Inspired by one of the Fables of La Fontaine, the present compositional study is related to Subleyras' painting 'Le Faucon', a subject treated by the artist on at least two occasions, and known today from an original painting now in the Louvre (fig. 1)1, and also from a print, executed in Rome by Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre (1714-1789), recording another lost original, with differences.2
The present drawing is a first idea for the composition, and despite the seeming completeness of the image, it differs in several important details from both of the other known versions. In the drawing, the main character, Frédéric, is kissing the wrist of Clitie, while the dog emerging from under the table looks backwards towards the lovers. The silhouette of a servant and another head can be made out in the background. There is no indication of the chair with the cat, found to the right in both the Louvre painting and the version known from the print.
An extremely rare drawing, the present sheet is executed in red chalk, and must date from the first half of the 1730s. It is very characteristic of Subleyras' style, with nervous, quick lines and a great understanding of the use of light. The extraordinary attention to the latter is a quality fundamental to the special luminosity of his painted works, with their inimitable use of white.
The Louvre painting has generally been considered to have been one of a group of paintings by Subleyras based on the Fables, executed for the artist’s patron, the Duke of Saint-Aignan, French ambassador to Rome between 1732 and 1741.3 Rosenberg and Michel have, however, convincingly argued instead that the painting in the Louvre is the one formerly in the collection of Charles-Joseph Natoire, included in his auction of 14 December 1778, and sketched by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin in his copy of the sale catalogue.4
The Fables of La Fontaine enjoyed great success in the 18th Century and inspired many important artists to use the witty, moralizing, and often theatrical subjects of these stories. (See also the drawings by Oudry, the previous two lots in this sale.) Subleyras illustrates in this drawing the visit of Clitie to her lover Frédéric, to beg that he give his falcon to her as a present for her desperately ill son. He, however, totally impoverished by his attempts to win her favour, has to tell her that she has just been fed the bird, his very last possession in the world, for her lunch.
Subleyras studied under Antoine Rivalz (1667-1735) in Toulouse. In 1727 he won, with his painting the Brazen Serpent5, the Grand Prix and joined the French Academy in Rome a year later. His talent was soon spotted by the then director of the academy, Nicolas Vleughels (1668-1737). Subleyras remained in Rome after his prolonged training of seven years and married the celebrated miniature painter Maria Felice Tibaldi (1707-1770).
1. Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. 8010.
2. The print is datable between 1735 and 1740. See Subleyras… exh. cat., op. cit.,1987, p. 187, fig. 3. P. Rosenberg and O. Michel also mention the existence of a lost engraving by Subleyras mentioned 'par plusieurs auteurs' in the 18th Century.
3. Other paintings executed for the same patron and based on the Fables are: The Geese of Père Philippe, The Amorous Courtesan, The Hermit. Subleyras painted also versions of these subjects, with differences, as explained in the essay:'Subleyras, illustrateur des contes de La Fontaine'. See Subleyras…, exh. cat., op. cit., 1987, p. 173. These were also possibly engraved in Rome by Pierre between 1735-1740.
4. See Subleyras…, exh. cat., op. cit., 1987, p. 173, p. 187, fig. 2., the sale catalogue annotated with drawings by Saint-Aubin in the Bibliothèque national, Paris
5. Nîmes, Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. no. 7999 (since 1954 on deposit from the Louvre)