Copies and Retouched Drawings by Charles-Joseph Natoire

Copies and Retouched Drawings by Charles-Joseph NatoireAuthor(s): Perrin SteinReviewed work(s):Source: Master Drawings, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Summer, 2000), pp. 167-186Published by: Master Drawings AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1554451 .Accessed: 05/06/2012 16:19

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Copies and Retouched Drawings by

Charles-Joseph Natoire

Perrin Stein

All eighteenth-century artists made copies after the

work of others as part of their artistic training. Except in the cases where copy drawings were needed for a

specific purpose, as in the production of prints or

illustrated books, artists generally gave up the practice of copying once they had attained their maturity. There are, of course, exceptions to this, but none more

notable than Charles-Joseph Natoire (1700-1777), whose penchant for making copies did not diminish, but rather, continued to grow and evolve over the

course of a long career.' In this article, through the

discussion of selected examples, presented chronolog-

ically, I will suggest the range of copies and retouched

drawings by his hand and reflect upon the purposes for which they were made.

We know little of Natoire's early work as a stu-

dent.Although he had studied with Francois Le Moyne, and a number of drawings survive that show an affin-

ity to Le Moyne's graphic manner, Natoire seems to have undergone a metamorphosis as a draftsman upon

encountering the work of Edme Bouchardon, a fel- low pensionnaire of the crown whom he accompanied to Rome in 1723. In the five years they studied togeth- er at the Palazzo Mancini, Natoire and Bouchardon

recorded many of the same monuments, and may well

have worked side by side on occasion.They chose their

subjects from the antique, Renaissance, and baroque

periods-especially the last. In strikingly similar styles,

they transcribed their models with great fidelity using sinuous, controlled strokes of red chalk for outlines and

parallel lines for shading, varying direction and spac-

ing to achieve a wide range of tones. The task of copy-

ing was approached with precision and patience, the artists' mastery evident in such sheets as Natoire's study of Michelangelo's Moses, in which details such as the

bulging veins and furrowed brow are modeled with

great subtlety (Fig. 1).2

Figure 1 CHARLES-JOSEPH NATOIRE after MICHELANGELO. Moses.

Private Collection.

167

Natoire returned from Rome in 1730. The accom-

plished red chalk copies he brought home were the

intended product of an academic training; they pro- vided useful aide-mnemoires for a young history painter

embarking upon his career. It was at this point that

Natoire's second education as a draftsman began, as

he became friends with the collector Pierre-Jean Mariette and was exposed to his circle of erudite

friends. It was Mariette's intense devotion to issues of

connoisseurship that prompted Natoire to view the

act of copying in more sophisticated terms as a form

of dialogue with the past. If he had been trained to

think of drawing as a tool of the artist, a step in the

artistic process, he now began, through his relation-

ship with Mariette, to see drawings through the eyes of a connoisseur.

Figure 2 LUDOVICO CARRACCI.

Glorification of the Blessed Sacrament.

I i'enna, Albertina.

Mariette at the time was a major force in the artis-

tic life of Paris.3 Francois Basan wrote in the 1775

catalogue of Mariette's collection that "the renowned

artists, the Coypels, the Le Moynes, the Bouchardons, the Vanloos, and so forth, all have paid homage to his

wisdom; they revered his judgments and decisions as

the ancients had their oracles."4 Natoire's close rela-

tionship with Mariette is apparent in the commissions

he was given to make copies after certain Italian draw-

ings in the collection. The sheets selected tended to

be by Italian baroque artists, works presumably admired

by both men. There is no indication that the purpose was to create records. Rather, Natoire's copies should

be seen as rarified exercises for the study and delec-

tation of connoisseurs. This purpose is evident in

Mariette's system of classification, for these copies were

Figlire 3 CHARLES-JOSEPH NATOIRE after LUDOVICO CARRACCI.

Glorification of the Blessed Sacrament.

Private Collection.

168

Figure 4 GIOVANNI FRANCISCO BARBIERI, called GUERCINO.

Virgin and Child with St. Louis and St. Francis.

Marseilles, Musee des Beaux-Arts.

not kept with other sheets by Natoire but were often filed alongside the Italian masters they emulated.'

