(Nimes 1700-1777 Castel Gandolfo)
A study of a servant, holding a tablet with two doves, red and white chalk, on laid paper, 32,1 x 22,2 cm, old mount, mounted, framed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Collection A. Chariatte (London, early 20th century), Lugt 88a.

Literature:
The drawing is published and illustrated in: Susanna Caviglia-Brunel, Charles Joseph-Natoire 1700-1777, Paris 2012, pp. 174-175, D.12.

The present figure study may date to Natoire’s early period in Rome between 1723-28, when he executed several drawings and copies after great works of antiquity as well as of modern artists. The present study goes back to a figure on the left side of a relief by Angelo de' Rossi at the tomb of Pope Alexander VIII in the basilica of St. Peter in Rome; a similar drawing after another figure in the relief is kept in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (Inv. 31407).

As customary in French academic experiences Natoire copied and adapted the figure of the ancient relief and used it with a few adjustments for the servant in his painting „The Banquet of Cleopatra“ in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, NŒmes ein (Caviglia-Brunel 2012, P. 230). The pose of the figure is almost identical in painting and drawing; in the painting Natoire replaced the two pigeons by a fruit bowl and altered the garments. The painting is part of the cycle "Tenture de l'Histoire de Marc-Antoine" (1741-1757) which together with works by Jean Jouvenet (1644-1717), Jean Restout (1692-1768), Charles-Antoine Coypel (1694-1752), Jean-Francois de Troy (1679-1752) and Francois Boucher (1703-1770) served the French Gobelin manufactury as a model for a tapestry series of the same subject.