PROVENANCE -

Private Collection, Switzerland.

LITERATURE -

E. Beck-Saiello, Napoli e la Francia: I Pittori di paesaggio da Vernet a Valenciennes, Rome, 2010, pp. 186-7, fig. 103.

E. Beck-Saiello, Pierre-Jacques Volaire 1729-1799 dit le Chevalier Volaire, Paris, 2010, p. 353, no. D.133, illustrated.

A study for the painting dated 1775 at the Château de Compiègne (E. Beck-Saiello, Le chevalier Volaire. Un peintre français à Naples au XVIIIe siècle, Naples, 2004, fig. 8).  That has a pendant, dated 1770, also at Compiègne. A preparatory drawing for that, of the same size and technique as this drawing, is in the Louvre (Catalogue of the exhibition Réserves. Les suspens du dessin, Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1995-6, no. 35). Both drawings show small differences of detail and staffage from the final compositions.

Compositional drawings by Volaire are rare, and seem only to have been made in the 1760s and early 1770s. Almost none exist for the later part of his career. The two pictures at Compiègne seem to have been made with particular care, as several drawings both for the compositions and the individual figures are known.

Largely influenced by Vernet’s drawings, with which they are often confused, Volaire’s compositional studies can be distinguished by the use of more contrasted shades of wash and by the insertion of numerous small figures which stand out against the landscape rather like ombres chinois.