur un Livre. 
 
 1742 Un grand Portrait jusqu'aux genouils representant M. Bouret assis dans son 
 
 Cabinet, tenant une Lettre. 
 
 Autre representant M. I'Abbd Desfontaines, tenant une feuille des Observa- 
 tions sur les Ecrits modernes. 
 
 Autre, representant Madame Denis, ^tant a sa Toilette. 
 
 Autre, representant Madame Dibon, prenant du cafe. 
 
 Autre, representant Madame de Fumeron, en Muse, avec les attributs de la 
 Musique. 
 
 1743 Un grand Tableau, representant M. Mirey, Secretaire du Roy, Conservatcur 
 
 des Hypoteques, peint en Chasseur, tenant son fusil. 
 Autre representant M. Pouan, appuye sur le dos d'un Fauteuil. 
 
 Autre en buste representant Mad. de • 
 
 Autre representant M. de , en Robe de Chambre. 
 
 UneTete, representant le Portrait de M. Le Moyne le pdre, Sculpteur ordinaire 
 du Roy, et Professeur en son Academic de Peinture et de Sculpture. 
 
 209 E E 
 
List of 
 works ex- 
 hibited at 
 the Salon. 
 
 1745 
 
 1746 
 
 1747 
 1748 
 
 1750 
 
 1751 
 
 1753 
 
 1755 
 
 Un Tableau repr&entant le Portrait de M. Bessay en Robe de Chambre, 
 tenant un Livre de Neuton : sur la table est une Cuirasse qui designe qu'il 
 a et6 militaire. 
 
 Autre de Mademoiselle en coefFe, tenant d'une main son Mantelet. 
 
 Autre de Mademoiselle Bourdon la 
 
 tenant une fleche. 
 
 . jeune, 
 Autre de M. son Frere, assis par terre pr^s d'un treillage jouant avec des 
 
 Colimacons. 
 Un buste de Mademoiselle Piou, avec une Rose devant elle. 
 Autre repr^sentant M. de Livry le p^re. 
 Le Portrait de Madame Terisse, les mains dans son manchon. 
 Le Portrait de M. Wasserschlebe, tenant une lettre. 
 Le Portrait de M. Baillon Horlogeur, Premier Valet de Chambre de la Reine. 
 
 Madame de a sa Toilette, tenant une Boete a Mouches. 
 
 Le Portrait jusqu'aux genoiiils, de M. Dange, Fermier General, tenant son 
 
 chapeau, et ayant une petite Levrette sur un fauteuil. 
 Le Portrait en pied de feiie Madame la Dauphine, Princesse d'Espagne. 
 Le Portrait de M. I'Abbe de Lowendal. 
 Celui de M. Selon de Londres, tenant son Chapeau. 
 Le Portrait jusqu'aux genoiiils de M. de Tournehem, Dire£teur et Ordonnateur 
 
 General des Bitimens, Jardins, Arts, Acad6mie et Manufactures Royales. 
 Le Portrait de M. le Mar(5chal de Lowendal, de meme grandeur. 
 Le Portrait de M. le Marquis de Villeroy, en Cuirasse, la main appuy^e sur un 
 
 Casque. 
 Le Portrait de M. le Comte de Saint Florentin, assis, tenant une Lettre. 
 Portrait en buste de M. de Livry, Premier Commis des Bureaux de M. le 
 
 Comte de Saint Florentin. 
 Celuy de Madame son Epouse en mantelet bleu. 
 Le Portrait de M. de la Live de Jully, en Chasseur. 
 M. Bergeret, Receveur General des Finances. 
 Madame Tocqu6, tenant une Brochure, 
 Le Portrait de M. le Comte de Kaunitz Rittberg, Ambassadeur de I'Empire, 
 
 peint jusqu'aux genouils, tenant son Chapeau. 
 Le Portrait de M. le Comte d'Albemarle, Ambassadeur d'Angleterre, peint 
 
 jusqu'aux genouils, en habit uniforme, ayant sa main sur un Casque. 
 
 Le Portrait de Madame Danger, sur un Sopha, faisant des Nceuds, aussi peinte 
 
 jusqu'aux genouils. 
 Un buste du portrait de M. le Comte de Waldener. 
 Le Portrait en pied de Monseigneur le Due de Chartres ; jetant du pain a des 
 
 Cygnes dans un Bassin. 
 Le Portrait de Monsieur le Marquis de Marigny ; Tableau haut de 4 pieds, 
 
 3 pouces, sur 3 pieds 3 pouces de large. 
 Le Portrait de M. de Roissy, Receveur G^n6ral des Finances. II est appuy6 
 
 sur un table, lisant et s'amusant de Musique. Haut de 4 pieds 3 pouces, 
 
 sur 3 pieds 3 pouces de large. 
 Le Portrait de feue Madame , en mantelet blanc et appuy6e sur un 
 
 oreiller. Tableau haut de 2 pieds sur 2 pieds et demi de large. 
 Le Portrait de M. en petit deshabille ayant une Brochure et une Taba- 
 
 tiere a la main. Haut de 2 pieds, sur 2 pieds et demi de large. 
 Le Portrait de M. J61iotte, sous la figure d'Apollon, chantant et s'acompagnant 
 
 de sa Lyre. Haut de 2 pieds 10 pouces sur 2 pieds 4 pouces de large. 
 
 210 
 
 I 
 
1759 Le Portrait de S. A. R. Monseigneur le Prince Royal de Danemarc. 
 Plusieurs Portraits sous le meme No. 
 
 Jean- 
 Francois 
 de Troy. 
 
 TROY (JEAN-FRANCOIS DE). 
 
 '737 Un Dejeund de Chasse. 
 
 L'Evanouissement d'Esther, de 14 pieds sur 10 d'hauteur. 
 La Mort d'un Cerf. 
 Un deshabille de Bal. 
 Une petite Liseuse. 
 Une Toilette de Bal. 
 1738 Un grand Tableau en largeur de dix pieds sur autant de haut repr^sentant la 
 Toilette d'Esther. 
 Autre Tableau de douze pieds sur dix de haut repr&entant le Couronnement 
 d'Esther. 
 1740 Un grand Tableau en largeur de 20 pieds sur 11 de haut, reprdsentant le 
 Triomphe de Mardoch^e. 
 Autre de meme hauteur sur 14 pieds de large, repr&entant le repas d'Esther. 
 1742 Un grand Tableau en largeur de 15 pieds sur 11 repr^sentant la suite de 
 rhistoire d'Esther dans le moment qu'Aman monte les degrez du Palais 
 d'Assuerus, tout le monde flechit le genou devant lay, a I'exception de 
 Mardoch^e. 
 Autre de meme hauteur, sur 17 de large, repr&entant Aman qui se jette sur le 
 lit de la Reine la suppliant d'obtenir sa grace ; mais Assuerus qui s'^toit 
 retire dans le Bois voisin, ^tant revenu et I'ayant surpris, entra dans une 
 furieuse colere, et ordonna sur le champ qu'il subit le meme supplice qu'il 
 avoit prepare a Mardoch^e. 
 1 748 7 Tableaux tirez d'Ovide : 
 
 Med^e, fille du Roy JEst6s, inspir^e par I'Amour fait promettre a Jason, 
 
 dans le Temple de Diane, qu'il n'auroit jamais d'autre Epouse qu'elle et 
 
 luy remet I'herbe enchantde qui doit le rendre vainqueur du Monstre 
 
 gardien de la Toison d'Or. 
 
 Jason dans le Champ de Mars, en presence du Roy et de tous les habitants 
 
 de Colchos, assujetit au joug les Taureaux consacr^s a ce Dieu. 
 Jason, aprds avoir sem6 les dents du Serpent, et se voyant attaqu^ par les 
 soldats qu'elles avoient fait naitre tous arm^s, lance au milieu d'eux une 
 pierre dont I'efFet enchanteur leur fait tourner contr-eux leurs propres 
 armes. 
 Jason ayant, par la vertu des herbes, endormi le Dragon, gardien de la 
 Toison rOr, se saisit sans obstacle de la riche depoiiille du Mouton de 
 Phryxus et fut en Thessalie, accompagn^ de sa Maitresse. 
 Jason infidele a M^d^e, Spouse Creuse, fille de Cr6on, Roy de Corinthe. 
 Med^e pour se vanger avec dclat de sa Rivale luy fait present d'une Robe 
 
 empoisonn^e, qui luy cause la mort ainsi qu'a Creon son pere. 
 Med^e mit le comble a sa vengeance, en poignardant deux Fils qu'elle avoit 
 eu de Jason. EUe se d^robe a ses coups, par le secours d'un Char atteie 
 de deux Dragons, volans, aprds avoir r^duit en cendres le Palais de 
 Crdon. 
 1750 Quatre Tableaux dont les Sujets sont tir^s de I'Ancien Testament t 
 Lotte dans I'yvresse, avec ses Filles. 
 Abigail aux pieds de David. 
 La Reine de Saba vient voir Salomon. 
 Suzanne entre les Vieillards. 
 
 21 I 
 
List of 
 works ex- 
 hibited at 
 the Salon. 
 
 VERNET (CLAUDE-JOSEPH). 
 
 1746 Quatre Tableaux reprdsentans des Marines, de difFerentes vues de Naples et 
 
 d'ltalie, sous le meme Num^ro. 
 
 1747 Deux Marines, sous le meme Num^ro. 
 
 1748 Deux tableaux. L'un repr^sente un Incendie. L'autre un clair de Lune. 
 
 1 750 Quatre tableaux d'environ cinq pieds, sur quatre de haut. Le premier est un 
 
 Depart du Port a la fraicheur du matin. La gayet6 des instrumens et de la 
 
 danse y annoncent un voyage de plaisir. 
 Le second repr^sente I'Arriv^e au Port a la fin du jour. La fete et la repas se 
 
 donnent sur le rivage. 
 Le troisi6me, un Joute sur le Tibre, a la vue du Chateau et du Pont S. Ange. 
 
 Le quatrieme, un Naufrage. 
 1 753 Deux Tableaux de Marine, sous le meme No. l'un reprisente une Tempete, et 
 
 l'autre un Soleil levant dans un brouillard. 
 Deux Paisages et Marines sous le meme Num^ro. 
 Autre repr^sentant un Port de Mer, avec un Soleil couchant. Ces cinq Tableaux 
 
 sont tir^s du Cabinet de M. Peilhon. 
 Du Cabinet de M. de Villette. Quatre Tableaux sous le m6me No, deux 
 
 desquels repr^sentent des Rochers, chutes d'Eau et Figures dans la maniere 
 
 de Salvator Rose ; les deux autres, des parties de plaisir sur le bord de la 
 
 Mer. 
 Deux autres aussi sous le meme No. repr^sentans un Soleil levant et un 
 
 couchant. 
 Un Tableau en largeur de quatre pieds et demi sur trois et demi de haut. . . • 
 
 Ce Tableau est le Morceau de Reception de I'Auteur a I'Acad^mie. 
 Quatre Tableaux appartenants au Roi, de 8 pieds de large, sur 5 pieds de haut 
 
 chacun. L'Interieur du Port de Marseille. . . . L'Entr^e du Port de 
 
 Marseille. . . . Le Port Neuf ou Arsenal de Toulon. . . . Nota. — 
 
 L'heure du jour des 3 Tableaux, ci-dessus est entre 10 et 11 heures du 
 
 matin. ... La Madrague ou la Peche de Thon. Cet aspe<3: est pris 
 
 dans le Golfe de Bandol. . . . 
 Tempete et Naufrage d'un vaisseau. Tableau haut de 2 pieds et demi sur quatre 
 
 pieds de large. Tir6 du Cabinet de M. le Marquis de Marigny. 
 '757 Quatre Tableaux appartenans au Roy. Leur largeur est de 8 pieds, leur 
 
 hauteur de 5. Le Port d' Antibes en Provence vu du c6t6 de la terre. . . . 
 
 Le Port vieux de Toulon. . . . Vue de la ville et de la Rade de Toulon. 
 
 ... La vue du Port de Cette, en Languedoc. . . . 
 Un Tableau de 4 pieds 4 pouces de large, sur 2 pieds 9 pouces de haut, appar- 
 
 tenant a M. le Marquis de Marigny. II repr^sente un paysage avec un 
 
 Groupe de Pecheurs et de Lavandieres. 
 Deux Tableaux sur bois, d'un pied de large sur 9 pouces de haut, appartenant 
 
 a M. Peilhon. L'un reprdsente une Grecque sortant du bain. L'autre 
 
 un Turc qui fume au bord de la Mer, en regardant pecher a la ligne. 
 Deux Tableaux sur cuivre, de 16 pouces de large, sur 11 de haut, appartenans 
 
 a M. de Villette. L'un repr^sente un paysage au lever du Soleil. L'autre, 
 
 une Marine au Soleil couchant. 
 Deux Tableaux, chacun de 2 pieds 6 pouces, sur 2 pieds. L'un represente une 
 
 Mer par un tems d'orage. L'autre, un Paysage avec une chute d'Eau. 
 
 Ces Tableaux appartiennent a M. Viali. 
 Autres Tableaux du meme Auteur. 
 
 1759 Vue d'une partie du Port et de la ville de Bordeaux prise du cotd des Salinieres. 
 . . . Autre vue du meme Port prise du Chateau Trompette. . . . Ces deux 
 
 212 
 
 175s 
 
Vernet. 
 
