GUILLAUME BOICHOT | Study of a vase and trophy, and a chained figure

François Renaud (actif en 1776), Paris (L. 1042) ; 
Galerie Claude Van Loock, Bruxelles, 1977 ; 
Acquis auprès de cette galerie.

Rennes, 2012, n°63 (notice par Sylvain Laveissière) ;
Sceaux, 2013 (sans catalogue)

Hinge mounted to a modern mount. There is a small group of pinprick holes to the upper centre of the sheet and minor abrasions and surface dirt throughout. There is some slight staining to the upper right corner. The medium is a little rubbed in places, however it generally remains in good condition throughout, with the image strong. Sold unframed.
"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."

Though primarily a sculptor, Guillaume Boichot was also an accomplished draughtsman, as the present sheet, depicting a shackled slave surrounded by vases and trophies, clearly demonstrates. Boichot was evidently, like so many of his contemporaries, greatly influenced by Roman Antiquity and having spent the latter half of the 1760s in the Eternal City, there can be little doubt that his style was greatly influenced by these powerful evocations from the past. Likewise the present sheet also shows the clear influence of Boichot’s Venetian contemporary, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), whose own portrayals of imaginary prisons and grotteschi must have filtered their way into the Frenchman’s consciousness. Though it has not been possible to connect this sheet to one of Boichot’s surviving sculptures or reliefs, other drawings by the artist that serve this purpose do exist, such as Meleager Presents to Atalanta the Head of the Calydonian Boar,¹ now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

^1. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 1993.12.1; See Eighteenth-Century French Drawings in New York Collections, exhib. cat., New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999, pp. 213-215, no. 92, reproduced