Nicolas Lancret

Acquired on 24 February 1858, from Blaisot, by Edmond and Jules de Goncourt (L.1089),
their sale, Paris, Féral, 17 February 1897, lot 147;
purchased at the sale by Pierre Decourcelle,
his sale, Paris, Georges Petit, 29-30 May 1911, lot 115 (to Lasquin for Dormeuil);
Georges Dormeuil (L.1146a),
by descent to the present owners

Paris, Musée des Arts décoratifs, La turquerie au XVIIIe siècle, 1911, no. 173 bis;
London, Royal Academy of Arts, Exhibition of French Art, 1200-1900, 1932, no. 729;
Paris, 140 Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Exposition Goncourt, 1933, no. 477

Journal, (24 February 1858), vol. I, p. 441;
P. Burty, Eaux-fortes de Jules de Goncourt, Paris 1876, p. 2, under no. 5;
E. de Goncourt, La maison d'un artiste, Paris 1881, vol. I., p. 100;
G. Wildenstein, Lancret, Biographie et catalogue critique, Paris 1924, p. 117, no. 703;
Exhibition of French Art, 1200-1900, Commemorative Catalogue, Oxford 1933, no. 702, pl. CLXVII;
From Clouet to Matisse: French Drawings from American Collections, exhib. cat., Rotterdam, Museum Boymans, Paris, Musée de l'Orangerie, and New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1958-59, p. 62, under no. 63;
J. Ingamells, The Wallace Collection. Catalogue of Pictures. vol. III, French before 1815, London 1989, p. 236, under no. P450;
E. Launay, Les frères Goncourt, collectionneurs de dessins, Paris 1991, pp. 341-2, no. 159, fig. 184;
M.M. Grasselli, Renaissance to Revolution. French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500-1800, exhib. cat., Washington DC, National Gallery of Art, 2009-10, p. 108, under no. 45, p. 281, no. 45 note 4

Engraved:
in reverse by Jules de Goncourt.¹ 

As Wildenstein first noted in 1924, this outstanding drawing -- which the Goncourt brothers described in their own journal as 'le plus délicieux Lancret du monde' -- relates to the subject of La Belle Grecque, a figure that the artist painted in various versions and contexts, both as a single figure (as in the painting in the Wallace Collection), and within larger compositions, where she is sometimes partnered with the figure of Le Turque amoureux.  Although the figure on the left of the present drawing does not correspond with any of Lancret's painted versions of the subject, that on the right clearly served as a study for the Outdoor Concert with the Beautiful Greek and the Amorous Turk, executed circa 1728 and now in the Rohatyn collection, New York.²  

At least half a dozen other very similarly executed drawings of ladies in this particular exotic costume are known, most notably the fine sheet in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., which was also formerly in the Goncourt collection.³  Others are in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, and a Swiss private collection.⁴ In its softly modelled handling and rich texture, a dating in the mid-1720s for this drawing works very well.  By this point in his career, Lancret had successfully absorbed and digested the aspects of Watteau's highly innovative drawing style that appealed to his own, rather different personality, reinterpreting them in a harmonious and original way.  This was the time when he produced some of the most delightfully elegant and skilfully executed figure drawings of his entire career, a group of exceptional drawings that includes both the present drawing and its sister sheet in Washington. 

Despite the traditional title for the paintings, the costume seen here is actually Polish rather than Greek in origin, of a type that was introduced into France at the beginning of the 18th century, and enjoyed considerable popularity. 

1.  Burty, loc. cit.; reproduced Launay, op. cit., p. 341, fig. 185
2.  Wildenstein, op. cit., no. 708
3.  Inv. 1944.9.1; repr. Grasselli, loc. cit.
4.  For full references, see Grasselli, op. cit., p. 281, no. 45, note 5