 Tableaux appartiennent au Roi ; leur largeur est de huit pieds, leur hauteur Claude- 
 de cinq. I?^®?^ 
 
 1759 Vue de la Ville d'Avignon. 
 
 Tableaux du meme Auteur sous le meme Numero. 
 1 76 1 Vue de Bayonne, prise a mi-cote sur le Glacis de la Citadelle. . . , Autre vue 
 de Bayonne, prise de I'all^e de Boufflers pr^s la porte de Mousserole. . . . 
 Ces deux Tableaux appartiennent au Roi et sont de la suite des Ports de 
 France, ex^cutde sous les ordres de M. le Marquis de Marigny. 
 
 Plusieurs Tableaux sous le meme numero. 
 1763 Vue du Port de Rochefort ; prise du Magasin des Colonies. . . . Vue du Port 
 de la Rochelle ; prise de la petite Rive. . . . Ces deux Tableaux appar- 
 tiennent au Roi et sont de la Suite des Ports de France etc. 
 
 Les quatre Parties du Jour, representees, Le Matin, par le lever du Soleil. Le 
 Midi, par une Tempete. Le Soir, par le coucher du Soleil. Le Nuit 
 par un clair de Lune. Ces quatre Tableaux ont 6t6 ordonn6s par Mon- 
 seigneur le Dauphin pour sa Bibliotheque a Versailles. 
 
 La Berg^re des Alpes. . . . Plusieurs autres Tableaux sous le meme numero, 
 1765 Vue du Port de Dieppe. . . . Ce Tableau de 8 pieds de large, sur 5 de haut, 
 appartient au Roi, et est de la suite des Ports de France. . . . 
 
 Quatres Tableaux, repr^sentant les quatre parties du Jour. Ces Tableaux 
 d'environ 5 pieds de large sur 3 de haut, sont destines pour les appartemens 
 de Choisy. 
 
 Deux Vues des environs de Nogent sur Seine. ... 4 pieds de large, sur 2 
 pieds 6 pouces de haut . . . du Cabinet de M. de Boullogne, ancien 
 Controleur General. 
 
 Deux pendants : I'un un Naufrage ; I'autre un Paysage. ... 4 pieds de large, 
 sur 2 pieds 6 de haut. Du Cabinet de M. le Chevalier le Gendr6 d'Averay. 
 
 Un Naufrage. ... 2 pieds 6 pouces de large, sur i pied 8 pouces. Du Cabinet 
 de M. le Marquis de Villette. 
 
 Une marine au Coucher du Soleil. ... 3 pieds 6 pouces de large, sur 2 pieds 
 6 pouces de haut, Du Cabinet de M. le Marquis de Roquefeuille. 
 
 Sept petits Tableaux. . . . 
 
 Deux Marines. ... 2 pieds de large, sur 1 pied 8 pouces de haut, appartien- 
 nent a M. Godefroy le jeune. 
 
 Une Marine. ... 3 pieds de large, sur 2 pieds 6 pouces de haut. II appartient 
 a M. Jacquin, Joyallier du Roi. . . . 
 
 Une Tempete, ... 2 pieds 6 pouces, sur i pied 8 pouces de haut, II 
 appartient a M. Bouillette. 
 
 Plusieurs Tableaux, sous le meme No. 
 1767 Plusieurs Tableaux sous le meme Numero. 
 1 769 . Plusieurs Tableaux de Marine et de Pai'sages, sous le meme No. 
 1 77 1 Une Tempete avec le Naufrage d'un Vaisseau. 
 
 Un Paysage et Marine, au coucher du Soleil. Ces deux Tableaux appartiennent 
 a TEledteur Palatin . . . chacun 5 pieds de large, sur 3 pieds 6 pouces de 
 haut. 
 
 Une Marine au clair de la Lune, De 5 pieds de large, sur 3 pieds de haut. 
 
 Une Marine avec des Baigneuses : I'heure du jour est le matin. 
 
 Un Paysage au Soleil couchant . . . chacun 3 pieds de large, sur 2 pieds de 
 haut, 
 
 1773 Quatre Tableaux, Paysages et Marines . . . chacun 5 pieds de large sur 3 
 pieds de haut. 
 
 213 
 
List of 
 works ex- 
 hibited at 
 the Salon. 
 
 1773 Marine et Paysage sur les bords de la MWiterran^e. ... 8 pieds de large, sur 
 
 5 pieds de haut. 
 Plusieurs Tableaux sous le meme Nutn^ro. 
 1775 Un Paysage montueux . . . de 8 pieds de large, sur 5 pieds de haut, appartient 
 
 a milord Schelburn. 
 Deux Tableaux, I'un la constru6tion d'un grandchemin, I'autre les abords 
 
 d'une foire. Chacun de 5 pieds de large, sur 3 pieds de haut. 
 Deux Tableaux, I'un une mer calme . . . I'autre, le commencement d'une 
 
 tempete. . . . Chacun de 3 pieds 6 pouces de large, sur 2 pieds 6 pouces 
 
 de haut, ils appartiennent a M. de Pressigny. 
 Quelques autres petits Tableaux. 
 1777 Deux Tableaux : I'un, I'entr^e d'un Port de Mer par un temps calme . . . 
 
 I'autre, un tempete. . . . De 9 pieds 4 pouces de haut, sur 6 pieds 2 pouces 
 
 de large. 
 Plusieurs autres Tableaux. . . , 
 1779 Deux Tableaux repr^sentans, I'un le matin, et I'autre une mer calme au clair 
 
 de lune. lis ont 9 pieds 4 pouces de haut, sur 7 pieds 8 pouces de large. 
 Deux Tableaux repr^sentans la chute ou les cataradtes du Rhin a Lauffen- 
 
 bourg, . . . vues des deux cot^s opposes. 
 Deux autres Tableaux ; I'un, un lever du Soleil, . . . I'autre, un Pai'sage au 
 
 coucher du Soleil. Ces quatre Tableaux, de 4 pieds de large sur 2 et 
 
 demi de haut, appartiennent a M. Girardon [sic] de Marigny. 
 Deux Tableaux ; I'un, un Paisage ^clair6 du Soleil couchant ; et I'autre, une 
 
 Marine au claire de lune. 
 1 781 Quatre Tableaux de Marine. De 4 pieds 6 pouces de large, sur 5 pieds de 
 
 haut, appartenant a M. Girardot de Marigny, 
 Plusieurs Tableaux, sous le meme numero. 
 1783 Deux Tableaux, dont I'un, un Paysage . . . avec de hautes montagnes, . . . 
 
 et I'autre un Paysage . . . avec des Baigneuses. Ces Tableaux, de 4 
 
 pieds I pouce de large sur 2 pieds 9 pouces de haut, appartiennent a 
 
 M. Girardot de Marigny. 
 1785 Une Marine avec une Tempete. . . . Ce Tableau de 14 pieds de long, sur 8 
 
 de haut, est pour son Altesse Royale le grand Due de Russie. 
 Deux Tableaux, . . . un Paysage . . . et I'autre une Marine. . . . Tableaux 
 
 de 4 pieds de large, sur 3 de haut, appartiennent a M. Girardot de Marigny. 
 Autre Tableau . . . on.y voit plusieurs Personnes s'amusant sur le bord d'un 
 
 Lac. De meme grandeur que les pr6c6dens. 
 Autre Tableau, repr^sentant une Tempete. De 3 pieds 2 pouces de large, sur 
 
 2 pieds de haut, appartenant a M. Dubois. 
 
 1787 Un Lever du Soleil. . . . Une Tempete. . . . Ces deux Tableaux de 5 pieds 6 
 pouces, sur 4 pieds 6 pouces, sont tires du Cabinet de M. Dufresnoy, 
 Notaire. 
 
 Un calme. ... 
 
 Une Tempete. . . . Ces deux Tableaux ont 5 pieds 6 pouces sur 4 pieds. 
 
 Un Combat naval. 
 
 Une Escadre qui rentre au Port. 
 
 L'ouverture d'une Grotte. . . . Ces trois Tableaux de 4 pieds 7 pouces, sur 
 
 3 pieds 4 pouces, appartiennent a M. Girardot de Marigny. 
 
 Une Marine. . . . Ce Tableau de 3 pieds 3 pouces et demi, sur 2 pieds 7 
 pouces et demi, appartient a M. Paupe n^gociant. 
 
 Un grand Rocher, formant Grotte . . . ou plusieurs femmes se baignent. 
 
 2H 
 
Le Naufrage d'un Vaisseau. Ces deux Tableaux, de 3 pieds 2 pouces, Claudc- 
 
 sur 2 pieds 6 pouces, appartiennent a M. Dubois. Joseph 
 
 1787 Un calme ... 4 pieds 6 pouces, sur 3 pieds 3 pouces. Vernet. 
 
 Autres Marines. . . . 
 1 789 Deux Tableaux ; I'un, une Mer calme . . . avec un grouppe de figures sur le 
 
 devant, qui est la famille de I'Auteur ; I'autre, une Tempete avec le 
 
 naufrage d'un vaisseau. 
 Un incendie pendant la nuit. 
 Un Lever de Soleil. . . . 
 Deux petits Tableaux ovales ; I'un, un Paysage, et I'autre, une Marine. Ces 
 
 six Tableaux sont tirds du Cabinet de M. Paupe. 
 Deux Tableaux, I'un, un Calme . . . I'autre, une fin d'Orage, avec un vaisseau 
 
 naufi-ag^ dont s'est sauv6 le Capitaine avec sa femme, son enfant et quelques 
 
 Matelots. . . . 
 Deux Tableaux, une Tempete . . . et I'autre, une Peche . . . dans un terns 
 
 de brouillard. 
 Deux Tableaux ; I'un repr&ente le naufi^age de Virginie a I'Isle de France, 
 
 sujet tir6 d'un Ouvrage de M. de Saint-Pierre ; I'autre est un Paysage. 
 
 ... lis appartiennent a M. Girardot de Marigny. 
 Un Calme. ... II appartient a M. Imbert, premier Chirurgien de Mon- 
 
 seigneur le Due d'OrMans. 
 Un Temps orageux dans un lieu sauvage , . . dans le gout de Salvator-Rosa. 
 Plusieurs autres Tableaux sous le meme Num^ro. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 The long descriptions attached by Vernet to the titles of his pictures, as well as 
 the explanation by Carle van Loo of his painting for the Ville de Paris in 1 740, have 
 been omitted, as the details were not necessary to their identification. 
 
 215 
 
INDEX OF ARTISTS, PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS, index. 
 
 ENGRAVINGS AND COLLECTIONS. 
 
 The Titles of PiSiures are printed in Italic type. 
 
 Where the title, whether French or English, begins with the definite article it has for 
 convenience been omitted. 
 
 French names with the prefix "i/^" will be found under the letter " D," except when the 
 name is preceded by a title, as " Duchesse de Chartres" when it is placed under the 
 initial of the name. 
 
 Ahreuvoir, by Watteau, 88. 
 Academy of St. Luke, Exhibitions at, lo, I2. 
 Accord'ee de Village, by Greuze, 132. 
 ASieurs de la Comfdie Italienne, by Lancret, 
 
 103. 
 AUrice, by Lancret, 104. 
 Adam's Prometheus, 9. 
 Adam I'Ain^, portrait of,byPerronneau, 168. 
 AdHa'ide, Mme., portrait of, " En Diane," 
 
 by Nattier, 1^0 et seq. 
 Adoration des Bergers, by Fragonard, 67. 
 Agriments de la Campagne, by Lancret, 104. 
 Agriments de Vki, by Watteau, 104. 
 Alarm, The, by de Troy, no. 
 Albertina Colleftion, 86. 
 Alexandre s'endormant, by Chardin fils, 128 
 
 note. 
 Aliments de la Convalescence, by Chardin, 
 
 120. 
 Amante inquiete, by Watteau, 82 et seq. 
 Amelia, ()th Baroness Conyers, by Drouais, 
 
 156. 
 Amour au thiatre fran^ais, by Watteau, 83. 
 Amour au thiatre Italien, by Watteau, 83 
 
 et seq. 
 Amour disarmi, by Watteau, 82, 86. 
 Amour-Folie, by Fragonard, 62. 
 Amours joueurs, by Fragonard, 65. 
 Amour paisible, by Watteau, 81 note, 89. 
 Amour qui embrasse PUnivers, by Fragonard, 
 
 65. 
 
 Amours endormis, by P'ragonard, 65. 
 Amusements champetres, by Watteau, 85, 90, 
 
 Amusements de la vie privie, by Chardin, 
 
 I 22 et seq. 
 Andr^, Mme. Edmond, the colleftion of, 
 
 63, 67 note, 87, 90 note, 1 19, 136 note. 
 D'Angiviller, 7, 18, 27 ; portrait of, by 
 
 Roslin, 155. 
 Antibes, pidlures of, by J. Vernet, 183. 
 Apollon et Marsyas, by C. van Loo, 46. 
 Apollon et Nymphe, by Boucher, 54. 
 Apothiose d'Hercule, by ie Moine, 33, 35. 
 Arnould, Sophie, portrait of, by Greuze, 136. 
 Artiste Dessinateur, by Chardin, 121, 123 
 
 and note. 
 Assemblk dans un Pare, by Watteau, 83, 84. 
 Assomption de la Fierge, by Boucher, 5 3 note ; 
 
 by le Moine, 33. 
 Astronomic, by Boucher, 39 note, 53 note. 
 Attache du Patin, by Lancret, 1 05 et seq. 
 Attributs des Arts, by Chardin, iig. 
 Aubert, engraver, 38. 
 Aubert, Louis-Francois, miniature painter, 
 
 p. 167. 
 Aubry, Etienne, portrait-painter, 137. 
 Audran, engraver, 44, 77. 
 Aurora, pastel, by Perronneau, 170. 
 Aurore et Ckphale, by Boucher, 46, 48, 52. 
 Auteur qui rit, by Latour, 159. 
 Automne, by Watteau, 78. 
 
