?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
JEAN-ANTOINE WATTEAU (Valenciennes 1684-1721 Nogent-sur-Marne) Saint Cecilia (after Rubens).
Black, white and red chalks on cream laid paper mounted on wove paper. 210x162 mm; 81/4x61/2 inches. Ex-collection Carl Gustav Tessin (see Lugt 2985); Queen Louise of Sweden; Princess Albertine; Count Stenbock; Nils Barck (see Lugt 1959), his sale Klein, Brussels, 1852, June 27-28, number 334 (as Helene Fourment); A. Niels, Rhode-Saint-Genese, near Brussels.
Published in Parker/Mathey, Antoine Watteau, Catalogue complet de son oeuvre dessine, Paris, 1957, volume I, page 46, number 317.
It was perhaps Watteau's Flemish background which fostered his admiration of Peter Paul Rubens, who was the main influence on the young artist's formative years. Although probably already familiar with Rubens, it was Audran's position as Keeper at the Luxembourg Palace which allowed Watteau to study Rubens's Marie de Medicis series. The current drawing is based on Rubens's same titled painting from 1639-40, now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, the model for which was likely his wife, Helena Fourment.
