Two Studies of a Dancer, Raising Her Skirt in Her Two Hands

Prints and Drawings

1712/13

Jean Antoine Watteau
French, 1684-1721

The Art Institute boasts a small but choice selection of drawings by Antoine Watteau. This early example of his virtuoso draftsmanship in red chalk reflects his intimate knowledge of elegant materials and costumes, made famous in his print series the Figures de modes (Figures of Fashion). The spontaneity of the artist’s method is suggested in the pentimenti (changes to the composition) in the woman’s face.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Jean Antoine Watteau
Title: Two Studies of a Dancer, Raising Her Skirt in Her Two Hands
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1712–1713
Medium: Red chalk on cream laid paper
Inscriptions: Inscribed, lower left, in brown ink: "Wattau"
Dimensions: 17.6 × 13.3 cm (6 15/16 × 5 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Regenstein Collection Endowment
Reference Number: 2002.100
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/158393/manifest.json

Edmond de Goncourt, Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, dessiné et gravé d’Antoine Watteau (Paris, 1875), p. 345.
K.T. Parker and J. Mathey, Antoine Watteau, catalogue complet de son oeuvre dessiné, 1 (Paris, 1957), no. 29 (ill.).
Donald Posner, Antoine Watteau (London, 1984), pp. 258 and 290, note 56.
Margaret Morgan Grasselli, The Drawings of Antoine Watteau: Stylistic Development and Problems of Chronology (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 1987), p. 36, note 27, pp. 181-82, 193 and 215, no. 91, fig. 178.
Pierre Rosenberg and Louis Antoine Prat, Antoine Watteau, catalogue raisonné des dessins, 1 (Milan, 1996), pp. 292-93, no. 185 (ill.).
Galerie de la Scala, Dessins et Tableaux 1500-1900 (Paris, 2001), n.p., no. 8 (ill.).
Art and Antiques 25:10 (November 2002), p. 87 (ill.).

Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, “Watteau, 1684-1721,” June 17-September 23, 1984, pp. 81, 337 (ill.), and 339; traveled to Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, October 23, 1984-January 28, 1985; and Berlin, Château de Charlottenbourg, February 22-May 26, 1985.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Master Drawings Unveiled: 25 Years of Major Acquisitions,” August 27, 2016–January 29, 2017, no cat.

Marie Joseph François Mahérault (1795-1879); sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 27-29, 1880, Mahérault sale, lot 289. Léon Michel-Lévy (1846-1925); sold, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, June 17-18, 1925, Michel-Lévy sale, lot 117, to Dewur [annotated sale catalogue]. Possibly Mrs. John Dewar, London [it is possible that the name in the annotated sale catalogue was spelled phonetically]. Mme. Firino-Martel, Paris, by 1957 [Parker and Mathey 1957]. Sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, December 18, 1991, lot 5. Sold, Bordeaux, December 17, 1992. Sold by Galerie de la Scala to the Art Institute, 2002.

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