 ;i7 
 
 F F 
 
Index. Aveline, engraver, 82, 90. 
 
 Aveugle trompk, by Greuze, 25, 131. 
 
 Bacchante endormie, by Fragonard, 65. 
 
 Bacchus and Ariadne^ by Natoire, 39 note. 
 
 Badende M'ddchen^ by Pater, 98. 
 
 Baigneuses, by Fragonard, 65. 
 
 Baigneuses dans un Pare, by Pater, 98. 
 
 Bain a la Maison, by Pater, 100. 
 
 Bain, Le, by Nattier, 149. 
 
 Bain rustique, by Pater, 98. 
 
 Baiser jete, by Greuze, 133. 
 
 Balanfoire, by Boucher, 52. 
 
 Ball, A, by Lancret, 10 1. 
 
 Bal champetre, by Lancret, 104 et seq. 
 
 Bal sous une Collonnade, by Watteau, 94, 1 00. 
 
 Ballet de Boucher, 54. 
 
 Barral, Mile., portrait of, by Largilliere, 
 144 et seq. 
 
 Basan, engraver, 175. 
 
 Bath, The, by Pater, 98. 
 
 Baudouin, Pierre-Antoine, 129; Life of the 
 Virgin, 130 ; Le Gaucher de la Mariee, 
 59, 130 et seq.; Le Mod'ile honnete, 59, 
 1 30; Le Carquois epuise, 1 30; Le Lever, 
 130 ; U Enlevement noSlurne, 130 ; 
 UEpouse indiscrete, 13O; Le Confessional, 
 131; Madame du Barry, 1 3 1 ; La Fille 
 e conduit e, 131 ; Le Cueilleur de Cerises, 
 131 ; La petite Laitiere, 131. 
 
 Bavikre, Elisabeth-Charlotte de, portrait of, 
 by Largilliere, 149. 
 
 Beauvarlet, engraver, 30, 46. 
 
 Belle Blanchisseuse, by Greuze, 133. 
 
 Belle Cusiniere, by Boucher, 48. 
 
 Belle Grecque, by Lancret, 104. 
 
 Belle-Isle, Marechal de, portrait of, by 
 Latour, 164. 
 
 Belle-Isle, Due de, portrait of, by Rigaud, 
 142. 
 
 BenedicitS, by Chardin, 120-122. 
 
 BenediSi XIV., by Subleyras, 139. 
 
 Berger endormi, by Boucher, 59. 
 
 Berlin, the colledlions at, 51 note, 80 note, 
 81, 83 and note, 85, 88 and note, 89 note, 
 90, 98, 104. See also Potsdam and Sans 
 Souci. 
 
 Bernard, Samuel, portrait of, by Rigaud, 
 141 note. 
 
 Berri, Due de, portrait of, by Latour, 161. 
 
 Besan^on, Cathedral of, altar-piece by C. 
 van Loo, 46. 
 
 Blanche, by Oudry, 175. 
 
 Blanchisseuse, by Chardin, 120. 
 
 Blot, engraver, 62. 
 
 BofFrand, 39. 
 
 Boit, Stockholm, enameller. 
 
 Bonne Mere, La, by Greuze, 132 et seq. 
 
 Bonnat, M., the colleftion of, 89, 126. 
 
 Borh enlevant Chloris, by Boucher, 59 note. 
 
 Bossuet, portrait of, by Rigaud, 139. 
 
 Bouchardon, portrait of, by Drouais, 155. 
 
 Boucher, Francois, 37 et seq. ; as engraver, 
 84; portrait of, by Lundberg, 51 ; V^nus 
 commandant des Armes a Vuleain, 38 ; 
 La Naissance d'' Adonis, 38 ; La Mort 
 d'' Adonis, 38 ; Les Cris de Paris, 38 ; 
 UHistoire, r Eloquence , F Astronomic, 39 
 note ; Aurore et C^phale, 46, 48, 49 ; 
 Belle Cuisiniere, 48; Diane sortant du 
 bain, 48 ; Naissance et Triomphe de Vinus, 
 
 48 J Lida et le Cygne, 49 ; ^atre heures 
 du jour, 49 ; Marchande de Modes, 49 ; 
 La Toilette de Venus, 49 ; Venus et les 
 Graces au bain, 49 ; Scene de Boudoir, 
 
 49 note ; Vinus se preparant pour le 
 Jugement de Paris, 50 ; Repos de Vinus, 
 
 50 ; Le Riveil, 50 ; Vinus et r Amour, 
 50 ; Femme couchie sur le ventre, 50 ; 
 Mme. de Pompadour, 51, 55 ; Scene 
 paintings, 51 note; Psychi eonduite par 
 les Ziphirs, 52 ; La Balanfoire, 52 ; 
 Vinus aux forges de Vuleain, 52, 53 ; 
 Aurore et Ciphale, 52 ; Vertumme et 
 Pomone, 52 j Psychi et F Amour, 52 ; Le 
 Lever, and Le Coucher du Soleil, 52 ; 
 L' Eloquence, 53 note ; U Astronomic, 53 
 note ; L'Histoire, 53 note ; La Poisie 
 ipique, 53 note ; Nativity, 53 ; La Muse 
 Erato, 53 note, 54 ; Clio, 53 note ; 
 Assomption de la Vierge, 53 note ; Repos 
 de la Saint e Famille, 53 note ; Pridica- 
 tion de Saint Jean, 53 note ; Apolon et 
 Nymphe, 54 ; Vuleain prisentant a Vinus 
 des Armes pour Enie, ^e^; La Marquise au 
 jardin, 55 ; La Marquise sur sa Chaise- 
 
 Longue, 55 ; Fille au Manchon, 55 j 
 Venus demande a Vuleain des Armes pour 
 Enee, 59; Vinus couronnee par les Amours, 
 59 ; Un Berger endormi, 59 ; Borie en- 
 levant Chloris, 59 note ; La Naissance de 
 Bacchus, 59 note ; funon demande a Eole 
 de deehainer les vents, 59 note ; Le Moulin, 
 176. 
 
 Bouguer, Pierre, portrait of, by Perronneau, 
 168. 
 
 BouUogne, Louis de, 28. 
 
 Bouteilles de Savon, by Chardin, 114. 
 
 British Museum, Print Room, the colledlion 
 at, 51 note, 54 note, 66 note, 86 and 
 
 218 
 
note, 88, 93 note, 94 note, 96 note, 97 
 
 note, no and note, 176. 
 Bruandet, Lazare, Fue prise dans la foret de 
 
 Fontainebleau, 186. 
 Bruhl, le Comte de, the colledlion of, 76. 
 Buckingham Palace, the colle6tion at, 93. 
 Burford, engraver, 117. 
 
 Cafi, Le, medallion, by Fragonard, 63. 
 
 Cage, La, by Lancret, 106. 
 
 Catnargo, La, portrait of, by Latour, 163, 
 164. 
 
 Camargo avec son danseur, by Lancret, 1 04. 
 
 Camargo dansant, by Lancret, 104 et seq. 
 
 Cardinal de Polignac, portrait of, by 
 Rigaud, 139. 
 
 Carquois ipuise, by Baudouin, 130. 
 
 Carriera, Rosalba, 3, 148, 159; portrait of, 
 by Watteau, 92 note. 
 
 Cars, engraver, 36, 42, 125. 
 
 Cars, Laurent, master of Perronneau, 166. 
 
 Casanova, Francois, pidlures of, 186. 
 
 Cazes, master to Chardin, 152 note. 
 
 Cerf aux abois entoure d'une meute, by Des- 
 portes, 175. 
 
 Champcenetz, Madame de, portrait, by 
 Greuze, 136. 
 
 Champollion, engraver, 83. 
 
 Chantilly, the colledion at, 145, 156, 157, 
 175. See also Musde Conde. 
 
 Chardin, works in Berlin, gi. 
 
 Chardin, Jean-Baptiste-Simeon, Interieur de 
 cuisine, 1 13; Fruits sur une table, 113; 
 Fille tirant de Peau a une fontaine, 1 14; 
 Bouteilles de Savon, 114; Tours de cartes, 
 114; Lady sealing a letter, 11^ et seq. ; La 
 Fontaine, 1 14 et seq. ; Le Neglige, or 
 Toilette du Matin, 117, 120, 124; Un 
 jeune Dessinateur taillant son crayon, 1 17 ; 
 La Ratisseuse, 118 and note; La Pour- 
 voyeuse, 118 and note, 124; Portrait de 
 chasse, 118; Les Attributs des Arts, 119; 
 La Musique et les Arts, 1 19 ; La Musique 
 Guerriere, 119; V atelier de Lemoyne, 1 19; 
 La Blanchisseuse, 1 20 ; La Gouvernante, 
 1 20 ; Aliments de la Convalescence, 1 20 ; 
 La Mere laborieuse, 120, 125; Le Bene- 
 diciti, 120, 122 ; Jeune Ouvriere en 
 tapisserie, 121 and note, 123; U Artiste 
 Dessinateur, 12 1 and note, 123; Le 
 Gar f on CabarHier, 121 ; L' Ecureuse, 
 121, 124; La Mhe et s a Fille a leur 
 devidoir, ill ; Dead Hare, \11 ; Amuse- 
 ments de la vie privie, 122 et seq.; 
 UEconome, 122 et seq.; Jeune Fille qui 
 
 rkite T Evangile, 123; Eleve studieux. Index. 
 123 et seq.; Table d' office, 123; Table 
 de Cuisine, 123} La Serinette, 125 ; Le 
 jeu de I'Oye, 125 ; Le Toton, 127 ; Por- 
 trait of himself, 127; Portrait of Mar- 
 guerite Pouget, 128 ; Chdteau de Cartes, 
 114. 
 
 Chardin fils, p. 128 and note. 
 
 Chartres, Duchesse de, portrait of, by Nattier, 
 148 ; by Duplessis, 158 note. 
 
 Chasse au Loup, by Oudry, 175. 
 
 Chasse au Tigre, by Lancret, 102. 
 
 Chasseur, by Desportes, 139, 175. 
 
 Chastity of Joseph, by Deshayes, 9. 
 
 Chdteau de Cartes, by Chardin, 1 14. 
 
 Chdteauroux, Duchesse de, by Nattier, 149. 
 
 Chat Malade, by Watteau, 76. 
 
 Chemise enlevie, by Fragonard, 62. 
 
 Cheval fondu, Le, by Fragonard, 64. 
 
 Chevillet, engraver, 128. 
 
 Christ en Croix, by Watteau, 102. 
 
 Clio, by Boucher, 53 note. 
 
 Clotilde, Mme., portrait of, by Drouais, 156. 
 
 Cochin, engraver, 44, 85, 121 ; pamphlet 
 by, 10. 
 
 Coin de Village, by Watteau, 89. 
 
 CoUn-Maillard, by Watteau, 80 j by Pater, 
 91, 100. 
 
 Collation, by Watteau, 88. 
 
 Comidiens Italiens, by Watteau, 87. 
 
 ComMie Italienne, by Lancret, 106. 
 
 Comedy of Love, by Fragonard, 69. 
 
 Commune des Arts, 23. 
 
 Concert, medallion, by Fragonard, 63 ; by 
 Watteau, 175. 
 
 Concert Italien, by Watteau, 82. 
 
 Concours, Le, by Fragonard, 66. 
 
 Cond(S, Mus6e. See Chantilly and Musee. 
 
 Condk, Princesse de, portrait of, by Perron- 
 neau, 168. 
 
 Confessional, by Baudouin, 131, 
 
 Congres de Soissons, 141 note. 
 
 "Contes Moraux " by Marmontel, 131. 
 
 Continence de Scipion, by le Moine, 31, 35. 
 
 Conversation Espagnole, by C. van Loo, 46. 
 
 Conversation, by Watteau, 89. 
 
 Conversation dans un Pare, by Lancret, 107. 
 
 Convives dans la joie, by Lancret, 102. 
 
 Cook, Sir F., the colleftion of, 85. 
 
 Corisus et Callirho'e, by Fragonard, 62. 
 
 Coronation, by David, 70. 
 
 Coster, Mile., 11. 
 
 Gaucher de la Mariie, by Baudouin, 59, 130 
 et seq. 
 
 Gaucher des Ouvrikres, by Fragonard, 67. 
 
 ;i9 
 
Index. Gaucher du Soleil, by Boucher, 52. 
 
 Courboin, engraver, 137. 
 
 Couronne cT Amour, by Fragonard, 69. 
 
 Court and Village Festivals, by Pater, 98. 
 
