Jérôme-François Chantereau

Sale, Monaco, Christie's, 22 June 1991, lot 18;

with Thomas le Claire Kunsthandel, (Cat. VIII, Master Drawings 1500 – 1900, 1992, no. 31),

from whom purchased by the father of the present owners

This engaging and spirited study of two young peasant boys is by the French painter and engraver, Jérôme-François Chantereau. Little is known about the artist’s life and his drawings rarely appear at auction. In fact, very few are housed in public institutions; the largest group resides in Stockholm and others are in the Louvre’s collection, Paris. His extant works show the influence of Chardin, Watteau and his followers and the majority are executed in trois crayons, like the present example, with subjects mainly representing peasants and soldiers.

Stylistically, one can draw parallels with Chantereau’s, Soldiers and Boys Playing Dice, in Stockholm.¹ Both works share a similar spontaneity and lightness in handling the chalk medium, demonstrating the artist’s skill in creating believable movement and fluidity in his figures.

Born in 1710, Chantereau was a member of the Academie de Saint-Luc and during his early years was court painter to the King of Denmark. His paintings are predominantly hunting scenes and battles and it is likely that he trained under either Watteau or Pater.

1. Drawings from Stockholm, A loan Exhbition from the Nationalmuseum, exhib. cat., New York, The Pierpont Morgan Library; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1969, cat. 108, reproduced fig. 108