François Boucher (Paris 1703-1770)
PROPERTY FROM A NEW YORK COLLECTOR 
François Boucher (Paris 1703-1770)

A boy holding a net

Details
François Boucher (Paris 1703-1770)
A boy holding a net
signed 'F Boucher' (partially cut, lower edge), dedicated in ink and dated 'a Mr De/Montullé/1762.'
black and white chalk on blue (discolored) paper
15 1/8 x 9¾ in. (38.5 x 24.8 cm.)
Provenance
Jean-Baptiste François de Montullé, Paris.
Gaspard de Sireul; Paris, 3 December 1781, lot 127 ('un dessein au crayon noir & rehaussé de blanc sur papier bleu, représentant un jeune garçon revenant de la pêche, & portant un échiquier sur son épaule. H. 16 pouces, L. 10 pouces').
with Galerie Cailleux, Paris (its mark, not in Lugt), where acquired by the present owner.
Literature
M. Roland-Michel, Le dessin français au XVIIIème, Paris, 1978, p. 249, fig. 300.
Engraved
Jean-Robert Petit (P. Jean-Richard, L'oeuvre gravé de François Boucher, Paris, 1978, no. 1473).

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Lot Essay

Both this drawing and its lost pendant, La Mére de Famille, were engraved à la manière de crayon by Jean-Robert Petit (1743-1780) and included the inscription 'Tiré du Cabinet de Monsieur de Montullé à Paris' (see P. Jean-Richard, op. cit., pp. 354-55, nos. 1472-73). Jean-Baptiste-François de Montullé (1721-1787) was conseilleur d'état and secrétaire aux commandements to Queen Marie Leczinska, consort to King Louis XV and was related to Jean de Julienne, who was also a patron of Boucher.

Montullé came from a wealthy manufacturing family and inherited the business which had been founded by his maternal grandfather. Montullé had decidely mixed results running the business, and during a period of financial difficulties sold most of his paintings and some of his drawings at auction in Paris in December 1783 (see C. Hattori, 'Jean-Baptiste François de Montullé (1721-1787). Collectionneur de Watteau, van Loo, Greuze, Vernet..', Cahier d'histoire de l'art, VIII, 2010, pp. 48-67 for a discussion of his collection and the 1783 sale). While there were 21 drawings in that sale, and two by Boucher, the present lot was not included.

According to Alaistair Laing, nor was this sheet part of lot 43 in de Montullé's posthumous 19 November 1787 sale as has previously been published. That lot is described as 'Trois autres Desseins, dont un croquis, par F. Boucher: un garcon qui porte un filet, & un sujet de Bataille'. This sheet is not a 'croquis' or sketch, but rather a highly finished drawing, and because of its importance would not have been grouped with other drawings in one lot. The drawing's high degree of finish served a dual purpose - both as the basis for the print, and as a finished drawing in its own right, underscored by the personal dedication of the sheet by Boucher to his patron.

The measurements of the drawing in the Sireul sale correspond closely with those of the present lot (43.2 x 27 cm.), as the present sheet may have been cut down slightly. Laing sugggests the drawing in the 1787 sale was a sketch for the more finished composition and that the present drawing was given to or acquired by Jean-Claude Gaspard de Sireul (circa 1720-1781), one of the most important, though enigmatic collectors of Boucher drawings during the artist's lifetime. Little is known about Sireul's background or career, and he did not add a collector's mark to his drawings. His posthumous sale included sixteen paintings and over two hundred drawings by Boucher, including the present lot.

We are grateful to Alastair Laing for providing additional information about this drawing.

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