 Coustou, Direftor of the Academy, 8, 44 ; 
 death of, 53 and note ; portrait of, by 
 Drouais, 155. 
 
 Coypel, Antoine, Direftor of the R.A., 3, 
 13, 25, 27 ; appointed "premier peintre 
 du roi," 40, 44 ; death of, 47 ; the Gloire, 
 27 ; Susanne accusie par les Vieillards, 27 ; 
 Esther en Prisence de Assuerus, 27, 31, 
 37 ; Destru£lion of the Palace of Armida, 
 
 Coypel, Noel-Nicolas, master to Chardin, 
 
 112 et seq, 118. 
 Coypel the younger, 35. 
 Crepy, engraver, 90, 106. 
 Cris de Paris, by Boucher, 38. 
 Crozat, Pierre, 78. 
 Cruche cassee. La, by Greuze, 133. 
 Cueilleur de Cerises, Le, by Baudouin, 131. 
 
 D'Alembert, portrait of, by Tocque, 153; 
 
 by Latour, 164, 165. 
 Dame au Manchon, by Tocqud, 153. 
 Dame dans un jar din, by Lancret, 109 note. 
 Dance in a Wood, by Lancret, lOi. 
 Dance near a Fountain, by Lancret, loi. 
 Danloux, 157. 
 Danse, by Watteau, 85. 
 Danse dans un Pare, by Lancret, 107. 
 Danse champetre, by Watteau, 80. 
 Danse de Noces, by Lancret, 104 note. 
 D'Antin, 3, 35. 
 
 D'Artois, Comte, portrait of, by Drouais, 156. 
 D'Argenville, 25. 
 D'Aubais, Marquis, portrait of, by Perron- 
 
 neau, 168. 
 Daulle, engraver, 48, 169, 139. 
 Dauphine, portrait of the, by Latour, 161. 
 David, 2, 17,43, 58 et seq. ; Coronation, 70. 
 Dead Hare, by Chardin, 122. 
 De Beauharnais, Charles, portrait of, by 
 
 Tournieres, 145 note. 
 Dibut du Modele, by Fragonard, 67 note. 
 De Clermont, Mile., portrait of, by Tocque, 
 
 148 et seq. 
 De Couronne, Haillet, 26. 
 De Courval, Vicomtesse, the colledlion of, 
 
 86, 107 note, 131 note. 
 De Craponne, jf. P., portrait of, by Lar- 
 
 gilliere, 144. 
 De Diencourt, Boutin, by Largilliere, 145. 
 D'Epinay, Duval, quarrel with Latour, 160. 
 
 De Gouy, Elizabeth, portrait of, by Rigaud, 
 
 139 et seq. 
 Dejeuner au jambon, by Lancret, 102. 
 Dejeuner d'huitres, by de Troy, 30. 
 De Julienne, portrait of, by Latour, 164. 
 De la Fosse, pupil of le Brun, 77 ^^ seq. ; 
 
 La Naissance de Minerve, 78 ; portrait 
 
 of, by Rigaud, 138, 
 De la Reyniere, M., portraits of, with his 
 
 wife, by Latour, 161, 164. 
 De la Roque, Antoine, portrait, by Watteau, 
 
 93 note. 
 DHassements de la Guerre, by Watteau, 78. 
 Delobel, 39. 
 
 De Launay, engraver, 67, 68. 
 De Mailly, Mme., portrait, by Latour, 160. 
 Demarne, 186. 
 De Mondonville, Mme., portrait, by Latour, 
 
 160, 164 note. 
 Denicheur de Moineaux, by Watteau, 80, 85. 
 Dipart des Comediens Italiens, by Watteau, 
 
 75- 
 Depart de Troupe, by Watteau, 77-79. 
 De Rieu, Prisident, portrait of, by Latour, 
 
 165, 174. 
 Desboutins, engraver, 70. 
 Desene, Marseilles artist, 4. 
 Desfriches, Mile., portrait of, by Perron- 
 
 neau, 168, 170 and note. 
 Deshabilli de bal, by de Troy, 37. 
 Deshayes, 47 ; The Chastity of Joseph, 9 ; 
 
 Le Triomphe de Finus, 58 ; Erigoni 
 
 vaincue, 58. 
 Disir de plaire, by Pater, 99, 108. 
 Desjardins, sculptor, portrait of, by Rigaud, 
 
 139- 
 Desportes, Francois, 175; Chasseur, 139, 
 
 175 ; Cerf aux abois entouri d'une meute, 
 
 '75- 
 DestruSlion of the Palace of Armida, by 
 
 Coypel, 153. 
 
 De Thorigny, Mme., by Largilliere, 145. 
 
 De Troy, Francois, 25 et seq.; Dijeuner 
 d^huitres, 30 ; Halte de Chasse, 30; La 
 Surprise, 30 ; Conversation galante, 30 ; 
 Plague at Marseilles, 31, 42 ; Premier 
 Chapitre du Saint Esprit, 31 ; Repos de 
 Diane, 3 1 ; Story of Esther, and of Jason 
 and Medea, 32 ; Evanouissement d^ Esther, 
 37 ; Un deshabilli de bal, 37 ; Une petite 
 Liseuse, 37 ; Une toilette de bal, 37. 
 
 Deux Amis, by Lancret, 108, 109. 
 
 De Verrue, Comtesse, 90. 
 
 Diane au bain, by Watteau, 86. 
 
 Diane sortant du bain, by Boucher, 48, 49. 
 
 220 
 
" Dites-donc, s'il vous plait" by Fragonard, 
 68. 
 
 Divertissement dans un pavilion^ by Lancret, 
 105. 
 
 Don ^ichotte a la Veille de set Armes^ 25. 
 
 Don ^ichote, by Natoire, 40. 
 
 Doucet, Mons. J., the colleftion of, 64, 
 137 note, 155, 157 note, 161, 164, 169 
 note, 173. 
 
 Dresden, the colledion at, 83 note, 90 note, 
 99 note, 148 note. 
 
 Drevet, engraver, 44. 
 
 Drouais, Francois-Hubert, 155 ^^ seq.; por- 
 trait of Perronneau, 168 ; Guillaume 
 Coustou, portrait, 155 ; Bouchardon, por- 
 trait, 155; Amelia, gth Baroness Con- 
 yers, 156; Marie Antoinette, portrait, 
 156; Marie Antoinette as Heb), 1565 
 Comte d^Artois, portrait, 156 ; Mme. 
 Clotilde, portrait, 156; Mme. de Pompa- 
 dour, portrait, 156 ; Mme. du Barry, 157. 
 
 Du Barry, Mme., 131 ; portrait of, by 
 Drouais, 157 ; J. Vernet works for, 180. 
 
 Du Chatelet, Madame, portrait of, by Lar- 
 gilliere, 145 note. 
 
 Duchesse de Chartres en Hibi, by Nattier, 148. 
 
 Duclos, Mile., portrait of, by Largilliere, 145. 
 
 Duet, by Watteau, 85. 
 
 Dugit, Joseph, 36. 
 
 Dulwich Gallery, the colleftion at, 89 note, 
 94 note, 100. 
 
 Dumarsais, portrait of, by Tocque, 153. 
 
 Dumont le Romain, by Latour, 165. 
 
 Dupeuche, portrait of, by Latour, 164. 
 
 Duplessis, Joseph Silfrede, 1 55 and note, 
 157 ; Portrait of duchesse de Chartres, 155 
 note. 
 
 Dupuis, engraver, 46. 
 
 Dutillieu, Jacques-Charles, portrait of, by 
 Perronneau, 169. 
 
 Ecole Royale, 14 et seq. 
 
 Ecole Royale des Eleves Proteges, 13. 
 
 Econome, by Chardin, 122 et seq. 
 
 Ecureuse, by Chardin, 1 21-124. 
 
 Edelinck, engraver, 143. 
 
 Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, 
 
 51, 80, 85, 98, 109, 133. 
 Filers, engraver, 115. 
 Elkve studieux, by Chardin, 123 et seq. 
 Elizabeth, the Txarina, portrait of, by L. 
 
 Tocqu6, 152. 
 Eloquence, by Boucher, 39 note, 53 note. 
 Embarquement pour I'lle de Cythere, by 
 
 Watteau, 81-83. 
 
 Endymion, by Jean-Baptiste van Loo, 45. Index. 
 Enie portant son phe Anchise, by C. van 
 
 Loo, 46. 
 Enfant blond, by Fragonard, 68. 
 Enfants Trouves, decorations in the chapel 
 
 of, by Natoire, 42. 
 
 Engravings. Portrait of Vien, by Miger, 19. 
 
 Baudouin's Le Coucher de la Mariie, by 
 
 Simonet, 130 ; Le ModUe honnete, by 
 
 Simonet, 1 30 ; La petite Laitiire, by 
 
 Gutenberg, 131. 
 
 Boucher's Naissance de Vinus, by E. 
 
 Hedouin, 48 ; Aurora, by Monzi^s, 
 
 48 ; La Chasse au Tigre, by Flipart, 
 
 48 ; Lhla et le Cygne, by Ryland, 
 
 Chardin's Lady sealing letter, by Fessard 
 and Filers, 115; La Toilette du Matin, 
 by L6picie and Burford, 117 ; Un jeune 
 Dessinateur, by Faber, 117; La Ratis- 
 seuse and La Pourvoyeuse, by Lepicie, 
 118; La Blanchisseuse,hy Cochin, 12 1; 
 L^ Econome, by le Bas, 122; Le Singe 
 peintre, by Surugue fils, 1 24 ; Dame 
 variant ses Amusements, by Cars, 1 25 ; 
 Le Toton, by Lepicie, 127 ; Chardin's 
 wife, by Chevillet, 128; Marguerite 
 Pouget, by Abel Luzat, 128. 
 
 Colson's Le Repos, by Courboin, 137. 
 
 De Troy's Toilette and Deshabilli de bal, 
 by Beauvarlet, 30 ; Peste, by Flameng, 
 31 ; Peste, by Thomasson, 31. 
 
 Fragonard's La Chemise enlevh, by Guer- 
 sant, 62 ; Le Verrou, by Blot, 62 ; Le 
 Serment d^ Amour, by Mathieu, 62 ; La 
 Main chaude, by Veyrassat, 64 ; Le 
 Cheval fondu, by Veyrassat, 64 ; Bac- 
 chante endormie, by Wallet, 65 ; Les 
 Hasards heureux de V Escarpolette, by 
 Launay, 67 ; V Enfant blond, by Jan- 
 zinski, 68 ; Dites-donc, by de Launay, 
 68 ; Decorations, by Desboutins, 70. 
 
 Greuze's L'Accordh de tillage, by Flipart, 
 132 ; La jeune Fille, by Flipart, 132 ; 
 La bonne Mhe, by Massard, 1325 Le 
 Gateau des Rois, by Flipart, 133. 
 
 Lancret's ASlrice, by Schmidt, 104 ; Four 
 Seasons, by Larmessin, 105; La 
 Co7nidie Italienne, by Cr6py fils, 1 06 ; 
 Le Gascon puni. La Femme avare, 
 Le Faucon and Les Troqueurs, by 
 Larmessin, 108. 
 
 Largilli^re's Le Brun,hy Edelinck, 143. 
 
 Latour's Rousseau, by Saint Aubin, 163; 
 Restout, by Moitte, 165. 
 
 221 
 
Index. Engravings continued — 
 
 Le Moine's Conversation Galante^ 30 
 Terns dkouvre la ViritS, by Cars, 36 
 Perseus and Andromeda^ by Cars, 36 
 La Naissance, by Scotin, and La Mart 
 d^ Adonis, by Aubert, 38 ; Louis XV., 
 by Cars, 42. 
 
 Loo's, C. Van, Ivresse de SiUne, by 
 Lempereur, 46 ; Halte de Chasse, by 
 Hddouin, 46 ; Halte d'Officiers, by 
 Ravenet, 46 ; Apollon et Marsyas, 
 by Miger, 46 ; Enie et Anchise, by N. 
 Dupuis, 46 ; Conversation Espagnole, 
 by Beauvarlet, 46 ; Leilure Espagnole 
 by Beauvarlet, 46 ; Marie Leczinska, 
 by Larmessin and Lalauze, 47. 
 
 Loo's, J. B. Van, Endymion, by Levasseur, 
 
 45- 
 Lundberg's Boucher, by Lalauze, 51. 
 Oudry's Panthere, hy Basan, 175. 
 Perronneau's Gerhard Meerman, by 
 
 DauUe, 169. 
 Pater's Halte de Regiment, by Lalauze, 
 
 97 ; Les Plaisirs du Camp, by Lalauze, 
 
 97 ; Le Bain a la Maison, by Surugue, 
 
 100 ; U Escamoteur, by Rhodon, 100. 
 Restout's Works, by Cochin, Tardieu, 
 
 Drevet, J. Audran, Levasseur, 44. 
 Rigaud's Elisabeth de Gouy, by Daull^, 
 
 139; La ^intinie and Lafontaine, 
 
 139- ^ 
 
 Robin's Bordeaux Theatre, by Noel le 
 
 Mire, 172. 
 Watteau's Sainte Famille, by Wust, 76 ; 
 La Marmotte and La Fileuse, by 
 Benoit Audran, 77 ; Dipart de Troupe, | 
 by Thomasson, 77 ; La Recrue, by 1 
 Thomasson, 77 ; Le Pilerinage, by I 
 Tardieu, 81 ; L' Amante inquike, by 
 Aveline, 82 ; Music Party, by Surugue, 
 83 ; AssembUe dans un Pare, by Cham- 
 pollion, 83 ; Liebes-Fest, by Cham- 
 pollion, 83 ; Troupe Italienne, by 
 Boucher, 84 ; D Amour au Thidtre 
 Italien, by Cochin, 85 ; L' Amour au 
 Thiatre Franfais, by Cochin, 85 ; 
 Grand-Gilles, by Rhodon, 87 5 Le Jeu 
 de F Escarpolette, by Cr^py, 90 ; La 
 Lefon, by Surugue, 90 ; Pour nous 
 prouver que cette belle, by Surugue, 90 ; 
 Fete a I' Amour, by Surugue, 90 ; La 
 Rkriation Italienne, by Aveline, 90 ; 
 De la Roque, by Ldpicie, 92 ; IVatteau 
 and Family, by Mercier, 93 ; Lady in 
 Red Dress, 93. 
 
