Engraved in reverse by Gilles Demarteau

This charming study, executed in coloured chalks, is the original drawing used by Gilles Demarteau for his crayon manner print in reverse, inscribed in the border: Treizième Estampe á plusiers Crayons. á Paris chés Demarteau Graveur du Roi, rue de la Pelleterie á la Cloche. N^o. 218.¹

The drawing shows an elegant young woman, seen in profile, reading a book. From the writing visible on the open pages in the engraving we can see that the young lady is reading the medieval story of Abelard and Héloïse, one of history's most passionate love stories, in which a philosopher and theologian falls in love with his student.

Boucher has produced a spirited drawing in a combination of chalks, cleverly applying the media to create different textures across the sheet, using more rapid, heavier lines for the ruffled detailing on her sleeve and lace collar, in contrast to the smoother surface he creates for her face and the book.

We are grateful to Alastair Laing for endorsing the attribution to Boucher upon first hand inspection of the drawing, and for his assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.

1. P. Jean Richard, L'oeuvre gravé de François Boucher dans la Collection Edmond de Rothschild, Paris 1978, p. 208, no. 783