Production: anonymous
Previous attribution: Delyen, Jean François (Gand, July 20, 1684 - Paris (75), March 3, 1761) (Painter)
Previous attribution: Lancret, Nicolas (Paris (75), January 22, 1690 - Paris (75), September 14, 1743) (Painter)
Previous attribution: Watteau, Jean Antoine (Valenciennes, October 10, 1684 - Nogent-sur-Marne, July 18, 1721) (Painter)
Former attribution: Marot, François (Paris (75), 1666 - Paris (75), December 3, 1719) (Painter)
Previous attribution: Bouys, André (Hyères, 1656 - Paris (75), 1740) (Painter)
Le Goûter de chasse
Le Goûter de chasse
Production: 1710 - 1715
Area: Painting
Technique(s): Canvas (oil painting)
Dimensions : H. 251.6 cm ; W. 203.2 cm
Inventory no.: PE.553
Photo credit(s) :
Camus, Christophe
Lauginie, François
Cartel
This imposing, high-quality work remains mysterious in more ways than one. Acquired in 1851 when the furniture of the Château d'Arconville (Loiret) was dispersed, we don't know the context in which it was produced: we can only assume that it was painted to decorate the dining room of an important residence. The other question that specialists have been unable to answer for many years concerns its attribution.
Once attributed to Jean-Antoine Watteau and then Nicolas Lancret, the work has more recently been associated with André Bouys and François Marot. The difficulty and interest of this painting lies in the fact that it seems to be made up of a multitude of references to great masters active at the beginning of the 18th century. There are similarities with the art of Pierre Gobert (hairstyles), Bouys (layout and position of legs), Nicolas de Largillierre (wigs, faces, still life), Watteau (landscape) or Lancret (profile faces). The artist seems to draw on a variety of sources to compose his work.
This work is an early example of a theme that became very popular during the Regency and the reign of Louis XV: the post-hunt meal. It was painted on several occasions by Nicolas Lancret, Carle Van Loo and Jean-François de Troy for commissions by King Louis XV, who particularly appreciated these genre scenes.
The numerous guests are gathered around a low table covered with victuals, their attitudes echoing each other. The canvas is punctuated by the play of glances exchanged between the gentlemen and the young ladies. Servants fill glasses with wine, the bottles collected in a cooler in the foreground, and a somewhat isolated young man smokes a long white clay pipe. Costumes and hairstyles place this scene in the 1710s.
Provenance
Château d'Arconville (Loiret), Gervilliers collection, before 1850.
Purchase at the sale of the Château d'Arconville furniture by the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans (1851, lot 73), 1851.
School
France
Location
Museum of Fine Arts
1st floor
Room: From the regency of the Duc d'Orléans to Louis XV, lightness regained