ETIENNE JEAURAT | A VILLAGE FAIR

Jean de Julienne (1686–1766), Ecuyer, Chevalier de l'Ordre de St. Michel, Paris;

His deceased sale, Paris, Remy et al., 30 March 1767, lot 285, for FF 186 to

M. de Nanteuil;

His deceased sale, Paris, Paillet et al., 1 March 1792, lot 19;

M. Ph. Sichel;

His deceased sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 22 June 1899, lot 25;

With Galerie Pardo, Paris, 1956;

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 7 December 1994, lot 47, where acquired.

X. Salmon, 'Un carton inédit d'Etienne Jeaurat pour la tenture des Fêtes de Village' in Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art Français, Paris 1995, p. 190, reproduced p. 191, fig. 3;

C.B. Bailey, P. Conisbee and T.W. Gaehtgens, The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting, New Haven 2003, p. 206, no. 44, reproduced p. 207;

K. Brosens, European Tapestries in the Art Institute of Chicago, New Haven 2008, p. 313, under cat. no. 52, reproduced.

Possibly Paris, Salon, 1753, no. 20 (Foire de Village);

Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, June–September 2003; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, October 2003 – January 2004; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, February–May 2004, The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting, no. 44.

“What a lively, joyful image of the French countryside! Jeurat here captures the personality of his characters and their spirited interactions in a dynamic composition that invites us right into the scene.”

Calvine Harvey

This painting is a preliminary study for one of four cartoons on the theme of 'Village Festivals' prepared by Jeaurat for Michel Audran, a weaving contractor at the Royal Gobelins tapestry works. Jeaurat exhibited the sixteen-foot-wide cartoon for one of this series, Noce de Village (Village Wedding) at the Salon of 1753, as well as a small sketch titled Foire de Village (Village Fair) that possibly was the present work. An independent cartoon, today in the Musée Carnavalet, Paris, exists for the couple in the middle background seen examining the wares of a ribbon seller. A woven version of the entire composition appeared at auction in 1923 with a number of minor changes. Two versions of the left section including the tavern and salad cleaner have been identified with the title The Recruiting Sergeant, suggesting the cartoon had been cut by Audran in an effort to make the tapestries more marketable. A woven version of the right section with the dancers and horseman is in the Städtische Kunstgewerbmuseum, Leipzig. A full-scale cartoon of the right section of this composition was recently discovered by Xavier Salmon (see Literature) in a Parisian private collection, signed and dated 1753. This supports the conclusion that it was cut at an early date, and makes the present sketch all the more important for providing documentation of Jeaurat's initial concept.