Jérôme François Chantereau - Study Of A Standing Soldier

251 x 122 mm Writing with pen and brown ink at the bottom right: Le nain f. Few elements are known about the life of Jérôme François Chantereau. Painter, designer and art dealer, he was a student at the Royal Academy of Painting, and then became a member of the Academy of Saint Luc. He exhibited his paintings at the Salons of 1751, 1752 and 1753 and also painted for Christian VII, king of Denmark. He is also known for having dueled Joseph-Ferdinand Godefroy, a restorer and art dealer, because of their disagreement over the authenticity of a work of art.

Long considered a small master working in the style of Antoine Watteau, Jérôme-François Chantereau is today appreciated through forty drawings. The National Museum of Stockholm and the Louvre museum each keep a dozen sheets, others are at the School of Fine Arts, Prado, and at the National Gallery in Washington. The artist's drawings are characterized by the use of the technique of two or three pencils, often blurred to soften the contours, and also of pastel. His figure studies most often describe peasants, soldiers, beggars and translate his interest in the subjects of daily life.