Natoire's copies of drawings in Mariette's collec- tion are a complete departure from those made dur-

ing his student years in Italy. In place of red chalk, Natoire adopted the medium of the earlier sheet, mimicking the style, even replicating the pentimenti of the original, although at the same time he began to allow himself greater latitude, taking occasional liber- ties with the composition or lighting, presumably with the goal of improving upon the model. In his copy (Fig. 3) after Ludovico Carracci's Glorification of the Blessed Sacrament (Fig. 2), Natoire closely followed the

composition, but strayed from his model in his use of wash, rethinking the distribution of light and shadow, moving away from the strong baroque contrasts of Ludovico's composition and toward a more diffuse

light and greater legibility.6 Guercino was also con- sidered a worthy model for such exercises. Natoire's

copy (Fig. 5) after Guercino's Virgin and Child with St. Louis and St. Francis (Fig. 4) embellishes somewhat on the essential composition, by adjusting St. Francis'

clothing, indicating the fruit in the Virgin's basket, and so forth, while remaining loyal to the basic tenets of Guercino's style, with its rapid penwork and broad, flat areas of brown wash.7

Mariette's interests in commissioning these unusu-

Figure 5 CHARLES-JOSEPH NATOIRE after GUERCINO.

Virgin and Child with St. Louis and St. Francis.

Location unknown.

al copies can be gleaned from the commentary in the

catalogue of his sale (prepared by his friend Basan) that distinguishes in terms of function the various

copies he either made or commissioned. In the case of the numerous copies by Louis Durameau, the sale

catalogue describes Mariette asking the artist to copy the most celebrated paintings in Rome so that Mariette, who had visited Rome only briefly and decades before, could recall them.8 Like Natoire's stu- dent copies, the Italian copies by Durameau are done in chalk, are fairly consistent in manner, and are con- cerned primarily with recording compositions.9

On the other hand, Mariette's own copy (Fig. 7)1' -for he was an amateur draftsman as well- of a

prized drawing by Annibale Carracci (Fig. 6)11 is described as "faite a tromper," or, "made to deceive."12 Mariette's copy, in pen and brown ink like its model, mimics very closely the graphic manner of the orig- inal, carefully following the areas and direction of

hatching and the shorthand notation of leaves and

branches, while seeking to suggest the same rapidity of execution. For Mariette, the creation and appreci- ation of these "imitative" copies was a cultivated pur- suit, a facet of connoisseurship. In contrast to Everard

Jabach, who, according to Mariette, had had drawings

169

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Figure 6 ANNIBALE CARRACCI.

Large Tree on a Rise.

Location unknown.

. -- _, ;

Figure 7 PIERRE-JEAN MARIETTE after ANNIBALE CARRACCI.

Study of a Tree.

Paris, Musee du Louvre, Departement des Arts Graphiques.

in his collection copied to sell as originals,13 Mariette's aim, as far as can be inferred from his writings and other evidence, was primarily pedagogical. Copying, in his view, developed both the hand of the artist and the eye of the connoisseur.14

Mariette's particular interest in copies, though unusual, was not born in a vacuum, but owes much to Pierre Crozat and his circle. As Mariette described in his Abecedario,Watteau had worked assiduously mak-

ing copies after the Venetian landscape drawings in Crozat's collection.'5 Two of Watteau's copies after Titian, done "avec beaucoup d'esprit," turn up in Mariette's own collection.'6 Watteau may have made use of the motifs gleaned from these sources in com-

posing his fetes galantes, but he was equally interested

in the Venetian's manner of drawing, which he fol- lowed quite closely, albeit often substituting chalk for ink. This interest in the drawing styles of different artists also finds expression in the ambitious printing projects undertaken by two other members of Crozat's circle, the comte de Caylus and Jean de Jullienne, both of whom had the primary aim of disseminating knowl-

edge of artists' drawings through the medium of prints.'7 While his record copies after paintings and sculpture

in Rome were the expected work of a student and his imitative copies after drawings in Mariette's collec- tion were likely a commission, Natoire's interest in

copying had taken root and showed no signs of abat-

ing, as he continued to produce both types of copies during the busy two decades he spent in Paris. Carried

170

Figure 8 GIUSEPPE PASSERI. Miracle of St. Vincent Ferrer. Figure 9 CHARLES-JOSEPH NATOIRE after GIUSEPPE PASSERI.

London, Victoria and Albert Museum. Miracle of St. Vincent Ferrer.

Boston, Collection ofJefrey E. Horvitz. Photo: ?Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, MA.

over from his earlier experiences was a lasting dis- tinction between his apparent goals in copying paint- ings and copying drawings. In the case of paintings, his choice of models continued to focus on the Italian

baroque and the primary aim of the copies remained the recording of compositions. While the supply was less plentiful than in Italy, examples could be found in Paris. Natoire's copy, for instance, after Baciccio's

Preaching of St. John the Baptist (Musee de Dijon), at Versailles in the eighteenth century, retained the essen- tial composition, only altering the tonal relationships.18 A different agenda seems to govern the copies after

drawings. In his copy (Fig. 9) after Giuseppe Passeri's Miracle of St. Vincent Ferrer (Fig. 8), Natoire revealed his attraction to the Italian artist's very dark manner and loose handling.'9

At the height of his career, Natoire was appointed

director of the French Academy in Rome, and would

spend the last twenty-five years of his life in Italy. Perhaps because he received fewer commissions for

paintings, or perhaps for pedagogical reasons, Natoire threw himself anew into drawing: both landscapes and

copies after baroque paintings -paralleling, in both

cases, activities he encouraged in the pensionnaires. Published in four volumes of the Correspondance des directeurs de l'Academie de France a Rome, the written communication between Natoire and the marquis de

Marigny, the director of the Batiments du Roi, last- ed over two decades and offers ample documentation of both men's commitment to the drawn copy as the foundation of an artistic education. This is evident

especially in the early years when both were newly appointed and fervent in their initiative to reform

171

Figure 10 GUGLIELMO CORTESE.

