Jean-Michel MOREAU, known as Moreau le Jeune (1741 - 1814), d’après Jean-Baptiste GREUZE (1725 - 1805): La Philosophie endormie
Price: € 6000
Etching, 435 x 338 mm (sheet). Bocher 251, 1st state (of 4), Délignières 55, IFF (Aliamet) 55.
Very rare impression of the 1st state (of 4) according to Bocher, à l’eau-forte pure (only etching), the plate unfinished and before any lettering.
This state is before many futher works on the whole plate. The most striking detail is that of the young woman's bodice, which is still completely buttoned up, whereas it will be half-open in the finished plate.
Very fine impression printed on watermarked laid paper (watermark: letters difficult to read). Trimmed inside the platemark, small margins of the copperplate around the composition. Old inscriptions in pencil in the lower margin: Greuze pinxit // La philosophie endormie // avant la lettre. Very good general condition.
La Philosophie endormie is, in the guise of an allegory, one of the many portraits of Anne-Gabrielle Babuty painted or drawn by her husband, Jean-Baptiste Greuze.
On the prints bearing the letter, the printmaker's name does not appear, only the name Aliamet, with the mention direxit. It was once thought that the etching was the work of Fragonard, but the name of Moreau le Jeune was quickly accepted. The Bibliothèque nationale de France has two impressions à l’eau-forte pure. ‘The print preserved in the work of Moreau le Jeune bears an essential handwritten note, which reads: Mme Greuze, etched by J. M. Moreau after the portrait of Mr Greuze. Aliamet, of whom Moreau was a pupil at the time, probably confined himself to directing the work and retouching with a chisel. (IFF (Aliamet), p. 43, translated by us).
A very rare and beautiful impression of this important piece.