Jean-Antoine Watteau, French, 1684-1721
Title: Woman Seen from the Back
Date: c.1715/16
Medium: Graphite and red chalk on paper
Dimensions:
14 x 9.6 cm
Credit Line: Purchased, 1891
Object Number: NGI.2299
DescriptionA large number of the drawings created by the French artist Jean-Antoine Watteau are figure studies, many of which were incorporated into his finished oil paintings. Watteau’s most popular paintings, known as fêtes galantes, depicted young lovers in idyllic settings. He made hundreds of sketches from life of models in various poses, without any specific composition in mind. When he began work on a painting he would then select suitable figure drawings from his collection, often using the same study in more than one painting. He was a master of the technique known as aux trois crayons, the use of a combination of red, black and white chalks. Under his influence, this technique became very popular in eighteenth-century France.
Watteau is acclaimed for the sensitivity and sophistication of his drawing technique, and his drawings are among the most prized of the French masters. The Gallery holds six of his drawings in total, four sheets of figure studies and two landscapes. This work was engraved by Laurent Cars for a volume of engravings reproducing all of Watteau’s known drawings, entitled Figures de différents caractères, published by the artist’s friend Jean de Jullienne.
March 2016
Watteau is acclaimed for the sensitivity and sophistication of his drawing technique, and his drawings are among the most prized of the French masters. The Gallery holds six of his drawings in total, four sheets of figure studies and two landscapes. This work was engraved by Laurent Cars for a volume of engravings reproducing all of Watteau’s known drawings, entitled Figures de différents caractères, published by the artist’s friend Jean de Jullienne.
March 2016
ProvenancePurchased, Christie's, London, Miss James Sale, 23 June 1891, lot 322
Exhibition HistoryThe Drawings from the National Gallery of Ireland: a loan exhibition, Wildenstein, London and New York, 31 May - 7 July 1967
Master European Drawings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Centre, Colorado; Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park; Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin; Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana; The Minneapolis Museum of Art, Minnesota; The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California; National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1983
Von Poussin bis Monet. Die Farben Frankreichs, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, 10 October 2015 - 17 January 2016
Master European Drawings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Centre, Colorado; Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park; Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin; Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana; The Minneapolis Museum of Art, Minnesota; The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California; National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1983
Von Poussin bis Monet. Die Farben Frankreichs, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, 10 October 2015 - 17 January 2016