Madonna of the Rosary.

Monteporzio, S. Gregorio.

what they perceived to be a stagnant program.20 The copies made by Natoire during his director-

ship are easily distinguished from those of his student

years. Major monuments of baroque painting (as he

suggested to his students) were his models. Drawn on

large sheets, his copies are highly legible exercises, with forms outlined in delicate ink line and modeled in

pale wash.2" In short, he made no attempt to suppress his own style. As with the copies after drawings by Ludovico Carracci made in Paris, a certain amount of

light-handed editing was done. In his copy (Fig. 11)22 after Guglielmo Cortese's Madonna of the Rosary in S.

Gregorio, Monteporzio (Fig. 10), Natoire adds a putto in the clouds to the left and omits one from the upper

left corner.23 In all likelihood these copies either arose

from, or at least dovetailed with, his pedagogical responsibilities. In many cases in which Natoire's ver- sion is not a precise transcription of the model, the

possibility remains that he had a variant composition -perhaps a drawing -at hand. Such questions arise in the case of Natoire's Assumption of the Virgin in The

Art Institute of Chicago (Fig. 13), 24 which relates in format and in the poses of two figures (an angel at

upper right; a kneeling man at lower right) to Giacinto Calandrucci's ceiling in S. Maria dell'Orto in Rome. Suzanne McCullagh has pointed out, however, that it is closer to Calandrucci's drawing (Fig. 12), which came to the Art Institute in 1922 as Sebastiano Conca, a connection she noticed when the Natoire was

acquired in 1976.25 Natoire's drawing is very close to Calandrucci's in the lower third of the composition, but varies significantly in the poses of the standing figure, the Virgin, and the angels. The possibility that there was another preparatory study known to Natoire should not be excluded.26

In Natoire's correspondence with Marigny, men- tion is often made of Natoire's role in the students'

copying projects. Not only did he make suggestions of worthy models and help them gain entrance to

important private collections, but there was a clearly stated expectation that the completed copies would be presented to Natoire to be "corrected with kind- ness."27 It is not clear what exactly was meant by "cor-

recting," but this remark may shed light on a large group of puzzling sheets in brown ink and wash over

copies or counterproofs in red chalk that are appar- ently by another hand. Indeed, the genesis of such

drawings is an area deserving of closer scrutiny. For

instance, in the cases of St. Peter Baptizing in Prison, after Pier Francesco Mola, and St. Benedict Receiving

Giftsfrom the Farmers, after Guido Reni, drawings both

in the Musee du Louvre,28 it is difficult to imagine why Natoire would invest effort in working up coun-

terproofs of well-known compositions if he had the

original copy at his disposal. One scenario is that stu- dents submitted counterproofs to Natoire, who worked them up with ink and wash into more finished draw-

ings. Counterproofs were frequently exchanged between pensionnaires, sometimes to be reworked, and

172

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Location unknown.

173

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Figure 12 GIACINTO CALANDRUCCI.

Assumption of the Virgin. The Art Institute of Chicago.

Figure 13 CHARLES-JOSEPH NATOIRE after GIACINTO CALANDRUCCI. Assumption of the Virgin. The Art Institute of Chicago.

174

the practice may have extended to their teacher as well.29

During his directorship, Natoire also became active as a collector, acquiring large numbers of drawings by contemporaries and earlier artists. In early 1759, he wrote to Marigny, "my sole pleasure lies in collecting some drawings by good artists and not of great value...;

they serve to sustain me and at the same time to illus- trate to the pensionnaires the route by which skilled artists have distinguished themselves in this art, which is so beautiful and so difficult to achieve"30 Perhaps encouraged by Rubens' habit of retouching drawings, and by the knowledge that Crozat and Mariette admired such sheets by Rubens,31 Natoire often took

pen and brush to the drawings in his own collection.32 Several auctions held in Paris following his death con- tain lots described as retouched by Natoire.33 His intervention ranged from reinforcing outlines, to

