Jean-Baptiste Pater

Lord Henry Seymour (1808-1859);
Georgina de Flahault, the Marquise de Lavalette (d.1907);
By descent to her niece Lady Emily Fitzmaurice (d.1939);
By descent to her son Mr A.E.H. Digby, London;
His deceased sale, London, Sotheby's, 20 June 1951, lot 31.

London, Guildhall, 1899, no. 71.

Emilia, Lady Dilke, French Painters of the 18th Century, London 1899, p. 99;
Emilia, Lady Dilke, 'L'Art Français au Guildhall de Londres', in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1898, vol. XX, p. 327;
F. Ingersoll-Smouse, Pater, Paris 1928, p. 56, no. 241 bis, reproduced fig. 168.

The painting is in very good overall condition. The canvas has been fairly recently lined, some time in the last c. 50 years, and the lining is stable and sympathetically applied. Cusping is evident along all four margins. The paint surface is well preserved throughout, with any thinness in the background area seemingly intentional. There is a concentration of small restored scratches in the central area of sky, each c. one inch in length, and a few small areas of retouched abrasion in the extreme upper right. There is very little further intervention to speak of, with the glazes throughout beautifully intact and undisturbed. The varnish layer is quite thickly applied.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This is an unusually fine composition by Pater, and like much of his work, is indebted to the example of his teacher Watteau. Though he may have lacked Watteau's poetry and distinctive air of melancholy, Pater was a very accomplished colourist and draughtsman in his own right. A similar but even larger work, entitled La Danse, formerly in the collection of Baron Gustave de Rothschild, in which the figures of the seated musicians and those of the elegant seated ladies are paralleled, is in the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Mass. Both works are likely to date from around 1730 or later. Pater frequently re-used his figure groups in his paintings; the dancing couple in the centre of this painting recurs, for example, in the Danse au pavilion today in Neues Palais in Potsdam.¹

The collection of paintings inherited by A.E.H. Digby, chiefly works of the French 18^th century and Dutch 17^th century schools, boasted a remarkable pedigree. Their family provenance reaches back on his step grandmother's side to Charles de Flahaut, Comte d'Angivillier (1730-1810) and also through his great-grandparents to Abel-François Poisson de Vandières, Marquis de Marigny (1727-1781), both appointed Directeur des Batiments et Jardins de France. Among the other significant French works from his collection sold in these Rooms in June 1951 were Louis Michel van Loo’s Portrait of the Marquis de Marigny and his wife Marie-Francoise Filleul today in the Louvre in Paris, Francois Boucher’s the Muse Erato, sold New York, Sotheby’s, 29 January 2015, lot 19, and another canvas by Pater, the La Balançoire now in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.² The reference in the early provenance is probably to Lord Henry Seymour (1805-1859), the second son of Francis, 3rd Marquess of Hertford. The scion of a great collecting dynasty, including his father, and brother Richard the 4th Marquess, both passionate collectors of French art, Lord Seymour was a devoted Francophile, a founder of the French Jockey Club, and is said never to have set foot in England.

1. Ingersoll-Smouse, 1928, p. 55,  nos. 234, 241, reproduced figs. 56 and 822.

2. Inv. Pd. 22-1977. Canvas, 46.3 by 56.5 cm. Ingersoll-Smousse 1928, no. 277.