A Man Reclining and a Woman Seated on the Ground, c. 1716

Inscription

by later hand, lower right in brown ink: Vataux fec. (crossed out); by later hand, lower left in graphite: Watteau.

Provenance

Anonymous sale, (Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 28 May 1892, no. 72); Lallemand (sale, Paris, 2 May 1894); Léon Michel-Lévy [1846-1925] (his sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 17-18 June 1925, no. 106); George Blumenthal [1858-1941], New York (his sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 1-2 December 1932, no. 48); (Jean Seligmann). [1] Mrs. Jesse I. Straus [née Irma S. Nathan, 1876-1970], New York, (her sale, New York, Parke-Bernet, 21 October 1970, no. 20); Armand Hammer Collection, Los Angeles, 1970; gift to NGA, 1991.

Exhibition History

1932

The London Exhibition of French Art, 1200-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1932, no. 738 (commem. cat. no. 780).

1935

Master Drawings Selected from the Museums and Private Collections of America. Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery. Buffalo, 1935, no. 60.

1970

Exhibited with the Armand Hammer collection from 1970, starting with Arkansas Art Center; except Tenn. Fine Arts Ctr. at Cheekwood, Nashville, 1976; LACMA, 1984; Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1984; Albuquerque Museum, 1985; and Birmingham Museum of Art, 1985

1974

Recent Acquisitions and Promised Gifts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1974, no. 71.

1976

Old Master Drawings from American Collections, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1976, no. 149 (Ebria Feinblatt).

1978

Master Drawings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art and Promised Gifts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1978, p. 79.

1984

Watteau, 1684-1721, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1984; Grand Palais, Paris, 1984-85; Charlottenburg Castle, Berlin, 1985. Washington, 1984, 109, 150, 379-380, fig. 2, no. 79 (Margaret Morgan Grasselli).

1987

Master Drawings from The Armand Hammer Collection. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1987, no. 17.

2009

Renaissance to Revolution: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500-1800. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2009, 98-99, 280, no. 40 (color).

Bibliography

1905

Fourcaud, Louis de. "Antoine Watteau: Scènes et Figures Galantes." La Revue de l'art ancien et moderne 17, no. 95 (February 1905): 106.

1911

Les Maîtres du dessin. Paris, 1911: vol. 3, plate 136.

1928

Réau, Louis. "Watteau." In Les Peintres français au XVIIIe siècle by Louis Dimier. Paris and Brussels, 1928: 54, no. 38.

1931

Parker, K. T. The Drawings of Antoine Watteau. London, 1931 (reprinted 1970): 39, 49, no. 92, pl. 92.

1932

Eisenstadt, Mussia. "The Drawings of Antoine Watteau." Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 1(1932): 239-240 (as Mercier).

1932

Parker, K.T. "Mercier, Angélis and De Bar." Old Master Drawings 7 (December 1932): 38 note 8.

1950

Adhémar, Hélène and René Huyghe. Watteau, sa vie, son oeuvre. Paris, 1950: under no. 170.

1957

Parker, K. T., and Jacques Mathey. Catalogue de l'oeuvre dessiné d'Antoine Watteau. Paris, 1957, 2: 326, no. 665 (with incorrect dimensions).

1962

Mongan, Agnes. Great Drawings of all Time, French: 13th Century to 1919. Edited by Ira Moskowitz. New York, 1962, 3: no. 686.

1972

White, Christopher. "The Hammer Collection: Drawings." Apollo 95, no. 124 (June 1972): 460, fig. 6.

1973

Zolotov, Youri et al. Antoine Watteau. Catalogues raisonnés des tableaux et des dessins dans les musées russes. Leningrad, 1973: 139, under no. 6 (1985 ed.: 98, under nos. 8-11).

1984

Posner, Donald. Antoine Watteau. Ithaca, 1984: 208, 288 notes 18, 19, fig. 166.

1984

The Watteau Society Bulletin, 1984, no. 1, p. 43.

1984

Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 675, no. 1079, color repro. (as Couple Seated on a Bank).

1985

Börsch-Supan, Helmut. Watteau 1684-1721: Führer zur Ausstellung im Schloss Charlottenburg. Berlin, 1985: no. 91.

1985

Nochlin, Linda. "Watteau: some questions of interpretation." Art in America 73, no. 1 (January 1985): 80.

1987

Boerlin-Brodbeck, Yvonne. "La Figure assise dans un paysage." in François Moureau and Margaret Morgan Grasselli, eds. Antoine Watteau (1684-1721): The Painter, His Age and His Legend. Colloquy papers from the colloquium held in Paris in 1984. Paris and Geneva, 1987: 163 note 2.

1987

Grasselli, Margaret Morgan. "New Observations on Some Watteau Drawings." In François Moureau and Margaret Morgan Grasselli, eds. Antoine Watteau (1684-1721): The Painter, His Age and His Legend. Colloquy papers from the colloquium held in Paris in 1984. Paris and Geneva, 1987: 96 note 8.

1987

Grasselli, Margaret Morgan. "The Drawings of Antoine Watteau: stylistic development and problems of chronology." 3 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, 1987: 1:188; 2:272-273, 290 n. 72, 504, no. 193; 3: fig. 329.

1987

Grasselli, Margaret Morgan. "Watteau's Use of the Trois-Crayons Technique." In Walter Strauss and Tracie Felker, eds. Drawings Defined. New York, 1987: 181, 183, fig. 3. 189, 194 note 24.

1989

Ingamells, John. The Wallace Collection. Catalogue of Pictures. Vol. 3, French before 1815. London, 1989: 351.

1994

Grasselli, Margaret Morgan, "News." The Watteau Society Bulletin 3 (1994): 54.

1996

Rosenberg, Pierre and Louis-Antoine Prat. Antoine Watteau 1684-1721. Catalogue raisonné des dessins. Milan: Leonardo Editore, 1996, 2: 792, no. 475.

1997

Richler, Martha. National Gallery of Art, Washington: A World of Art. London, 1997: 85-87, fig. 4.

1999

Wintermute, Alan, "Le Pèlerinage à Watteau, An Introduction to the Drawings of Watteau and His Circle," in exh. cat. Watteau and His World, French Drawings from 1700 to 1750, New York and Ottawa, 1999-2000: 29-31, fig. 21.

2001

Mittler, Gene A. and James D. Howze. Creating and Understanding Drawings. New York, 2001: 219, fig. 11.18.

2010

Stein, Perrin. "French Drawings, Washington," The Burlington Magazine 102 (January 2010): 66, 67, fig. 85.

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