Circle Of Prud'hon, Early 19th Century, Three Cupids Playing In Nature, Charcoal On Blue Paper

Circle of Pierre Paul Prud'hon, early 19th century
Three Cupids Playing in Nature
17.5 x 12.6 cm
Charcoal and stump on blue paper, laid down on strong paper
Collection mark, stamped in red ink, on the reverse: Wolfhart F. Bürgi (L.3400)

Good condition

Carefully framed, under anti-reflective glass
Dimensions with frame: 28.5 x 23.5 cm

Provenance:
Wolfhart F. Bürgi Collection (1901–1989), Bern, Switzerland;
Private collection, Paris

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This drawing is comparable to the always very subtle drawings on blue paper by Pierre-Paul Prud’hon (1758–1823), particularly those from the years 1810–1815, when his collaboration with his student and final partner, Constance Mayer (1774–1821), was at its peak. During this period, the artist often set his dreamlike and romantic scenes in landscapes of forests and gardens where trees, as seen here, served as his preferred backdrop—undoubtedly to evoke a dreamlike place that is both timeless and universal.

Several of Prud’hon’s drawings and prints from this period feature cherubs playing and laughing, as in our drawing. The joyful and lighthearted atmosphere of these compositions is fully captured in this drawing, where there is always a detail to discover upon closer inspection. The harmony of the bodies—which embrace one another without merging— and the use of a stump on the charcoal to make the children’s silhouettes and the foliage of the tree in the background vibrate together—are highly nuanced elements that suggest this is the work of a skilled artist from Prud’hon’s closest circle.

Having had the pleasure of presenting this work to the leading expert on the artist, Sylvain Laveissière, former curator of 19th-century paintings at the Louvre, he told me that this drawing is very close to Prud’hon’s style, unlike what is frequently seen in copies after the master or pale imitations. It is on the advice of Mr. Laveissière that we present this drawing here as originating from Prud’hon’s circle.

As for its provenance, the collection mark affixed to the reverse of the backing board of this drawing corresponds to that of Wolfhart F. Bürgi (1901–1989), a university professor whose collection was, it appears, entirely devoted to early European drawings.

Specifically, in the entry dedicated by the Fondation Custodia to this collection mark, we find the following information: “Wolfhart Bürgi affixed his mark in red only to important drawings, reserving those in blue or black for drawings of ordinary quality.” Further research reveals that, among lots sold at Christie’s or in the collections of Harvard University Museum in the United States, there are drawings bearing this same collector’s mark in red ink.

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