Study for The Feast of Love

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Prints and Drawings

c. 1717

Jean Antoine Watteau
French, 1684-1721

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Jean Antoine Watteau
Title: Study for The Feast of Love
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.: 1717–1718
Medium: Red chalk and graphite on buff laid paper
Dimensions: 19.6 × 26.5 cm (7 3/4 × 10 7/16 in.)
Credit Line: Helen Regenstein Collection; Mrs. Henry C. Woods and Wirt D. Walker fund endowments
Reference Number: 1975.343
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/48981/manifest.json

Edmond de Goncourt, Catalogue Raisonné de l’Oeuvre Peint, Dessiné et Gravé d’Antoine Watteau (Paris, 1875), p. 344.
“Une collection…”, L’Artiste, 1894-97, p. 189, pl. 35.
Émile Dacier and Jacques Vuaflart, Jean de Jullienne et les Graveurs de Watteau au XVIII Siècle (Paris, 1929), p. 114.
Karl Theodor Parker, The Drawings of Antoine Watteau (London, 1931), no. 68 (ill.).
Roger Fry, Characteristics of French Art (New York, 1933), (ill.).
Karl Theodor Parker, “Sidelights on Watteau,” Master Drawings (June 1935), p. 8.
René Huyghe and Helene Adhemar, Watteau: Sa Vie et son Oeuvre (Paris, 1950), p. 55.
François Boucher and Philippe Jaccottet, Le Dessin Français au XVIIIe Siècle (Lausanne, 1952), no. 25, (ill.).
Karl Theodor Parker and Jacques Mathey, Antoine Watteau: Catalogue Complet de son Oeuvre Dessiné (Paris, 1957), no. 858.
Jakob Rosenberg, Great Draughtsmen from Pisanello to Picasso (Cambridge, 1959), no. 192 (ill.).
Menz, The Dresden Gallery, p. 368.
René Huyghe, L’Univers de Watteau (Paris, 1968), p. 46 (ill.).
René Huyghe, Watteau (New York, 1970), p. 50 (ill.).
Suzanne Folds McCullagh, “A Study for ‘La Fête d’Amour’ by Antoine Watteau,” Bulletin of The Art Institute of Chicago, 70 (January-February 1976), pp. 14-16 (ill.).
Martin Eidelberg, Watteau’s Drawings, Their Use and Significance (New York, 1977), pp. 29-30, 38, 42, 46, 53-54, and 147 (ill).
Baron Lambert, Artemis 1970-1976 (Luxembourg, 1977) (ill.).
Harold Joachim, French Drawings and Sketchbooks of the Eighteenth Century in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 1979), no. 2G8.
Donald Posner, Antoine Watteau (London, 1984), p. 171 (ill.).
Marianne Roland-Michel, Watteau (Paris, 1984), pp. 117-118, and 192 (ill.).
Margaret Morgan Grasselli, The Watteau Society Bulletin (1985), p. 44.
Denys Sutton, “Antoine Watteau, Enigmatic Ironist,” Apollo (March 1985), p. 151 (ill.).
Margaret Morgan Grasselli, The Drawings of Antoine Watteau (Cambridge, 1987), no. 245 (ill.).
Claire Ruytinx, “La Technique du Dessin de Watteau,” Annales d’Histoire de l’Art et d’Archéologie (1987), p. 155.
Margaret Morgan Grasselli, “Eighteen Drawings by Antoine Watteau: A Chronological Study,” Master Drawings, 31 (1993), p. 116.
Pierre Rosenberg and Louis-Antoine Prat, Antoine Watteau, 1684-1721: Catalogue Raisonné des Dessins (Milan, 1996), no. 599.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Maineri to Miró: The Regenstein Collection Since 1975,” Museum Studies, 26 (2000), no. 12 (ill.).
Suzanne Folds McCullagh, “‘A Lasting Monument’: The Regenstein Collection at The Art Institute of Chicago,” The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, 26, 1 (2000), p. 10.
Sarah Cohen, “Watteau and the Artful Body,” Cambridge Companion to Watteau (Cambridge, 2002) (ill.).
A Watteau Companion, University of Delaware Press (Chapel Hill, 2005).
Pierre Rosenberg, “Watteau: The Drawings”, (Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2011), p. 178, fig. 37.

London, Artemis, 1974-1975, cat. 5.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Selected Works of 18th Century French Art in the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago,” January 24-March 28, 1976, p. 45, cat. 31 (ill.).
Paris, Musée du Louvre, “Dessins français de l’Art Institute de Chicago de Watteau à Picasso,” October 15, 1976-January 17, 1977, n.p., cat. 3 (ill.).
Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut, “Französische Zeichnungen aus dem Art Institute of Chicago,” February 10-April 10, 1977, pp. 16-17, cat. 3 (ill.).
Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, “Watteau 1684-1721,” October 23, 1984-January 28, 1985, cat. 98; also traveled to Washington, D.C., The National Gallery of Art in June 17-September 23, 1984; and Berlin, The Château de Charlottenbourg, February 22-May 26, 1985.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Great Drawings from The Art Institute of Chicago: The Harold Joachim Years 1958-1983,” July 24-September 30, 1985, pp. 90-91, cat. 37 (ill.), cat. by Martha Tedeschi.
The Art Institute of Chicago, May 1987-August 1988.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Acquisitions in the Regenstein Collection 1974-1989,” February 2-May 8, 1990.
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Valenciennes: “Watteau et les Fêtes Galantes”, March 6-June 14, 2004, cat. 12 (ill. p. 105).

Possibly Col. M. Vailly [Rosenberg and Prat 1996]. Possibly sold, Paris, Apri 29l-May 4, 1867, Martial Pelletier sale, lot 1446 [Rosenberg and Prat 1996]. Marquis Philippe de Chennevières (died 1899), by 1875 [Goncourt 1875; Lugt 2072]; sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 5-6, 1898, de Chennevières sale, lot 193, to Jacques Doucet (died 1929), Paris [Rosenberg and Prat 1996]; sold, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, June 5, 1912, Doucet sale, lot 69. Marius Paulme (died 1928), Paris [Paris 1985]. Maurice Fenaille (died 1937), Paris, by 1931 [Parker 1931]; probably by descent to his daughter, Mme. de Billy (née Yvonne Fenaille), and her husband, Count Robert de Billy (died 1985), Paris, by 1950-at least 1957 [Adhemar 1950; Parker and Mathey 1957]. Karl-Hans Strauss, Paris [Rosenberg and Prat 1996]. Artemis, London, by 1974 [London 1974]. Sold by Robert Light and Company, Boston, to the Art Institute, 1975.

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