adding figures, to reworking entire compositions. A

group of these works, mostly done over Italian draw-

ings, came to the Louvre from the collection of the comte d'Orsay who had acquired them in Rome from the artist's brother before what remained of Natoire's collection was sent to Paris to be sold at auction.34 An inventory of 1813 described a portfolio as con-

taining "dessins de differents maitres retouches par Natoire."35

A similar group of eighteen drawings, presumably also initially acquired from Natoire's heir, was left to the Musee Jules Cheret in Nice in 1972. The group is varied, with examples of wholly autograph sheets,

copies, and retouched drawings. Many are of an

ambiguous status. An attractive sheet, Flora Scattering Flowers (Fig. 14), exemplifies Natoire's taste for mytho- logical subjects, yet it turns out to be a copy after a

ceiling design by Giacinto Calandrucci in the Palazzo

Muti-Papazzurri, Rome.36 Although the ink and wash areas are undoubtedly by Natoire, it is more difficult to be certain of the underlying drawing in red chalk,

especially as the pen seems to correct the chalk in

places (Flora's breast, the leg of the lowermost putto, and so forth).

Several of the Nice drawings listed as rejected in the catalogue that accompanied the 1977 Natoire exhibition appear instead to be retouched, although

in cases very lightly.37 A typical example is the

Carraccesque landscape bearing an old inscription to Claude (Fig. 15),38 in which neither the compositional structure nor the handling of the wash seem to have

anything to do with Natoire. His hand can be dis-

tinguished, however, in the ink and gouache rein-

forcing of the figures and foreground plants. The small

figures in the middleground may even be additions,

suggesting Natoire's need to enliven with staffage his retouched drawings as well as his original composi- tions.

A final example from the Nice group, Minerva as Protectress of the Arts and Sciences (Fig. 17), is a fairly worked-up drawing over a counterproof that is appar- ently by another hand.39 This scene appears above the entrance to the Galleria in the ceiling painted by Luca Giordano in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence,

although the drawing must be after the modello in the Denis Mahon Collection, on loan to the National

Gallery, London (Fig. 16).40 Could the counterproof have been made from a student copy?

Natoire's habit of retouching drawings by other

artists-although acknowledged by his contempo- raries-has led inevitably to confusion. Because the

retouchings vary greatly in assertiveness, one hand or the other tends to predominate. In some cases, sheets have been classified under the names of the original artists or according to the inscriptions they bear. This is the case with many of the reworked Italian draw-

ings from the comte d'Orsay. Several further drawings that bear evidence of Natoire's hand can be identi- fied. A sheet classified as Manglard (following the

inscription) in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (Fig. 18), depicting a Venus with putti in the clouds may well be a copy, or a retouched copy after a yet-to-be iden- tified Italian baroque painting.41 More faded but in the same category is the Faustulus Delivering Romulus and Remus to his Wife Larentia (Fig. 19), a sheet in the Worcester Art Museum exhibited in 1972 as French

seventeenth-century and since reclassified as Michel Corneille II.42 A sheet depicting soldiers playing around a drum in the Musee Atger, Montpellier, long given to Parrocel (following the inscription), is particularly- illuminating because, while the ink line is by Natoire, the figure of the small boy to the right has not been

175

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Figure 14 CHARLES-JOSEPH NATOIRE after GIACINTO CALANDRUCCI.

Nice, Musee Jules Cheret.

Flora Scattering Flowers.

Figure 15 Here attributed to CHARLES-JOSEPH NATOIRE (retouched by).

Landscape with Washerwomen.

Nice, Musee Jules Cheret.

176

Figure 16 LUCA GIORDANO.

Minerva as Protectress of the Arts and Sciences.

Denis Mahon Collection, on loan to the National Gallery, London.

1 .=

Figure 17 Here attributed to CHARLES-JOSEPH NATOIRE (retouched by) after LUCA GIORDANO.

Minerva as Protectress of the Arts and Sciences.

Nice, Musee Jules Chret.

177

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Figure 18 Here attributed to CHARLES-JOSEPH NATOIRE (retouched by?). Venus with Putti.

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum.

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Figure 19 Here attributed to CHARLES-JOSEPH NATOIRE (retouched by?). Faustulus Delivering Romulus and Remus to his Wife Larentia.

Worcester, MA, Worcester Art Museum.

