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拍品专文
Boucher's charming painting Autumn is associated with a series of prints of putti in allegorical representations of the Four Seasons that were made by Claude Duflos (1700-1786) after models by Boucher and published at an unknown date. It is not certain whether the prints were made after Boucher's paintings or related drawings ('F. Bouch. Inv.'), but it seems likely that paintings of all four of the Seasons once existed. Nevertheless, only two of these original paintings - the present lot and Spring --have been known since they appeared as a pair in Rémy's collection in 1772; they remained together in Prince Demidoff's celebrated collection at San Donato, and were still paired in 1879 when they belonged to Charles Méra, after which they were separated. (Spring was with Galerie Cailleux in the 1960s and last appeared in public when it was sold at Sotheby's, New York, 9 January 1980, lot 98.)
Alastair Laing (in correspondence) has affirmed that the present painting and its former companion are Boucher's originals (no other versions are known or recorded), but he notes that it was the artist's practice with such decorative panels to execute them in collaboration with studio assistants. Laing does not propose a date for Autumn, but Ananoff placed it around 1744-1745. Françoise Joulie (in correspondence) has proposed an earlier date for this 'wonderful painting', comparing the faces of the putti -- and, in particular the extreme upsweep of their eyes - to a drawing of a putto in The Horvitz Collection, Boston, that she places c. 1740 (see F. Joulie, Esquisses, pastels et dessins de François Boucher dans les collections privées, exhibition catalogue, Musée Lambinet, Versailles, 2004, no. 31).
Pierrette Jean-Richard (op. cit.) noted that Autumn served as the model for an enamel medallion on the lid of an 18th-century tabatière in the collections of the Département des Objets d'Art, Musée du Louvre.
Our thanks to Alastair Laing for confirming the attribution and Françoise Joulie, who studied the present painting in photographs, for their assistance in cataloging this lot.
Alastair Laing (in correspondence) has affirmed that the present painting and its former companion are Boucher's originals (no other versions are known or recorded), but he notes that it was the artist's practice with such decorative panels to execute them in collaboration with studio assistants. Laing does not propose a date for Autumn, but Ananoff placed it around 1744-1745. Françoise Joulie (in correspondence) has proposed an earlier date for this 'wonderful painting', comparing the faces of the putti -- and, in particular the extreme upsweep of their eyes - to a drawing of a putto in The Horvitz Collection, Boston, that she places c. 1740 (see F. Joulie, Esquisses, pastels et dessins de François Boucher dans les collections privées, exhibition catalogue, Musée Lambinet, Versailles, 2004, no. 31).
Pierrette Jean-Richard (op. cit.) noted that Autumn served as the model for an enamel medallion on the lid of an 18th-century tabatière in the collections of the Département des Objets d'Art, Musée du Louvre.
Our thanks to Alastair Laing for confirming the attribution and Françoise Joulie, who studied the present painting in photographs, for their assistance in cataloging this lot.