Table of contents:
- About the artist
- The plot of "Surprise"
- The story of the loss of an old painting
- The most expensive French painting by the old masters
Video: How it disappeared for 200 years and where was the most expensive painting of old France found: "Surprise" by the brilliant Watteau
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
It is hard to believe that the works of the most famous artists are still hidden in the dusty corners of private houses. But this is exactly the picture that the Christie’s appraisal team discovered in 2007. The found treasure is not only one of the most outstanding discoveries of recent decades, but also the most expensive painting by French Old Masters ever sold at auction.
About the artist
Jean-Antoine Watteau is recognized as one of the most influential and brilliant artists in the history of European art. Therefore, the news of the found masterpiece of the artist, the whereabouts of which remained a mystery for almost 200 years, thrilled the art world in 2007. Watteau had a very unusual, improvisational method of creating paintings. Having selected several suitable sketches, he then reproduced them with oil paint on canvases, where a landscape background was already ready. Then he tweaked the characters to blend in with the landscape, he could change them or even paint over to perfect the final composition.
By the way, Watteau rarely followed the compositional plan, and "Surprise" is no exception. The X-ray of the work shows a completely different composition under the current one, which the artist subsequently painted over. However, this does not detract from Watteau's skill! Even after 300 years, Watteau is still respected, and the artist's characters in aristocratic and theatrical costumes set against the backdrop of idyllic landscapes are still admired. The palette of the picture corresponds to the Rococo style - airy, light, elegant. Watteau used wonderful transparent, light, feathery strokes, as can be seen in Surprise.
The plot of "Surprise"
The Surprise by Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) was written around 1718. The scene takes place in a paradise park. It is accompanied by a beautiful landscape: the sun, which is about to go into the sunset, and lush trees, as if hugging the characters. One of the characters resembles an actor from the Italian comedy - Mezzetina. He sits on a stone bench with his knees crossed and plays the guitar. Mezzetin looks to the right at the couple in love, also sitting on the bench and not paying any attention to the man.
Borrowed from the theatrical traditions of the "commedia dell'arte", this character is a sharp rebuff to the unbridled passion of the couple. Reticent and melancholic, he tunes his guitar, knowing that his serenades mean nothing to lovers and only serve to reinforce his own sense of loneliness.
The hero is dressed in a peach-colored suit with yellow stripes and blue ribbons. It is adorned with a lace collar and cuffs. The outfit, by the way, is very reminiscent of the costumes of the heroes from the picture of the most talented student of Rubens, Anthony van Dyck. The small dog at the bottom right resembles a pet from Rubens' magnificent portraits. By the way, her gaze is even more reproachful than Mezzetin's. The heroes of the so-called "commedia dell'arte" occupy a prominent place in Watteau's work. By the way, they were copied from a pair of dancing figures on the famous painting by Rubens "Kermessa" in 1635, which is now in the Louvre and is one of the treasures of the French royal collection.
The story of the loss of an old painting
The first owner of the painting was Nicolas Henin, the festivities advisor to the French king, who was the artist's best friend and one of his most devoted admirers. The legendary connoisseur and collector Pierre-Jean Mariette noted in his 1746 Abecedario that Surprise is one of Watteau's most beautiful paintings. After the death of Nicholas Henin in 1724, the painting passed to another friend of the master, colleague and biographer Jean de Julien.
Then "Surprise" appears in the famous collection of Ange-Laurent de la Liv de Julie, who collected the first significant art collection dedicated to the encyclopedic display of French painting. A catalog of his collection was published in 1764 and describes "Surprise" as executed "with a piquant touch and richly colored in Rubens' colors." The painting left the collection by 1770, and later mention of it appears only in Lady Murray's testamentary note of 1848. In it, the woman bequeathed the painting to the family of the current owners, who did not suspect anything about the value of the work. And later it turned out that this is a painting by Jean-Antoine Watteau "Surprise", lost over 200 years, which all the time hung in the corner of the living room of an English country house.
The most expensive French painting by the old masters
The analyzed work with a curious plot was accidentally found only in 2007 in an English country house, where art critics were invited to evaluate a completely different work. According to this expert, the painting has been kept in this family since 1848. The 18th century work, painted by the French artist Jean-Antoine Watteau and called "Surprise", was absent for almost 200 years and was considered destroyed
The newly found Surprise was sold at Christie's for $ 24,376,385, a world record for any French Old Master painting sold at auction. The canvas was bought by London dealer Jean-Luc Baroni on behalf of the collector, whose name he refused to name.
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