 Enlevement de Proserpine, by Vien, 43 
 
 note. 
 Enlevement no£iurne, by Baudouin, 130. 
 Enseigne de Ger saint, by Watteau, 83. 
 Epouse indiscrete, by Baudouin, 130. 
 Erigone vaincue, by Deshayes, 58. 
 Escamoteur, by Mercier, 100. 
 Escarpolette, by Watteau, 52 ; by Lancret, 
 
 105. 
 Escorte di'iquipage, by Watteau, 79. 
 Evanouissement d' Esther, by de Troy, 37. 
 
 Faber, engraver, 117. 
 
 Falconnet's Pygmalion, 9. 
 
 Family group taking tea, by Lancret, 102. 
 
 Fatigues de la guerre, by Watteau, 78. 
 
 Faucon, Le, by Lancret, 1 08 ; by Subleyras, 
 
 109. 
 Faunillane, romance, by the Comte de 
 
 Tessin, 49. 
 Fabre d'' Eglantine, portrait of, by Greuze, 
 
 136. 
 Fel, Mile., friendship with Latour, 162, 
 
 164. 
 Femme avare, by Lancret, 108. 
 Ferme, by Oudry, 175. 
 Femme couchee sur le venire, by Boucher, 50. 
 Fergioni, Bernardini, master of Vernet, 
 
 176. 
 Fessard, engraver, 115. 
 Fete auprh cCune Fontaine, by Lancret, 105. 
 Fete champetre, by Watteau, 89 and note ; 
 
 by Pater, 98, 99. 
 Fileuse, La, by Watteau, 77 and note. 
 Filial Piety, by Greuze, 9. 
 Fille a la lettre, by Greuze, 133. 
 Fille au Manchon, by Boucher, 55. 
 Fille dont Poiseau s^envole, by Greuze, 133. 
 Fille econduite. La, by Baudouin, 131. 
 Fille tirant de I'eau a une Fontaine, by Char- 
 din, 114. 
 Fils ingrat, by Greuze, 134. 
 Fils puni, Le, by Greuze, 132 et seq. 
 Finette, by Watteau, 83 et seq. 
 Fischer, Der, by Pater, 97. 
 Flahault, Countess de, portrait, by Mme. 
 
 Guyard, 11. 
 Flameng, engraver, 31. 
 Flavacourt, Duchesse de, by Nattier, 149. 
 Flipart, engraver, 48, 132, 133. 
 Foire de St. Cloud, by Fragonard, 66. 
 Fontaine d' Amour, by Fragonard, 65. 
 Forges de Vulcain, by Boucher, 53. 
 Forrest, Eliz., portrait of, by Largilli^re, 
 
 145. 
 
 222 
 
Four Ages^ The, by Lancret, 102. 
 
 Four Hours of the Day, by Vernet, 9. 
 
 Fragonard, jfean-Honor^, 61 et seq. ; Le 
 Maitre du Monde, bi ; Corhus et 
 Callirho'e, 62 ; L'Heure du Berger, 62 ; 
 U Amour-Folie, 62 ; La Fuite a dessein, 
 62 ; La Chemise enlevk, 62 ; Le Verrou, 
 62, 67, 187; Le Serment d" Amour, 62; 
 Tetes de Fieillards, 63 ; La Guimard, 
 63 ; Le Cafi, medallion, 63 ; Le Concert, 
 medallion, 63 ; La Main chaude, 64 ; 
 Le Cheval fondu, 64; Les Graces, 65; 
 L' Amour qui embrasse I'Univers, 65 ; La 
 Nuit, 65; Amours endormis, 65 ; Amours 
 joueurs, 65 ; Triomphe de Vinus, 65 ; 
 Baigneuses, 65 ; Bacchante endormie, 65 ; 
 Fontaine d' Amour, 65 ; La Lefon de 
 Musique, 66 ; Foire de St. Cloud, 66 ; Vue 
 prise dans lesjardins de la Filla d'Este, 66 ; 
 Gardens at Fontainebleau, 66 ; Uheureuse 
 Mere, 66, 68 ; Le Concours, 66 ; La 
 Recompense, 66 ; U Adoration des Ber- 
 gers, 67 ; La Visitation de la Vierge, 67 ; 
 Le Lever des Ouvrieres, bj ; Le Coucher 
 des Ouvrieres, 67 ; Le Peintre et son 
 Modele, 67 ; Les Hasards heureux de 
 I'Escarpolette, 67, 72 ; Le Dibut du 
 ModUe, 67 note ; U Enfant blond, 68 ; 
 Le Sacrifice au Minotaure, 68 ; La 
 Maitresse d'Ecole, 68 ; Le jeune Ecolier, 
 68 ; Dites-donc, s'il vous plait, 68 ; La 
 Vierge et P Amour, 69 ; La Surprise de 
 r Amour, 69 ; UOffrande de la Rose, 69; 
 La Lettre d' Amour, 69, 72 ; La Couronne 
 d" Amour, 69 ; The Comedy of Love, 69 ; 
 Rosalie, 71 ; Mile. Gerard, 71 ; Vinus et 
 P Amour, 71 ; Le Revet I, 71 j feune 
 couple a la fenetre, 72 ; Jeune Mere, 72 ; 
 La Guimard, 175. 
 
 Fremin, Rene, sculptor, portrait of, by La- 
 tour, 164. 
 
 Fruits sur une table, by Chardin, 1 1 3. 
 
 Fuite a dessein, by Fragonard, 62. 
 
 Galerie d'Ulysse, 35. 
 
 Galloche, portrait of, by Tocqu^, 153. 
 
 Gamme d" Amour, by Watteau, 84 et seq. 
 
 Garfon Cabaretier, by Chardin, 121. 
 
 Garden Party, The, by Lancret, 109. 
 
 Gardens at Fontainebleau, by Fragonard, 66. 
 
 Gascon puni, by Lancret, 1 08. 
 
 Gateau des Rois, by Greuze, 1 33. 
 
 Girard, Mile., drawings by Fragonard, 71. 
 
 Gerin, J. A., 75. 
 
 Gersaint, miniature of, by Watteau, 96. 
 
 Gesellige Unterhaltung itn Freien, by Wat- Index. 
 
 teau, 83. 
 Gilles et sa famille, by Watteau, 82 et seq. 
 Gillot, Claude, connection with Watteau, 
 
 75- 
 Seine de la Comedie Italienne, 76 note. 
 
 Gillot's Christ qui va etre attachi a la 
 
 Croix, 25. 
 Giroux, or Giroust, Suzanne, 4; portrait of, 
 
 by Roslin, 154. 
 Glasgow, the Corporation Galleries, 77. 
 Gloire, by Jouvenet, 27. 
 Cabinet, doSteur en Sorbonne, by Largilliere, 
 
 146. 
 Goldschmidt, M. Leopold, the colle£tion of, 
 
 66, 137, 185. 
 Goubeau, Antoine, master of Largilliere, 
 
 143- 
 Gougenot, AbM, portrait of, by Greuze, 132 
 
 and note. 
 Gouvernante, by Chardin, 120. 
 Graces, Les, by Fragonard, 65. 
 Graffigny, Mme. de, portrait of, by Latour, 
 
 164. 
 Grand-Gilles, by Watteau, 87. 
 Grandval, portrait of, by Lancret, 107, 
 
 '75- 
 Greuze, Jean-Baptiste, Filial Piety, 9 ; 
 
 UAveugle trompi, 25, 131 ; SMre et 
 Caracalla, 25, 132; P'ere de famille ex- 
 pliquant la Bible, 131 ^/ seq.; L'accordie 
 de village, 132 ; La jeune Fille qui pleure 
 son oiseau mort, 132 et seq. i La bonne 
 Mire, 1^2 et seq.; Le Filspuni, 132 et seq.; 
 La Malediction paternelle, 1 32 ; Portrait 
 of Abbi Gougenot, 132 and note; Le 
 Miroir casse, 133; La Cruche cassie, 
 133; La belle Blanchisseuse, 133; La 
 Fille a la lettre, 133; Le Baiserjete, 133; 
 La Fille dont V oiseau s'envole, 133 ; 
 UOffrande a P Amour, 133; Le Petit 
 Mathimaticien, 133; Le Gateau des Rois, 
 133 ; La jeune Fille au panter, 133 ; La 
 Priere du Matin, 133; Fils ingrat, 134; 
 Portrait of Sophie Arnould, 1 36 ; Portrait 
 of Mme. de Champcenetz, 136; Portrait of 
 Wille, 1 36 ; Portrait of Robespierre, 136; 
 Portrait of Fabre d' Eglantine, 136 ; 
 Paul Strogonoff enfant, 137; Tete de jeune 
 Fille, 137; La Mhe bien aimee, 137; 
 Tendre desir, I'^'j. 
 Groult, M., the colleftion of 59, 60, 62 
 note, 64, 67 note, 86, 87, 89 and note, 
 94, 96 note, 106, 128, 130, 132, 155, 
 163, 164, 166 and note, 169, 185. 
 
 223 
 
Index. Groupe de Masques^ by Lancret, 104. 
 
 Guersant, engraver, 62. 
 Guibert, Honore, brother-in-law to J. 
 
 Vernet, 182. 
 Guimard, by Fragonard, 63, 175. 
 Gustavus III., portrait, by Roslin, 154. 
 Gutenberg, engraver, 131. 
 Guyard, Mme., R.A., 5, 11, 17, 18. 
 
 Hague, the collection at the, 169. 
 
 Hall, miniaturist, 157, 174; Portrait of 
 Princes se Ulrique, 157. 
 
 Halte de Chasse, by de Troy, 30 ; by C. 
 van Loo, 46. 
 
 Halte de Rigiment, by Pater, 97. 
 
 Halte de Troupe, by VVatteau, 77 and note. 
 
 Halte d^Officiers, by C. van Loo, 46. 
 
 Hameau d^ Issy, by Boucher, 51. 
 
 Hanguer, M., portrait, by Perronneau, 169. 
 
 Harlequin and Columbine, by Watteau, 85. 
 
 Hasards heureux de I' Escarpolette, by Frago- 
 nard, 67. 
 
 Havermans Marguerite, 3. 
 
 H6douin, engraver, 46, 48. 
 
 Henriette, Mme., portrait " En Flore," by 
 Nattier, 150 et seq. 
 
 Hercule et Omphale, by le Moine, 35. 
 
 Hermitage, the collediion at the, 53 note, 
 54, 74, 76 note, 77 note, 78, 82, 102, 
 104, 114, 120, 135 note. 
 
 Hertford House, the colleftion at, 39 note, 
 49, 56, 65, 83, 85, 86, 89 note, 90 note, 
 97, 98, 100, 104, 133, 136, 149 note, 
 151 and note, 175, 176. 
 
 Hirten, The, by Watteau, 80. 
 
 Heure du Berger, by Fragonard, 62. 
 
 Heureuse Mere, by Fragonard, 66, 68. 
 
 Heureux Age, by Watteau, 90. 
 
 Heureux Moment, by Lavreince, 187. 
 
 Histoire, by Boucher, 39 note, 53 note. 
 
 Hiver, by Lancret, 105. 
 
 Homme a la rose, by Perronneau, 166, 169, 
 
 173- 
 Hubert, Abbi, portrait of, by Latour, 163 
 
 et seq. 
 Huet, J. B., Pastorals, 176. 
 Huntington, Lord, portrait of, by Perronneau, 
 
 168. 
 
 Idylle, by Lancret, 106 et seq. 
 Indifferent, by Watteau, 83, 87. 
 Infanta, portrait of, by Largilli^re, 144. 
 Interieur de Cuisine, by Chardin, 113. 
 Iphigenia, by C. van Loo, 46. 
 Iris, by Watteau, 90. 
 
 Jahan, Mme., the colledlion of, 71, 119, 
 
 122 note, 124, 160 note, 164 note. 
 faloux, by Watteau, 80. 
 James 11, portrait of, by Largilli^re, 143. 
 Janzinski, engraver, 68. 
 Jeaurat, 39. 
 