178

Figire 20 Here attributed to CHARLES-JOSEPH NATOIRE (retouched by). Soldiers Playing Dice. Alontpcllicr, .liuse Atger.

gone over, clearly revealing that the chalk under-

drawing is by another hand (Fig. 20). 4

This heightened awareness of the artist's working

process requires that many sheets currently classified

as Natoire be given a second look. For example, two

very similar Italian landscape drawings, one in the

Musee Atger (Fig. 21) and one in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Fig. 22), display Natoire's

distinctive graceful ink line and characteristic figural

types and have always been attributed to him.44 Yet

close examination reveals that the chalk structure

beneath does not correspond to the artist's handling of this medium. His typical Roman landscapes, which

survive in large numbers, are built up over somewhat

tentative and faint black chalk sketches.45 By contrast, the Montpellier and New York designs are articulat-

ed with dense, emphatic red chalk hatching; the ink

line only embellishes what is already a muscular and

volumetric composition. In both cases, the figures and

animals in the foreground were not present in the red

chalk sketch but were added in ink. In the NewYork

drawing, the original sheet has been cut (presumably

by Natoire) and a horizontal strip inserted, resulting in a work of more narrow proportions.46 The confi-

dent handling of the red chalk suggests a contempo-

rary French artist.

Some of the drawings displaying two hands should

more properly be considered collaborative works.

179

Figure 21 Here attributed to CHARLES-JOSEPH NATOIRE (retouched by).

Landscape with a Bridge (View of Tivoli?).

Montpellier, Musee Atger.

Several lots listed in the catalogue of Natoire's 1778 estate sale are described as by Giovanni Paolo Pannini, "with figures by Charles Natoire."47 In addition to

acquiring Pannini's drawings for his own collection,

Natoire, while director of the French Academy in

Rome, also sent quite a few to collectors back in Paris,

primarily to Mariette and Marigny. In one case, he

mentioned in the accompanying letter that he had

reinforced the contours to make the drawing more

"epais."" The two men knew each other well in

Rome, Pannini excelling in perspective and architec-

tural rendering and Natoire in the easy invention of

graceful figures. Several sheets can be pointed to as

direct evidence of such a logical pairing of talents,

Figure 22 Here attributed to CHARLES-JOSEPH NATOIRE

(retouched by). Landscape with a Large Villa on a Hill. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

although clarifying the precise circumstances of a

drawing's genesis can prove difficult.

A black-and-white photograph in the files of The

Metropolitan Museum of Art of a drawing on the art

market in 1968 reproduces a capriccio, with figures

wandering about monumental ruins, strewn with

antique statuary (Fig. 23).49 There is an inscription, Panini, at lower left, but the elegant ink line used to

delineate the figures, the statuary, and elements of the

architectural ornamentation is unmistakably Natoire's.

On the other hand, the composition and the mas-

tery of perspective do point to Pannini, to whom the

drawing has been attributed. The confident rendering of complex perspective would seem to go beyond

180

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Figure 23 Here attributed to CHARLES-JOSEPH NATOIRE, with GIOVANNI PAOLO PANNINI (?).

Antique Ruins with the Belvedere Torso.

Location unknown.

181

Figure 24 GIOVANNI PAOLO PANNINI.

A Sibyl Preaching among Ruins.

Valence, Musee des Beaux-Arts.

Figure 25 CHARLES-JOSEPH NATOIRE after GIOVANNI PAOLO PANNINI (?).

Figures among Antique Ruins.

Location unknoun.

182

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Natoire's abilities, suggesting that the sheet is a rein- forced/collaborative work, rather than a copy. Several

compositions in Pannini's published oeuvre provide close parallels.50 Among those listed as Pannini in Natoire's estate sale, one described as part of lot 151

may correspond to this sheet: "Deux autres precieux dessins d'architecture, forme en hauteur & colories; dans l'un on voit un bas-relief & le Torse antique; dans l'autre, le Nil du Vatican."51 Further complicat- ing an already complex situation, Hubert Robert exe- cuted a watercolor, whose location is unknown, that

repeats the lower half of the composition.52 Until these works can be studied first hand, the most plausible hypothesis would be that a lost drawing by Pannini

provided the model for both Natoire and Robert. Another sheet inscribed Pannini was sold at auc-

tion in Paris in 1993 with an attribution to Natoire on the basis of style (Fig. 25).53 Again, the loopy ink line is Natoire's and the compositional motifs are Pannini's but, working from a photograph, it is diffi- cult to guess whether the sheet is a retouched draw-

ing, a copy, or a pastiche. The painting, A Sibyl Preaching among Ruins in the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Valence

(Fig. 24), is very close compositionally to Natoire's

drawing, although, given Pannini's tendency to pro- duce numerous variations on a theme, an even clos- er source may yet turn up. This composition also

corresponds to a drawing listed as Pannini in the cat-

alogue of Natoire's estate sale.54 The examples presented here represent a larger

body of works.They have been selected to focus atten- tion on Natoire's habits of copying and retouching drawings, activities in which the study, connoisseur-

ship, and creation of drawings became entwined and enriched. Over the artist's career, the copies and retouched sheets evolved in appearance and function. From the faithful, beautifully controlled red chalk

copies of his student years, to the free, exploratory imitative copies made during the period he befriend- ed Mariette, to the instinctive and graceful later copies (perhaps conceived as instructive examples for his stu-

dents), these drawings by Natoire were not merely utilitarian exercises, but works in which his aesthetic

parameters expanded and his love of drawing found full expression. Behind Natoire's predilection for copies

and for retouching drawings by others lay a search for endless refinement and an addiction to experimenta- tion, which flourished over the course of his long and

prolific career as a draftsman.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I would like to thank Alvin L. Clark,

Jr. for inviting me to present a talk on this subject at the Leventritt Symposium on seventeenth and eighteenth-centu- ry French drawings, prints, and book illustration at Harvard

University Art Museums, Cambridge, held in December 1998, and to those in the audience who offered their comments. Kristel Smentek kindly read a draft of the essay.

