An Old Beggar
Artist/Maker
DatesMade: Made 1777
Material / Technique
Dimensionsh x w: Mått 35,8 x 27,82 cm h x w: Passepartout 55 x 42 cm
Inventory numberNMH 61/2017
AcqusitionPurchase 2017 Hedda and N.D. Qvist Fund
Other titlesTitel (sv): En gammal tiggare Titel (en): An Old Beggar
DescriptionRes. Katalogtext: New acquisitions, November 2017: Nationalmuseum has acquired three drawings by Edme Bouchardon (1698–1762), François Boucher (1703–70) and Nicolas Bernard Lépicié (1735–84), some of the leading artists of the French 18th century. The works comprise two portraits and a figure study for one of the museum’s most famous paintings, The Triumph of Venus. Each exemplifies how drawing had become a significant art form in its own right in 18th-century France. The drawing by Edme Bouchardon is a portrait of Geneviève-Thérèse Mariette, the daughter of Bouchardon’s close friend Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694–1774), an engraver and art collector. Mariette had catalogued the collection of the banker Pierre Crozat (1665–1740), sold at auction in Paris in 1741, from which Carl-Gustaf Tessin acquired a number of master drawings now owned by Nationalmuseum. On the back of the drawing, Mariette has noted that this is a portrait of his daughter drawn by Edme Bouchardon in 1736. The following year the artist exhibited six drawings at the Paris Salon, two of them depicting Mariette’s children. The exhibition catalogue describes the piece acquired by Nationalmuseum as “little girl in a bonnet”. The portrait, an exquisite example of Bouchardon’s mastery of the art and techniques of drawing, is a fully fledged work of art. The model is seen in profile, gazing out a little shyly beneath her bonnet. Through sharp outlines and graduated shading in sanguine, Bouchardon has formed blocks that create almost a three-dimensional effect. Works like this, coupled with the fact that the artist exhibited them at the Salon, helped entrench the status of drawing as an art form in its own right. Inventory numbers: Edme Bouchardon, Portrait of Geneviève-Thérèse Mariette: NMH 64/2017 François Boucher, Study of a triton: NMH 60/2017 Nicolas Bernard Lépicié, Old Beggar: NMH 61/2017
Collection
MaterialPaper, Black chalk (Crayon), Red crayon (Crayon)
Object category