 Jeliote en Apollon, by Tocqu6, 154. 
 Jeu de fOye, by Chardin, 125. 
 feu des ^atre Coins, by Lancret, 104. 
 Jeune couple d la fenetre, by Fragonard, 72. 
 jeune Dame allant se coucher, by Pater, 98 
 
 note. 
 Jeune Dame se levant, by Pater, 98 note. 
 feune Dessinateur taillant son crayon, by 
 
 Chardin, 117. 
 Jeune Ecolier, by Fragonard, 68. 
 feune Fille au panier, by Greuze, 133. 
 feune Fille qui pleure son oiseau mort, by 
 
 Greuze, 132 et seq. 
 feune Fille qui recite I'Evangile, by Chardin, 
 
 123. 
 feune Homme a la rose, by Perronneau, 
 
 166-169, I73' 
 feune Mire, by Fragonard, 72. 
 feune Ouvriere en tapisserie, by Chardin, 
 
 121 and note, 123. 
 Jouvenet, 27, 44, 147. 
 funon demande a Role, by Boucher, 59 note. 
 funon. Iris et Flore, by le Moine, 34. 
 
 Kann, A. M., the colle6tion of, 59, 60 note. 
 Klingstedt, miniature painter, 148. 
 
 La Caze Galerie, Mus6e du Louvre, 29 
 note, 35 note, 37 note, 53 note, 65 note, 
 83> 87, 98, 103, 107, 124, 139 note, 145, 
 149 note, 151, 153. 
 
 Ladies Bathing, by Pater, 98. 
 
 Lady Sealing a Letter, by Chardin, 1 1 5 
 et seq. 
 
 Lady in a Red Dress, by Watteau, 93 note. 
 
 La Fontaine, portrait of, by Rigaud, 139. 
 
 La Fontaine, by Chardin, 11^ et seq. 
 
 Lalauze, engraver, 47, 97. 
 
 Lancret, Nicholas, 21, 30, 34 ; VOiseleur, 
 91, 104 et seq.; The Swing, loi ; Dance 
 near a Fountain, loi ; A Ball, loi; 
 Dance in a Wood, 1 1 ; Montreur de 
 Lanterne Magique, 1 02- 1 04; Family 
 group taking tea, 102 ; Convives dans la 
 joie,i02 et seq. i Dejeuner au jambon, 102; 
 Chasse au Ttgre, 1 02 ; The four Ages, 1 02 ; 
 Les AHeurs de la Comedie Italienne, 103; 
 feu des ^atre Coins, 104; Menuet, 104; 
 Bal champetre, 104 et seq,; La Reunion 
 
 224 
 
galante en plein air, 1 04 et seq.; Le 
 Moulinet, 104 et seq. ; Les Jgrements de la 
 Campagne^ 104 ; Les Agrements de Pete, 
 1 04 ; Camargo dansant, 1 04 et seq. ; 
 ASfrice, 104; La belle Grecque, 1 04; 
 Groupe de Masques, 1 04 ; Camargo avec 
 son danseur, 1 04 ; Repas de Noces, 1 04 
 note; Danse de Noces, 104 note; Diver- 
 tissement dans un Pavilion, 1 05 ; Une 
 Fete auprh d'une Fontaine, 105; U Es- 
 carpolette, 105; L'' Attache du Patin, 
 10^ et seq.; V Hiver, 105; La Comedie 
 Italienne, 106; La Cage, 106; Bird- 
 catcher, 107; Idylle, 106 et seq.; Le 
 Violoncelliste, 1 07 ; Portrait of Grandval, 
 107, 175; Danse dans un Pare, 107; 
 Conversation dans un Pare, 107 ; Nicaise, 
 108 et seq.; Les Deux Amis, 108, 109 ; 
 Le Gascon puni, 108; La Femme avare, 
 108; Le Faucon, 108; Les Troqueurs, 
 108; The Garden Party, 109; Une 
 Dame dans un jardin, 1 09 note. 
 Landscape, by Pater, ascribed to Watteau, 
 
 97 . ^ 
 Ldndliche Tanx, by Pater, 97 note. 
 
 Lantara, 176, 183. 
 
 La ^intinie, portrait of, by Rigaud, 139. 
 
 Largilli^re, Nicolas, 29, 33, 44 ; Portrait 
 of fames II., 143; Le Brun, portrait, 143; 
 Repas de Louis XIV., 144 ; Mariage du 
 due de Bourgogne, 1 44 ; Portrait of Infanta, 
 144; Portrait of Mile. Barral, 144 et seq.; 
 Elizabeth de Bavihre, portrait, 144; J. 
 P. de Craponne, portrait, 144 ; Boutin de 
 Diencourt, portrait, 145 ; Mme. de 
 Thorigny, portrait, 145 ; Mile. Duclos, 
 portrait, 145; Elizabeth Forrest, portrait, 
 145 ; Mme. du Chatelet, portrait, 145 
 note ; Le DoSieur Gobinet, 146. 
 
 Larmessin, engraver, 47, 105, 108. 
 
 Latour, Maurice-Quentin de, 158 et seq.; 
 compared with Chardin, 128; portrait, by 
 Perronneau, 167 ; Marie Leczinska, 47, 
 158; UAuteur qui rit, 159; Mme. de 
 Mailly, portrait, 160 ; Mme. de Mondon- 
 ville, portrait, 160, 164 note; M. and 
 Mme. de la Reyniire, portraits, 161, 164, 
 Marquise de Pompadour, portrait, 161 ; 
 1 64, 1 74 ; Comte de Provence, portrait, 1 6 1 ; 
 Due de Berri, portrait, 1 6 1 ; TheDauphine, 
 portrait of, 1 61 ; Abbi Hubert, portrait, 
 1 63 et seq. ; Camargo, portrait, 1 63, 1 64 ; 
 Madame Mass}, portrait, 163; Mile. 
 Puvigny, portrait, 163 ; Rousseau, por- 
 trait, 164; Voltaire, portrait, 164; 
 
 Portrait of himself, 164,167; Markhal Index. 
 de Belle-Isle, portrait, 164; Reni Fremin, 
 portrait, 164; Dupeuche, portrait, 164; 
 D" Alembert, portrait, 164, 165 ; De 
 fuUenne, portrait, 164; Verzenobre, por- 
 trait, 164; Sylvestre, ^ovtraxt, 164, 174; 
 President de Rieu, portrait, 165, 174; 
 Dumontle Romain, 165; Restout, portrait, 
 165 ; Mme. de Graffigny, portrait, 164. 
 
 Lavalette, Mme. la Marquise de, the 
 colleftion of, loi. 
 
 Lavreince, Lheureux Moment, 187 ; Le 
 Repentir tardif, 187. 
 
 Le Bas, 122. 
 
 Le Brun, Madame Vig^e, l et seq.; 4 et seq.; 
 II, 32 et seq., 38, 157; Princesse de 
 Talleyrand, portrait, 157. 
 
 Le Brun, 51, 77, 138; portrait of, by 
 Largilliere, 143 ; portrait of, by Rigaud, 
 
 139- 
 Le^on, by Watteau, 90. 
 
 Le^on d'' Amour, by Watteau, 81 note. 
 
 Le^on de Musique, by Fragonard, 66. 
 
 Le£fure, by C. van Loo, 46. 
 
 Leczinska, Marie, portrait of, by Nattier, 
 151 ; portrait, by Tocqu6, 153 ; portrait, 
 by Latour, 158. 
 
 Lida et le Cygne, by Boucher, 49. 
 
 Leerse, Herr, portrait of, by Nattier, 151. 
 
 Le Gros, sculptor, 45. 
 
 Le Mire, engraver, 172. 
 
 Le Moine, Francois, 25 et seq. ; Tancrede 
 rendant les Armes a Clorinde, 28 ; St. 
 Thomas d'Aquin, 28, 31 ; Continence de 
 Scipion, 31, 35 ; Assomption de la Vierge, 
 33; Apothhse d^Hercule, 33, 35; Junon, 
 Iris et Flore, 34, 35 ; Hercule et Omphale, 
 35 ; Le Terns decouvre la Verite, 36 ; 
 Louis XV. donnant la paix a t" Europe, ^2. 
 
 Lemoyne, portrait of, by Tocqu6, 153. 
 
 Lemoyne fils, portrait of, by Perronneau, 
 168. 
 
 Lempereur, engraver, 46. 
 
 Ldpici6, engraver, 37, 92, 117, 118, 124. 
 
 Leprince, 186. 
 
 Lesdiguihes,Duc de, portrait of, by Rigaud, 
 
 139- 
 Lettre d* Amour, by Fragonard, 69, 72. 
 
 Levasseur, engraver, 44, 45. 
 
 Lever, by Boucher, 52; by Baudouin, 130. 
 
 Lever des Ouvrikres, by Fragonard, 67. 
 
 L^vy, M. Emile, the colle6tion of, 168. 
 
 Life of the Virgin, by Baudouin, 130. 
 
 Linnaus, portrait of, by Roslin, 154. 
 
 Liseuse, attributed to Tocqu6, 153. 
 
 225 
 
 G G 
 
Index. Loir, i66. 
 
 Loo, Amed6e van, Pleasure Barge, 46 ; 
 
 Picnic, 46. 
 Loo, Carle van, 38, 45 ; The ResurreSfion, 
 
 39 note, 46 ; Iphigenia, 44 note, 46 ; 
 Ivresse de SiUne, 46 ; Ha/te de Chasse, 
 46 ; Mile. Clairon as Medea, 46 ; Leiture, 
 46 ; Conversation Espagnole, 46 ; Enh 
 portant son phe Anchise, 46 ; Mariage de 
 la Vierge, 45 ; Apollon et Marsyas, 45 ; 
 Halte d'Officiers, 46 ; Marie Leczinska, 
 47 ; Trois Graces enchainies, 62. 
 
 Loo, Jean-Baptiste van, 37, 45, 113; 
 
 Endymion, 45. 
 Loo, van, the Ecole Royale, 13. 
 Loo, van, The Three Graces, 9. 
 Loriot, author of" Table volante de Choisy," 
 
 165. 
 Louis XIV., by Rigaud, 139, 
 Louis XIV. et M. de Bourgogne, by Watteau, 
 
 88. 
 Louis XV. donnant la paix h F Europe, by le 
 
 Moine, 42. 
 Louise-Henriette de Bourbon-Conti, by 
 
 Nattier, 148. 
 Loutherbourg de Strasburg, 186. 
 Louvre, the colleftion at the, 35, 39 note, 
 
 40 note, 48, 53, 58, 66 note, 78 note, 81 
 and note, 85 note, 96 note, 98, 99, 100, 
 no, 113, 118, 127, 128, 132, 133, 136, 
 137 note, 139 note, 143 note, 148, 150, 
 152 note, 153 note, 154 note, 155 note, 
 156 note, 157 note, 159, 164, 165, 166, 
 168 note, 175 note, 184, 185, 186 note, 
 and see La Caze. 
 
 Lundberg, pastellist, 5 ; portrait of Boucher, 
 
 5?- 
 Luti, Benedetto, 45. 
 
 Luzat, engraver, 128. 
 
 Mile. Clairon as Medea, by C. van Loo, 46. 
 Mile, de Clermont aux eaux de Chantilly, by 
 
 Nattier, 148. 
 Main chaude. La, by Fragonard, 64. 
 Maison Malvilain at Grasse, 61. 
 Maitre du Monde, by Fragonard, 62. 
 Maitresse d' Ecole, by Fragonard, 68. 
 MalediSlion paternelle, by Greuze, 132. 
 Marais, Le, by Watteau, 88. 
 Marchande de Modes, by Boucher, 49. 
 Marcille, M. Eudoxe, the coliedtion of, 160, 
 
 164. 
 Mariage de la Vierge, by C. van Loo, 46. 
 Mariage du due de Bourgogne, by Largilli^re, 
 
 144. 
 
 Marie Antoinette as Hibi, by Drouais, 1 56. 
 Marie Antoinette, portrait of, by Drouais, 
 
 156. 
 Mariie de Village, by Watteau, 81 note. 
 Marie Leczinsia, by C. van Loo, 47. 
 Marigny, Director of the Academy, 11 5 
 
 portrait of, by Tocqu6, 153. 
 Marmontel, portrait of, by Roslin, 155. 
 Marmotte, by Watteau, 77 and note. 
 Marquise au jardin, by Boucher, 55. 
 Mas de Puysac, portrait of, by Perronneau, 
 
 173- 
 Masquerade, by Watteau, 82. 
 
 Massard, engraver, 132. 
 Masse, miniaturist, 157, 174. 
 Massi, Mme., portrait of, by Latour, 163. 
 Mathieu, engraver, 62. 
 Meerman, Gerhard, portrait of, by Perron- 
 neau, 169 note. 
 Menuet, by Lancret, 104. 
 Mercier, Philippe, engraver, 93; DEscamo- 
 
 teur, 100. 
 Mhe bien aimie, by Greuze, 137. 
 Mire et sa Fille h leur dividoir, by Chardin, 
 
 122. 
 Mhe laborieuse, by Chardin, 120, 125. 
 Mezzetin, Le, hy Watteau, %2 et seq. 
 Miger, engraver, ib et seq., 46. 
 Miroir cassi, Le, by Greuze, 133. 
 ModUe honnete, by Baudouin, 59, 1 30. 
 Moitte, engraver, 165 note. 
 Mondonville fils, with Perronneau at his 
 
 death, 172. 
 Montreur de Lanterne Magique, by Lancret, 
 
 102, 104. 
 Monzi^s, engraver, 48. 
 Moreau le jeune, 17. 
 Mart d" Adonis, by Boucher, 38. 
 Moulin, by Boucher, 176. 
 Moulinet, by Lancret, 104 et seq., 105. 
 Muse Erato, by Boucher, 53 note, 54. 
 Musde Albertine, the colledlion at the, 86. 
 Musee d' Angers, the collection at the, 89 
 
 note, 96 note, 104 note. 
 Musee de Besan^on, the colle6tion at the, 
 
 66 note, 72, 104, 1 12, 137 and note, 145. 
 Mus^e Cond^, the collection at the, 30 note, 
 
 80 note, 82, 94, no, 137 note, 139, 
 
 146 note, 148 note, 155 note. See also 
 
 under Chantilly. 
 Mus^e de Grenoble, the colledtion at the, 96 
 
 note, 144 and note, 146 note, 153 note. 
 Musee du Louvre. See Louvre. 
 Musde de Marseille, the collection at the, 
 
 31 note. 
 