1. The groundbreaking study on the subject of Natoire's retouched drawings is J.-F Mejanes, Les collections du comte

d'Orsay. Dessins du Musee du Louvre, exh. cat., Musee du

Louvre, Paris, 1983, which studies the examples that came to the Louvre from the d'Orsay collection. See also

Mejanes' entry in P. Rosenberg, La donationJacques Petithory au Musee Bonnat, Bayonne. Objets d'art, sculptures, peintures, dessins, Paris, 1997, pp. 304-306.

2. Private collection. Red chalk; 502 x 290 mm. Bouchardon's copy after the Moses is less oblique in its

viewpoint and shows more of the architectural setting. See J. Guiffrey and P. Marcel, Inventaire general des dessins du Musee du Louvre et du Musee de Versailles, E1colefranfaise, vol. 1, Paris, 1907, p. 89, no. 508.

3. See Le cabinet d'un grand amateur, P.-J. Mariette, 1694-1774, exh. cat., Musee du Louvre, Paris, 1967; and R. Bacou, The Famous Italian Drawings from the Mariette Collection at the Louvre in Paris, Milan, 1981.

4. F Basan, Catalogue raisonne des differens objets de curiosites dans les sciences et arts qui composoient le cabinet de feu Mr

Mariette..., Paris, 1775, p. v.: "Consultez les Artistes renom-

mes; interrogez les Coypel, les le Moine, les Bouchardon, les Vanloo, &c. tous ont rendu hommage a ses lumieres: ils avoient pour ses jugements & ses decisions, la meme veneration que les Anciens pour leurs Oracles."

5. See, for example, Basan, 1775, pp. 24-25 (lot nos. 138-

139), where a Natoire copy is listed under Guercino, or

pp. 57-58, lot no. 357, where a Deshays copy is listed under Castiglione.

6. Fig. 3: Private collection. Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, heightened with white; 283 x 200 mm. Fig. 2: Vienna, Albertina, inv. no. 2086. Metalpoint, chalk, pen and ink, with light brown wash; 277 x 192 mm. See also Natoire's copy (Paris, Musee du Louvre, inv. no. 3042) after Ludovico's Virgin and Child Appearing to St. Clare and St. Francis (Paris, Musee du Louvre, inv. no. 7667),

183

although, in this case, Natoire, not Mariette, must have

kept the copy as it later appears in the collection of the comte d'Orsay, presumably acquired in Rome from Natoire's estate.

7. Fig. 5: Location unknown. Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash; 220 x 260 mm. Paris, Hotel Drouot, 5-6

April 1989, lot no. 88. Fig. 4:Marseilles, Mus&e des Beaux-

Arts, inv. no. 76. Pen and brown ink, brush and brown

wash; 190 x 240 mm.

8. Lot no. 1231 is described as "Onze autres Sujets divers, dessines a Rome d'apr&s les plus celebres tableaux de dif- ferents grands Maitres qui ne sont point encore connus

par aucune Estampe, & que feu M. Mariette avoit prie cet Artiste de lui dessiner, pour lui en rappeller la memoire,

d'apr&s B. Luti, Trevisani, Imperiali, Passeri, Mola, &c. faits a la sanguine." Basan, 1775, p. 187.

9. Two of Durameau's copies made for Mariette are in The

Metropolitan Museum of Art. See J. Bean, with the assis- tance of L. Turcic, 15th-18th Century French Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1986, nos. 107-108.

10. Paris, Musee du Louvre, inv. no. 30880. Pen and brown

ink; 405 x 263 mm.

11. Location unknown. Pen and black ink, over black chalk; 402 x 277 mm. New York, Christie's, 28 January 1999, lot no. 23.

12. Basan, 1775, p. 50 (lot no. 307).

13. C. Monbeig-Goguel, "Taste and Trade: The Retouched

Drawings in the EverardJabach Collection at the Louvre,"

Burlington Magazine, 130, 1988, pp. 821-35; Mariette's

quote appears on p. 831.

