(Paris 1699–1789 Versailles)
The countryman who sought his calf,
oil on canvas, 65 x 81.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Tajan, Paris, 25 June 2033, lot 66;
sale, Christie’s, New York, 19 April 2007, lot 271;
sale, Christie’s, New York, 19 April 2018, lot 242;
where acquired by the present owner

On 14th December 1789, soon after the Storming of the Bastille and the Women’s March on Versailles, Etienne Jeaurat passed away, thus fate spared him the future events of the French Revolution. The milieu he was the interpreter of and the protagonist in ceased to exist, coinciding with the moment when Jeaurat closed his eyes. Henceforth, the era of Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour, as well as that of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, were deemed corrupt times to forget and condemn.

Etienne Jeaurat was born in 1699, into a family unrelated to the art world of Paris; in fact, his father was a wine merchant. Soon Jeaurat became an orphan and later a student of Nicolas Vleughels, the director of the French Academy in Rome from 1724 to his death and a close friend of Jean-Antoine Watteau. The artist’s career was rapid and fruitful: in 1731 he entered the Académie Royale in Paris, where he obtained the position of history painter in 1733. Until 1781, when he became chancellor, Jeaurat advanced in academic positions, increasing his prestige in the artistic and social spheres. From 1765 he was the conservator of the King’s Cabinet in Versailles.

His oeuvre comprises paintings of miscellaneous subjects, ranging from historical, religious and mythological ones to portraits and still lifes. Jeaurat was especially versatile and brilliant in the subjects of genre, market and gallant scenes. Such were particularly appreciated by his contemporaries - notably by Madame de Pompadour - and were referenced by numerous engravers.

The present work portrays a young couple of noble descent sitting in a clearing and occupied in an affectionate encounter; the dog, that was supposed to watch the two lovers, remains silent and sleepy, while the attributes of social life - the fan, the tricorn, the stick and the sword - are laid aside, perhaps symbolising the abandonment of the etiquette. From the fronds of a tree towards the right-hand side a countryman stands out, surprising the two young lovers and pointing with the finger into the distance. Behind the figures the viewer discerns an almost two-dimensional horizon in pastel colours, where a building can be distinguished. This arrangement is undoubtedly related to the cartoons the artist prepared for the manufacture of Gobelin, characterised by a lack of depth.

In this subject, one easily recognises a story taken from the Cent nouvelles nouvelles by Jean de La Fontaine (1621–1695), one of the most famous French writers and a poet, who was particularly fashionable in the eighteenth century for praising philandering. It is the countryman who, looking for his lost calf, climbs up a tree and asks the pair of lovers whether they had seen it by chance:

Un villageois, ayant perdu son veau,
L’alla chercher dans la forêt prochaine.
Il se plaça sur l’arbre le plus beau,
Pour mieux entendre, et pour voir dans la plaine.
Vient une Dame avec un jouvenceau.
Le lieu leur plaît, l’eau leur vient à la bouche,
Et le Galant, qui sur l’herbe la couche,
Crie, en voyant je ne sais quels appas.
‘Ô Dieux ! que vois-je ! et que ne vois-je pas !’
Sans dire quoi: car c’étaient lettres closes.
Lors le Manant les arrêtant tout coi:
‘Homme de bien, qui voyez tant de choses,
Voyez-vous point mon veau ? dites-le-moi.’

De La Fontaine’s tales lent themselves very well to being translated into print or into paintings; they provided an excellent material not only as inspiration for the artists, but also for the delight of potential buyers. Especially ‘The countryman who lost its calf inspired’ numerous sketches and drawings by famous artists, including Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Etienne Jeaurat used the novel to set up a cabinet painting or, given the lowered perspective, a soprapporta that decorated a door accompanied by one or more pendants. This hypothesis could be supported by the existence of another painting by the same artist and with the same dimensions, which depicts another tale by the poet: the Brother Philippe’s Geese (signed and dated ‘Jeaurat pinxit 1734’, Musée de Valenciennes). The work in the Musée de Valenciennes, which shows a lady dazzled in the same way as the one present in the Countryman who sought his calf, could well be understood as a counterpart of the present painting and provide a clue towards its dating. The Countryman who sought his calf may therefore have a definite chronological position within the French painter’s oeuvre.

Similar representations, in which a couple is surprised or spied on in a loving attitude, were typical of this period; François Boucher created La Surprise in 1754 for Madame de Pompadour as part of the decoration of château de Menars, while Jean-Honoré Fragonard fervently committed to numerous portraits of surprised lovers. The voyeuristic taste that these paintings are devoted to is characteristic of the era from which they originate; an era in which gossip was born as social entertainment and in which both adultery and conversation were two of the most celebrated arts.