 26 
 
Musee de Montpellier, the colle6lion at the, 
 
 133 note, 178 note. 
 Mus6e de Nancy, the colledtion at the, 31, 
 
 48, 144, 153 and note. 
 Musee d'Orleans, the colleftion at the, 103, 
 
 156 note, 170, 173. 
 Musde du Prado, Madrid, the coUeftion at 
 
 the, 144. 
 Mus^e de Rennes, the coUeftion at the, 
 
 40. 
 Museum of South Kensington, the colleftion 
 
 at the, 99, no, ill, 156. 
 Mus6e de St. Quentin, the colledtion at the, 
 
 163, 164. 
 Musee de Versailles, the coUedlion at the, 
 
 H5> 150, 151, 152, 153, '55- 
 Musde de Vienne, the colleition at the, 81 
 
 note. 
 Musique et les Arts^ by Chardin, 119. 
 Musique Guerriere, by Chardin, 1 19. 
 Music Party, by Watteau, 82. 
 
 Naissance, La, by Boucher, 38. 
 Naissance de Minerve, by Crozat, 78. 
 Naissance de Venus, by Boucher, 48. 
 Naissance et Triomphe de Vinus, by Boucher, 
 
 48 note. 
 National Gallery, the colledlion at the, 102, 
 
 120, 157 note. 
 Nativity, hy Boucher, 53. 
 Natoire, Charles, 37, 38, 146; Master of 
 
 Perronneau, 1 66 ; Vinus demandant des 
 
 Armes a Fulcain, 39 ; Story of Psyche, 39; 
 
 Le Repos de Diane, 39 ; Bacchus and 
 
 Ariadne, 39 note ; Don ^ichote, 40 ; 
 
 Enfants Trouv^s decorations, 42 ; death 
 
 of, 43- 
 
 Nattier, Jean-Marc, 146; Mile, de Clermont 
 aux eaux de Chantilly, 148; Duchesse de 
 Chartres en Hkbk, 148 ; Louise-Henriette 
 de Bourbon-Conti, 148 ; Due de Penthievre, 
 149; Duchesse de Chateauroux, 149; 
 Le Bain, 149 ; Duchesse de Flavacourt, 
 149 ; Mme. Henriette, "En Flore," 150^^ 
 seq.; Mme. AdHa'ide, "En Diane," 150 
 et seq.; Portrait d'une Inconnue, 150 ; 
 Mme. Vifloire, " En Vestale," 1 5 1 ; Marie 
 Leczinska, portrait, 151 ; Herr Leerse, 
 portrait, 151. 
 
 Neglige, Le, by Chardin, 120. 
 
 Neptune et Amyone, by Boucher, 52. 
 
 Nicaise, by Lancret, 108 et seq. 
 
 Northbrook, Lord, the colleftion of, 82 
 note. 
 
 Nuit, by Fragonard, 65. 
 
 Occupation selon Vage, by Watteau, 89. 
 
 Offrande a V Amour, \ij Greuze, 133. 
 
 Offrande de la Rose, by Fragonard, 69. 
 
 Oies dufrere Philippe, by Subleyras, 109. 
 
 Oiseleur, by Lancret, 91, 104 et seq. 
 
 Ollivier de Marseille, M. and Mme., por- 
 traits by Perronneau, 166. 
 
 Oudry, Jean-Baptiste, letters to Chardin, 
 9; portrait of, by Perronneau, 166, 168; 
 PantMre couchh dans sa cage, 175; 
 Blanche, 175; Chasse au Loup, 175 j 
 Per me, 175. 
 
 PantMre couchh dans sa cage, by Oudry, 
 
 175- 
 
 Parrocel, Charles, no. 
 
 Parrocel, Joseph, 124, 162. 
 
 Pasteurs, by Watteau, 90. 
 
 Pastorals, by J. B. Huet, 175. 
 
 Pater, Antoine, portrait of, by Watteau, 
 100; Colin-Maillard,<)i, 1 00; Soldats en 
 Marche,q'] ; Soldiers Halting, q"] ; Land' 
 liche Tan-z., 97 ; Der Fischer, 97 ; Halte 
 de Rkgiment, 97 ; Les Plaisirs du Camp, 
 97 ; Landscape, 97 ; Fete champetre, 
 98, 99 ; Pleasure Barge, 98 ; Ladies 
 Bathing, 98 ; Court and Village Festivals, 
 98; Roman comique, 98; The Bath, 98 ; 
 Baigneuses dans un Pare, 98 ; Bain 
 rustique, 98 ; Badende Mddchen, 98 ; 
 yeune Dame allant se coucher, 98 note ; 
 Jeune Dame se levant, 98 note; Le Disir 
 de plaire, 99, 108 ; La Toilette, 99 ; Le 
 Bain a la Maison, 100 ; Le Sultan dans 
 son Harem, 100. 
 
 Paul Strogonoff enfant, by Greuze, 137. 
 
 P ay sage ; effet du matin, by Lantara, 184. 
 
 Peintre et son Modele, by Fragonard, 67. 
 
 Pelerinage a Pile de Cythere, by Watteau, 
 81. 
 
 Pellegrini, 54. 
 
 Penthiivre, Due de, by Nattier, 149. 
 
 Pere de famille expliquant la Bible, by 
 Greuze, 131 ^' seq. 
 
 Pergolese, friendship with J. Vernet, 181. 
 
 Perronneau, Jean-Baptiste, 166; Jacques- 
 Charles Dutillieu, portrait, 1 69 ; Oudry, 
 portrait, 166, 168 ; Homme a la Rose, 
 166,169, 173; M. and Mme. Ollivier de 
 Marseille, portraits, 166; Latour, portrait, 
 167; Desfriches, Mile., portrait, 168, 
 170 and note; Adam Paine, portrait, 168; 
 Marquis d^Aubais, portrait, 168; Hubert 
 Drouais, portrait, 168; Lemoyne fils, por- 
 trait, 168; Toung Girl with Cat, 168; 
 
 Itidex. 
 
 227 
 
Index. Lord Huntington^ portrait, i68 ; Pierre 
 
 Bouguer, portrait, i68; Princessede Conde, 
 portrait, 1 68; M. Hanguer^ portrait, 169; 
 Gerhard Meerman^ portrait, 169 note; 
 Aurora^ 170; Comte de Vaudurant^ por- 
 trait, 171 ; Portrait of himself 173 ; Le 
 Mas de Puysac, portrait, 173. 
 
 Perseus showing the Head of Medusa^ by 
 Tocqu6, 148. 
 
 Perspective, by Watteau, 88. 
 
 Peste a Marseille, by de Troy, 42. 
 
 Petit Mathhnaticien, by Greuze, 133. 
 
 Peter the Great, Nattier paints portraits for, 
 147. 
 
 Petite Laitiere, by Baudouin, 131. 
 
 Petite Liseuse, by de Troy, 37. 
 
 Picnic, by A. van Loo, 46. 
 
 Fillet Will, Comte, the colkaion of, 64, 68 
 note. 
 
 Plafond de Gersaint, by Watteau, 83. 
 
 Plaisirs du Bal, by Watteau, 89. 
 
 P la i sirs du Camp, by Pater, 97. 
 
 Plaisir Pastoral, by Watteau, 80 note, 85, 
 
 175- 
 Platen, Countess, now Countess Wedel, the 
 
 collection of, 150. 
 Pleasure Barge, by A. van Loo, 46 ; by 
 
 Pater, 98. 
 Pohie ipique, by Boucher, 53 note. 
 Pompadour, Mme. de, influence on the 
 
 Academy, 6 ; patronage of Boucher, 53 
 
 et seq. ; portrait, by Boucher, 51, 55, 56; 
 
 at Cr^cy, 59; portrait of, by Drouais, 
 
 156; portrait of, by Latour, 158, 161, 
 
 164, 174. 
 Portail, 9, 166. 
 
 Port de Ripetta, by Robert, 185. 
 Portrait cCune Inconnue, by Nattier, 150. 
 Portrait of Artist (pastel), by Chardin, 127. 
 Ports de Mer de France, by J. Vernet, 178. 
 Potsdam, the colledtions at, 80, 90, 94 note, 
 
 97 note, 98 and note, 100, 102 note, 104, 
 
 105, 107, no, 116, 118, and see Sans 
 
 Souci. 
 Pourvoyeuse, La, by Chardin, 118 and note, 
 
 124. 
 Pouget, Marguerite, portrait of, by Chardin, 
 
 128. 
 Predication de Saint Jean, by Boucher, 53 
 
 note. 
 Premier Chapitre du Saint Esprit, by de 
 
 Troy, 31. 
 Pri^re du Matin, by Greuze, 133. 
 Printemps, by Watteau, 78. 
 Prometheus, marble, by Adam, 9. 
 
 Provence, Comte de, portrait of, by Latour, 
 
 161. 
 Psychi et P Amour, by Boucher, 52. 
 Psychi conduite par les Zephirs, by Boucher, 
 
 52. 
 Puvigny, Mile., portrait of, by Latour, 163. 
 Pygmalion, marble, by Falconnet, 9. 
 
 ^atre heures du jour, by Boucher, 49. 
 
 Raoux Jean, portrait-painter, 148 et seq. 
 Raphael, M., pamphlet by, 10. 
 Ratisseuse, by Chardin, 118 and note. 
 Ravenet, engraver, 46. 
 Reboul, Mile., 4. 
 Recompense, by Fragonard, 66. 
 Ricriation Italienne, by Watteau, 90. 
 Recrue, by Watteau, 77, 85. 
 Rendezvous de Chasse, by Watteau, 85. 
 Repas de Louis XIV., by Largilliere, 144. 
 Repas de Noces, by Lancret, 104 note. 
 Repentir tardif by Lavreince, 187. 
 Repos, by G. F. Colson, 137. 
 Repos de Diane, by de Troy, 3 1 . 
 Repos de Diane, by Natoire, 39. 
 Repos de la Sainte Famille, by Boucher, 53 
 
 note ; by Watteau, 76 note. 
 Repos de Finus, by Boucher, 50. 
 Restout, Jean, 28, 39, 44; Triumph of 
 
 Bacchus and Ariadne, 44 note ; portrait 
 
 of, by Latour, 165. 
 Resurreffion, The, by C. van Loo, 39 note. 
 Retour de Chasse, by Watteau, 82. 
 Riunion galante en plein air, by I^ancret, 
 
 104 et seq. 
 Rheil, by Boucher, 50 ; by Fragonard, 71. 
 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, saying about Boucher, 
 
 54- 
 Rhodon, engraver, 87, 100. 
 
 Ricci, Sebastien, 34. 
 
 Rigaud, Hyacinthe, 25, 29, 44 ; Delafosse, 
 portrait of, 1 38 ; Louis XIV., portrait, 
 I 39 ; Portrait of himself, 1 39, 140 ; Des- 
 jardins, portrait, 139 ; Le Brun, portrait, 
 1 39 ; Cardinal de Polignac, portrait, 1 39 ; 
 La ^intinie, portrait, 1 39 ; La Fontaine, 
 portrait, 139 ; Bossuet, portrait, 139 ; Due 
 de Lesdiguikres, portrait, 139 ; Elizabeth 
 de Gouy, portrait, 139 et seq.; Marie 
 Serre, portrait, 139; Due de Belle- Isle, 
 portrait, 142 ; Samuel Bernard, portrait, 
 141 note ; Congres de Soissons, 141 note. 
 
 Robert, Hubert, 66 ; Le Port de Ripetta, 
 185. 
 
 Robespierre, portrait of, by Greuze, 136. 
 
 28 
 
Robin, J. B. Claude, marries Mme. Per- 
 ron neau, 171. 
 
 Rouquet, enameller, 5. 
 
 Roman comtque, by Pater, 98. 
 
 Rosebery, Earl of, the colledtion of, 136. 
 
 Roslin, Alexandre, 5 ; Portrait of himself, 
 154; Gustavus III., portrait, 154; Lin- 
 naus, portrait, 154; Suzanne Giroust, 
 portrait, 154; D'Jngivi Her, portrzk, 155; 
 Marmontel, 155. 
 
 Roslin, Mile., 4 and note. 
 
 Rothschild, Baron A. de, the collecStion of, 
 62, 90 note, 98 note, 105 note, 133, 134 
 note. 
 