14. See, for example, his discussion of copying in his entry on Michel Corneille in the Abecedario; P. de Chennevieres and A. de Montaiglon, eds., Abecedario de P.-J. Mariette..., 6 vols., Paris, 1851-60, vol. 2, pp. 4-6; hereafter as Abecedario.

15. Abecedario, vol. 1, pp. 294, 341. Watteau's practice is also discussed by Edme-Francois Gersaint and the comte de

Caylus; see P. Rosenberg, Vies anciennes de Watteau, Paris, 1984, pp. 34-35, 74-75. The abbe de Maroulle, another member of Crozat's circle, also drew "fait a tromper" copies after drawings; see Bacou, 1981, p. 19.

16. Watteau's copies are catalogued not with the French

School, but with works by Titian; see Basan, 1775, p. 121, as part of lot no. 779.

17. Among other projects, Caylus made etchings after draw-

ings from both the Cabinet Crozat and the Cabinet du

Roi; see M. Roux, Inventaire du fonds francais, graveurs du XVIIIe siecle, vol. 4, Paris, 1940, pp. 53-155.Very impor- tant in disseminating Watteau's style as a draftsman was

Jean de Jullienne's Figures de differents caracteres, Paris, 1726-

28, 2 vols., which comprised 351 etchings by fifteen dif- ferent printmakers includingJullienne himself. See Dacier and A. Vuaflart, Jean de Jullienne et les graveurs de Watteau au XVIIIe siecle, Paris, 1929, 4 vols.

18. L. Duclaux, Inventaire general des dessins, Ecolefrancaise, vol.

12, Paris, 1975, p. 51, no. 79.

19. Fig. 9: Jeffrey E. Horvitz Collection, on loan to the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums,

Cambridge, MA. Pen and brown ink, brush and brown

wash, heightened with white; 315 x 214 mm. A.L. Clark,

Jr. et al., Mastery and Elegance. Two Centuries of French

Drawings from the Collection of Jeffrey E. Horvitz, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, MA, and

elsewhere, 1998, p. 425, no. A. 250 (not exhibited). Fig. 8: London,Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. no. D.1033- 1900. Pen and ink, wash, heightened with white, on brown washed paper; 315 x 213 mm. P. Ward-Jackson, Italian Drawings, II, 17th- 18th Century,Victoria and Albert

Museum, London, 1980, p.73, no. 779. The connection with Passeri was made by Michael Miller, although his

assumption that Natoire was copying a lost altarpiece must be incorrect. Passeri's drawing in London is the more likely source, especially as the two sheets have near-

ly identical dimensions.

20. In a letter of 13 June 1754, Vandiires, the future mar-

quis de Marigny, described examples of the work that

pensionnaires were required to send back to Paris every six months. In addition to a painted academie and a tete de caractere, each student was to draw two or three "des- seins d'apres les grands maitres"; letter reprinted in A. de

Montaiglon and J. Guiffrey, eds., Correspondance des directeurs de l'Academie de France a Rome, 1754-1763, vol.

11, Paris, 1901, p. 35. Hereafter as Correspondance. It is evident throughout the Correspondance that Natoire sug- gested appropriate material to copy and assiduously sought access for the students to churches and private palaces. Student drawings made in Rome were considered impor- tant; academicians would sometimes have the best exam-

ples from a shipment framed for display in the Academie. This practice is mentioned in a letter by Francois-Bernard

Lepicie, secretary and historiographer at the Academie

Royale (Correspondance, vol. 11, p. 32).

21. Examples include his Martyrdom of St. Andrew (Pushkin Museum, Moscow; inv. no. 5648) after Gugliemo Cortese's

painting in S. Andrea al Quirinale, Rome, and another

Martyrdom of St. Andrew (Galerie de Bayser, Paris) after

184

Mattia Preti's altarpiece in the choir of S. Andrea della Valle, Rome. The idea that Natoire's success in instruct-

ing the pensionnaires was due both to his lessons and to his example is expressed by Marigny in 1758

(Correspondance, vol. 11, p. 202).

22. Location unknown. Pen and brown ink, brush and gray wash, over black chalk; 385 x 250 mm. Monaco, Christie's, 20 June 1992, lot no. 232.

23. As Jean-Francois Mejanes pointed out to me in conver- sation (21 January 2000), there is further documentation of a trip by Natoire to Monteporzio in the inscription, monte Porcio al 10 octobre 1763, on a drawing in the

Albertina, Vienna (repr. in L. Duclaux, Charles Natoire

[Cahiers du Dessin Francais, no. 8], Paris, 1991, no. 45).

24. Inv. no. 1976.344. Black chalk, brush and brown and gray wash, pen and brown ink, heightened with white; 474 x 195 mm. Inscribed at lower left, Natoire, a Rome; at lower right, Pour M. Dandre Bard.

