Two military studies / Deux études de militaire
As Florence Ingersoll-Smouse wrote in 1921 in her book devoted to Jean-Baptiste Pater, "a painter of the Fête galante, Pater is interesting both by his intimacy with Watteau, to whom many of his works are still attributed, and by his own value as an artist.” This sanguine, full of life and spontaneity, is typical of the preparatory studies made by the painter to be used later in the composition of his paintings.
- Jean-Baptiste Pater, pupil and disciple of Antoine Watteau
Antoine Pater, Jean-Baptiste's father, belonged to the petty bourgeoisie of Valenciennes where he worked as a merchant-sculptor. His brother Jacques was a local painter who was probably involved in his nephew's training. Born on December 29, 1695, Jean-Baptiste Pater was first trained with Jean-Baptiste Guider, a local painter whose death in 1711 was probably the reason for Jean-Baptiste’s departure alongside Watteau, who was visiting Valenciennes. Watteau's difficult character led to their separation in 1713.
Back in Valenciennes, Jean-Baptiste Pater encountered difficulties with the powerful Corporation of Saint-Luke (to which he refused to belong) which forced him to return to Paris in 1718. He reconciled with Watteau shortly before his death (on July 18th 1721), inherited the commissions that Watteau had been unable to fulfil and completed some of his paintings.
Pater was accepted by the Académie Royale in 1725 but did not produce his reception painting The soldier’s revels until three years later. Throughout his brief career (he died at the age of forty on July 25th 1736), he mainly had a clientele of amateurs and received only one royal commission, shortly before his death.
2. Description of the drawing and related artworks
Pater had adopted his master Watteau's method of composition. His study drawings were carefully glued in a notebook and were used to animate his compositions. His paintings sometimes suffer from a somewhat artificial composition, since the figures seem to be pasted one next to the other. This point has also been made about Watteau’s.
The theme of military scenes (which was at the time included in the genre of Fêtes galantes!) was one of Pater’s favourite subjects. Together with the Bathing Women, it constitutes the most personal aspect of his art. It is also one of the themes that distinguishes him most from Watteau: unlike the military scenes in which Watteau expresses the soldiers’ distress, everything is cheerful with Pater. We are in a resolutely theatrical universe in which a strong feminine presence removes all gloom...
The two figures we are presenting were quickly sketched on what appears to be a note sent to the artist - traces of writing can be seen on the back of the sheet, which was unfortunately glued on heavy paper. They were reused in two of the painter's compositions, both of which depict The March of the Troops.
The figure on the left, which represents a soldier in three-quarter view, leaning slightly towards his long rifle with its butt on the ground, can be found in a painting at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.
The figure on the right of our sanguine, which represents a soldier clutching his rifle with his folded arms, evokes one of the figures in a painting at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
3. Framing
This red chalk is framed in a large Louis XV style gilded frame.
Main bibliographic reference :
Florence Ingersoll-Smouse - Pater - Les Beaux-Arts Paris 1921