 Rothschild, Baron E. de, the collection of, 
 
 62, 77, 133 note. 
 Rothschild, Baron Gustave de,the colle£tion 
 
 of, 62. 
 Rothschild, Baron James de, the colledtion 
 
 of, 39 note. 
 Rothschild, M. Alphonse de, the colleftion 
 
 of, 63, 89 note. 
 Rothschild, Mme. N. de, the colledtion of 
 
 the late, 124, 131 note, 143 note. 
 Rousseau, portrait of, by Latour, 1 64. 
 Rousseau de la Rottiere, Salon hy, 63. 
 Royal Academy, Story of the, i. 
 Rubens's influence on Watteau, 76. 
 Ryland, engraver, 49. 
 
 Sacrifice au Minotaur e, by Fragonard, 68. 
 St. Aignan, Due de, paintings for, by J. 
 
 Vernet, 177. 
 St. Aubin, engraver, 163. 
 Sainte Famille, by Watteau, 102. 
 Sainte Vierge, by Watteau, 102. 
 St. Giles healing the Sick, hy Gerin, 75. 
 Salon Demarteau, 60 et seq. 
 Salon d'Hercule, 35, 36. 
 Salon, The, an annual exhibition, 8, 
 Salle de la belle Cheminee, 35. 
 Salle, Mme., portrait of, by Tocqud, 153. 
 Sans Souci, the colledlion at, 81, 90, 97 
 
 and see Potsdam. 
 Saxe, Marshal, portrait of, by Tocqu6, 148. 
 Scene de Boudoir, by Boucher, 49 note. 
 Sckne de jardin avec Pierrot, hy Watteau, 
 
 84. 
 Schmidt, engraver, 5. 
 Scotin, engraver, 36. 
 Scottish National Gallery, the colledtion at, 
 
 51,80,85,98, 109 note, 133. 
 Sirinade Italienne, by Watteau, 83. 
 Serinette, by Chardin, 125. 
 Serment d* Amour, by Fragonard, 62. 
 
 Serre, Marie, portrait of, by Rigaud, 139. Index. 
 
 Servandoni, 51. 
 
 Severe et Caracalla, by Greuze, 25, 132. 
 
 Simonet, engraver, 130. 
 
 Singe, Sculpteur, by Watteau, 76. 
 
 Sohege, M. Paul, the coUedtion of, 169. 
 
 Soldiers Halting, by Pater, 97. 
 
 Soldats en Marche, by Pater, 97. 
 
 Souper d'huitres, by Lancret, no. 
 
 South Kensington Museum, the colledtion 
 at, 99, no. III note, 156. 
 
 Stiemart, 9, 35, 38. 
 
 Stockholm, the colleftion at, 40 note, 49, 
 50 note, 98, 105 note, 116, 120, 121 and 
 note, 122 note, 124 note, 148 and note, 
 150, 154 and note, 157 note, 175 note. 
 
 Story of Esther, by de Troy, 32. 
 
 Story of Psychi, by Natoire, 39. 
 
 Strogonoff, Paul, by Greuze, 137. 
 
 Subleyras, Benedict XIV., 139, 155; Faucon, 
 109 ; Oies dufrere Philippe, 109. 
 
 Sultan dans son Harem, by Pater, 100. 
 
 Surprise, by de Troy, 30. 
 
 Surprise de I' Amour, hy Fragonard, 69. 
 
 Surugue, engraver, 83, 90, 1 00. 
 
 Surugue fils, engraver, 124. 
 
 Swing, The, by Lancret, loi, no. 
 
 Sylvestre, portrait of, by Latour, 164, 174. 
 
 Table de Cuisine, by Chardin, 123. 
 
 Table d' office, by Chardin, 123. 
 Talleyrand, Princesse de, portrait of, by Mme. 
 
 Vig6e le Brun, 157. 
 Tancrhde rendant les Armes a Clorinde, by 
 
 le Moine, 28. 
 Tanz im Garten Halle, by Watteau, 90. 
 Tardieu, engraver, 44, 81. 
 Taunay, 186. 
 
 Tendre dhir, by Greuze, 137. 
 Tennant, Sir C., the colledlion of, 79. 
 Tessin, Comte de, Faunillane, 49, 50. 
 Tete de jeune Fille, by Greuze, 137. 
 Tetes de Vieillards, by Fragonard, 63. 
 Therbouche, Mme., 4. 
 Thomassin, engraver, 31, 77. 
 Three Graces chained in Flowers by Love, by 
 
 Carle van Loo, 9. 
 Ti^polo, Cochin's opinion of, 56 j style of, 
 
 63- ^ . 
 
 Tocque, Louis, 152 j Perseus showing the 
 Head of Medusa, 148 ; M. de la Motte, 
 148 ; Marshal Saxe, portrait of, 148 ; 
 Mile, de Clermont and Mile, de Lambesc, 
 portraits of, 148 et seq. ; The Duchesse de 
 Chartres and The Duchesse d' Orleans, 
 
 229 
 
Index. portraits of, 148; The Tzarina Eliza- 
 
 beth, 152 ; Charles de Beauharnah, 
 portrait, 146, note ; Marie Leczinska, 
 portrait, 153; Lemoyne, portrait, 153; 
 Marigny, portrait, 153; Galloche, por- 
 trait, 153; D'Alembert, portrait, 153; 
 Dumarsais, portrait, 1 53 ; Mme. Salle, 
 portrait, 153 ; Dame au Manchon, 153; 
 Liseuse, 153; lVasserschleben,^OTtr?i\t, 153 
 ei seq.; "JHiote en Apollon, 154. 
 
 Toilette, La, by Pater, 99. 
 
 Toilette de Bal, by de Troy, 37. 
 
 Toilette du Matin, by Watteau, 86. 
 
 Toilette du Matin, by Chardin, 117, 120, 
 124. 
 
 Toilette de Vinus, by Boucher, 49. 
 
 Terns decouvrt la Fir it i, 36. 
 
 Toton, by Chardin, 127. 
 
 Tournehem, C. F. P., Diredtor of the 
 Academy, 6 et seq. 
 
 Tournieres, Robert, portraits by, 145 and 
 note. 
 
 Tours de Cartes, by Chardin, 1 14. 
 
 Toy Windmill, by Watteau, 109 note. 
 
 Tremolliere, 38, 39. 
 
 Triomphe de Vinus, by Deshayes, 58. 
 
 Triomphe de Vinus, by Fragonard, 65. 
 
 Trois Graces enchainies, by Carle van Loo, 
 62. 
 
 Troqueurs, by Lancret, 108. 
 
 Troupe Italienne, by Watteau, 84. 
 
 Troy, de. See De Troy. 
 
 Ulrique, Princesse, portrait of, by Hall, 157. 
 
 Vallayer, Mile. Anne, 4. 
 
 Valois, M. Noel, the colledtion of, 168. 
 
 Vaudurant, Comte de, portrait of, by Perron- 
 
 neau, 171. 
 Vinus aux forges de Vulcain, by Boucher, 
 
 52. 
 Vinus commandant des Armes a Vulcain, by 
 
 Boucher, 38. 
 Vinus demandant des Armes a Vulcain, by 
 
 Natoire, 39. 
 Vinus descendant de son char, by Boucher, 
 
 48. 
 Vinus et F Amour, by Boucher, 50. 
 Vinus et r Amour, by Fragonard, 65, 71. 
 Venus et les Graces au bain, by Boucher, 49. 
 Vinus se preparant pour le jugement de Paris, 
 
 by Boucher, 50. 
 Vernet, Carle, 181. 
 Vernet, Francois, 182. 
 . Vernet Horace, 181. 
 
 Vernet, Joseph, 1 76 ; Four Hours of the 
 
 Day, 9 ; Ports de Mer de France, 1 78 ; 
 Antibes, 183; Pay sage; effet du Matin, 
 
 184. 
 Verrou, by Fragonard, 62, 67, 187. 
 Versailles, the colleftion at, 145, 150, 151 
 
 note, 152 note, 153 note, 155. 
 Vertumne et Pomone, by Boucher, 52 ; by 
 
 Watteau, 87. 
 Verzenobre, portrait of, by Latour, 164. 
 Veyrassat, engraver, 64. 
 ViSioire, Mme., portrait of, " En Vestale," by 
 
 Nattier, 151. 
 Vien, Joseph-Marie, V Enlevement de Pro- 
 serpine, 43 note. 
 Vien, withdrawal from the Academy, 17 
 
 et seq. 
 Vien, Mme., 4. 
 Vienna, the colledtion at the Museum of, 
 
 81 note. 
 Vierge et P Amour, by Fragonard, 69. 
 Violoncelliste, by Lancret, 107. 
 Visitation de la Vierge, by Fragonard, 67. 
 Vleughels, 38 ; relations with Watteau, 91. 
 Voltaire, portrait of, by Latour, 164. 
 Vraie Gaiet'e, by Watteau, 79, 85. 
 Vue prise dans la foret de Fontainebleau, by 
 
 Bruandet, 186. 
 Vue prise dans les jar dins de la Villa d''Este, 
 
 by Fragonard, 66. 
 Vue prise dans le Pare, by Watteau, 175. 
 Vulcain presentant a Venus des Armes pour 
 
 Enie, by Boucher, 55. 
 
 Wachtmeister, Count A., the colledlion of, 
 121. 
 
 Walferdin, the colledtion of, 62 note. 
 
 Wallet, engraver, 65. 
 
 Wantage, Lord, the collection of, 102, 109. 
 
 Wasserschleben, Danish secretary, portrait 
 of, by Tocqu6, 153 et seq. 
 
 Watteau, Antoine, 26, 74 ; Escarpolette, 52; 
 Le Depart des Comidiens Italiens, 75 ; 
 Chat Malade, 76 ; Repos de la Sainte 
 Famille, 76 note, 102 ; La Marmotte, 
 11 and note; La Fileuse, 77 and note; 
 Dipart de Troupe, 77, 79; La Recrue, 77, 
 85 ; Halt de Troupe, 77 and note ; Les 
 Fatigues de la Guerre, 78 ; Les Dilasse- 
 ments de la Guerre, 78; UAutomne, 78 ; 
 Le Prin temps, 78 ; Escorte d'iquipage, 
 79 ; La vraie Gaieti, 1C), 85 ; Les Jaloux, 
 80 ; Colin-Maillard, 80 ; Danse champ- 
 etre, 80 ; The Hirten, 80 ; Le Denicheur 
 de Moineaux, 80, 95 ; Plaisir Pastoral, 
 
 230 
 
8o ; Embarquement pour Pile de Cythhe, 
 8l ; Mariee de Village^ 8 1 note ; V Amour 
 paisible^ 8 1 note; Le^on d' Amour, 8i 
 note; U Amour dharmi, 82; Le Concert 
 Italien, 82; Gilles et sa Famil/e, 82; 
 Retour de Chasse, 82 ; Le Mezzetin, or 
 Donneur de Serenades, 82 et seq. ; 
 L'Amante inquiete, 82 et seq.; Masquer- 
 ade, 82; Music Party, Si ; La SMnade 
 Italienne, 83 ; U Indifferent, 83, 87 ; 
 Finette, 83 et seq. ; Plafond de Gersaint, 
 83 ; V Assemblee dans un Pare, 83 ; 
 U Amour an theatre Italien, 83 et seq. ; 
 L^ Amour au theatre Fran fats, 83 ; Gamme 
 d' Amour, 84 et seq.; Enseigne de Gersaint, 
 83; Gesellige Unterhaltung im Freien, 83 ; 
 Sckne de jardin avec Pierrot, 84; La 
 Troupe Italienne, 84; Le Rendezvous de 
 Chasse, 85 ; Amusements champetres, 85, 
 90, 175; La Danse, 85; Harlequin and 
 Columbine, 85 ; Duet, 85 ; Toilette du 
 Matin, 86 ; Diane au bain, 86 ; Grand- 
 Gilles, 87 ; Comediens Ita liens, 87 ; Ver- 
 
 tumne et Pomone, 87 ; La Collation, 88 ; 
 Louis XIV. et M. de Bourgogne, 88 ; 
 UAbreuvoir, 88; Le Marais, 88; La 
 Perspeiiive, 88; Coin de Village, 89; La 
 Conversation, 89; U Amour paisible, 89; 
 U Occupation selon Page, 89; Iris, 90 ; 
 Heureux Age, 90 ; Z.a Ricriation Italienne, 
 90; Z.« Pasteurs, 90; 7'tf«z m Garten 
 Halle, 90 ; La Lecon, 90 ; ZflfS^y /« « ^^^ 
 Dress, 93 note ; 5^/ i«a^ une Collonnade, 
 94 ; Portrait of de la Roque, 92 note ; 
 Portrait of Rosalba Carriera, 92 note ; 
 Miniature of Gersaint, ()b; Sainte Fierge, 
 102; Christ en Croix, 102; Toy Wind- 
 mill, 109 note; Concert, 175; Plaisir 
 Pastoral, 175; ^«^ />m^ rfan^ le Pare, 
 
 175- 
 Wauxhall des Champs Elys^es, 10. 
 TVille, portrait of, by Greuze, 136. 
 Wust, engraver, 76. 
 
 Toung Girl with Cat, by Perronneau, 168. 
 Touth bloiving Soap-bubbles, by Chardin, 1 14. 
 
 Index. 
 
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