Jean Siméon Chardin (1699-1779) (after) - Lot 32

Jean Siméon Chardin (1699-1779) (after) The Fountain. 1739. Engraved by C. N. Cochin. 310x280mm. Bocher 21. Fine proof on laid paper, trimmed outside the plate cut, carefully washed. Small thinning at center verso, perceptible by transparency. Some very light foxing. Two tiny white dots on surface. Margins 2-5mm. The original painting was exhibited at the Louvre in 1737, under the title Une fille tirant de l'eau à une fontaine. It was probably this version on canvas, from the Eudoxe Marcille collection, that was sold by Christie's in 2021, as it had come from the collection of the Chevalier de la Roque, sold in 1745 by Gersaint, and then from the collection of the Viscount d'Harcourt. On its subject, Théophile Gautier wrote in L'Artiste on February 15, 1864: "We see here what no one has spoken of: the bourgeois and familiar life of the 18th century, where there were not only dukes, marquises and dancers, as one might think. Moreover, what accuracy of movement in this leaning figure! What breadth of folds in her humble clothes! And the red copper fountain? The Dutch have done nothing better, and believe me, it didn't take Chardin a month to polish it." Another version of this painting, dated 1733 or 1735, painted on wood, belonged to the Queen of Sweden and is now in Stockholm's National Museum. The 1979 exhibition catalog, however, lists this painting as the original. (Pierre Rosenberg, Chardin 1699-1779, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Grand Palais, RMN, 1979, p.195).