Galerie Dreyfus
66
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JEAN-BAPTISTE PATER (VALENCIENNES, 1695 – PARIS, 1736)
A Lad…
See original version (French)
66
-
JEAN-BAPTISTE PATER (VALENCIENNES, 1695 – PARIS, 1736)
A Lad…
See original version (French)
Estimate €36,000 - €45,000
Voluntary lot
Description
JEAN-BAPTISTE PATER
(VALENCIENNES, 1695 – PARIS, 1736)
A Lady in her Bedroom
Oil on canvas
29 x 35.4 cm
Provenance
Dickinson, Dealers in Fine Art, London & New York.
This young woman, seated on the edge of her unmade bed, appears deep in thought… The presence
of her maid, holding out a basin for her ablutions, does nothing to rouse her from her reverie. Half
undressed, her low-cut nightdress revealing her shoulder whilst her raised skirt exposes her
bare legs, the lady is slow to tidy herself up, smiling as she recalls some
past amorous encounter. The slight disorder in the room does indeed seem to bear witness to the presence
of a lover: the linen thrown onto the bench on the right, the shoes scattered near the bed and, finally,
those few flowers on the floor? Having slipped from a bouquet on the left… The erotic symbolism
of these freshly ‘picked’ roses is a recurring theme in Regency courtly painting.
Everything here speaks of love, starting with this alcove with its heavy crimson curtains, from which
emerges this resting bench serving as a makeshift bed, where a prominent bolster invites one to
lie down. But there is another pair, domestic animals this time, which echoes the
previous scene. A female dog, with a shapely profile, stares coldly at a cat looming over her from
the top of the parapet. The latter, with a rounded back and tail held aloft, appears more aggressive, ready for
a confrontation. A mise en abyme of romantic relationships, the animal duo evokes, not without
a touch of mischief, the amorous contests so prized in the painting of the Age of Enlightenment.
Jean-Baptiste Pater (1695–1736) was a French Rococo painter. Trained under Antoine Watteau,
he remained under his influence throughout his career, both in terms of style and the choice of his
subjects. In 1725, he was indeed admitted to the Academy as a painter of ‘fêtes galantes’, a genre
specifically devised for his master, and following the latter’s death he would in fact complete certain commissions.
It was during this period that these pairs of paintings, *Le Concert champêtre* and *La Cueillette des
roses*, were produced. Watteau’s influence is evident in the composition, where these couples seem to have
just stepped out of his *Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera*, now in the Louvre: the same rhythm of
movement, like so many moments cut from a single story. Pater nevertheless
developed his own, more vibrant colour palette. Alongside pearly pinks and silvery greys are
almost acid-hued blues and greens. The landscape’s hues are also more pastel,
less iridescent than in his elder’s work. Finally, the scene clearly alludes to Italian theatre, which was
then very much in vogue amongst painters. The Grand Siècle and its serious painting gave way to
more libertine themes with the Regency. Society, freed from the shackles of court life, indulged in pastimes which
painters echoed to such an extent that they created this new genre of ‘fêtes galantes’, adapting
the genre scene to the licentious mores of the aristocracy. This art of gallantry, which spread
through Europe during the Age of Enlightenment, found in Pater a brilliant exponent, one of whose principal
clients was Emperor Frederick II of Prussia. In his work, he depicts, to his heart’s content, couples
engaged in the art of seduction, thus holding up a mirror to the society that commissioned him. The woman being
courted always occupies the centre, around whom the suitors gravitate. Pater, ever a libertine
but never lecherous, offers us a hymn to the timeless game of seduction.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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