25. Inv. no. 1922.701. Pen and brown ink, brush and brown

wash, heightened with white, over a black chalk under-

drawing; 466 x 195 mm.

26. An ink-and-wash study, very close to the Chicago com-

position, but still with significant variations from Natoire's, is in the Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe, Rome. See D. Graf, Die Handzeichnungen von Giacinto Calandrucci, vol.

2, Diisseldorf, 1986, p. 507, no. 60 (drawing), no. A 62 (ceiling).

27. "Corriger avec bonte," in Correspondance, vol. 10, pp. 364, 381.

28. Duclaux, 1975, nos. 83, 85.

29. For counterproofs exchanged between Ango and Hubert

Robert, see K. Oberhuber and W.W. Robinson, eds., Master Drawings and Watercolors. The Hofer Collection, exh.

cat., Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 1984, no. 32, pp. 41-44 (entry by Eunice

Williams) and an album sold in New York, Christie's, 10

January 1996, lot no. 216. For a counterproof after a

drawing by Michel-Ange Slodtz apparently given to Pierre Subleyras, see Mejanes, 1983, no. 117.

30. "[m]on seul et unique plaisir est de rassambler quelques desseins de bon maitre et qui ne soyent pas de grande valeur, affin de pouvoir y atindre; ils servent a m'entretenir et a faire voir en meme tems aux pensionnaires la routte

que les habille artistes ont tenu pour se distinguer dans cet art, qui et si beau et si difficile a y parvenir." Correspondance, vol. 11, p. 260: letter 5327, 17 January 1759.

31. Mariette, in cataloguing Crozat's collection for the 1741 sale, not only acknowledged Rubens' practice of retouch-

ing drawings, but was unstinting in his praise for them, writing, "des Desseins mediocres, ou mal conserv6s, d'apres de grands Maitres, il se plaisoit a les retoucher, & a y mettre de l'intelligence, suivant ses principes. I1 les trans- formoit ainsi dans son propre gout, de forte qu' a l'in- vention pres, ces Desseins doivent etre regardes, comme des productions de ce grand homme, & ou l'on peut beaucoup apprendre pour le clair-obscur." Paris, Pierre Crozat estate sale, 10 April - 13 May 1741, p. 93. Several sheets described as retouched by Rubens were also includ- ed in Mariette's own sale; Paris, 1775, p. 158, lot nos. 1020, 1022. A useful discussion of the practice of retouch-

ing drawings can be found in Monbeig-Goguel, 1988, pp. 821-35.

32. For example, lot no. 293 in Natoire's estate sale, Paris, 14 December 1778, p. 38.

33. For example, Paris, 8 March 1779, lot nos. 71, 78-86, or, in Natoire's own estate sale, Paris, 14 December 1778, p. 38, lot no. 293.

34. Long mysterious, the mark of the comte d'Orsay was identified and his collection studied by Jean-Franqois Mejanes (Mejanes, 1983). Natoire's roles in assembling and retouching many of these sheets is discussed (pp. 88-

89) and the sheets considered by Mejanes to be retouched

by him are listed (p. 173).

35. Mejanes, 1983, p. 29.

36. Nice, Musee Jules Cheret, Saramito Bequest. Pen and brown ink, pale blue wash, over red chalk, heightened with white; 305 x 365 mm. (sight measurement). The

ceiling design is reproduced in Graf, 1986, vol. 2, p. 491, fig. A 17.Very close in composition is a red chalk sketch in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, published as Maratti

by FH. Dowley, "Some Drawings by Carlo Maratti," Burlington Magazine, 101, 1959, pp. 68-71.

37. "Repertoire des oeuvres de Natoire conservees dans les collections publiques francaises," in Charles-Joseph Natoire, exh. cat., Troyes, Nimes, and Rome, 1977, p. 119.

38. Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, black chalk, heightened with white, on prepared light brown paper; 400 x 535 mm. (sight measurement).

39. Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, over a red chalk counterproof; 350 x 440 mm. (sight measurement).

40. From the Denis Mahon Collection. G. Finaldi and M. Kitson, Discovering the Italian Baroque. The Denis Mahon

Collection, exh. cat., National Gallery, London, 1997, no.35. The eighteenth-century location of the sketch is not known.

185

41. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. RP-T-1948-532. Red chalk and watercolor; 266 x 406 mm.

42. Inv. no. 1951.23. Pen and brown ink, black chalk; 290 x 412 mm. See P. Rosenberg, French Master Drawings of the 17th and 18th Centuries in North American Collections, exh. cat., Toronto, Ottawa, San Francisco, and New York, 1972-73, no. 156.

Correspondence, Bethany Taylor, Worcester Art Museum, 24 March 1997. Research on this drawing turned up a letter from Emile Wolf in the museum files dated 1972, also sug- gesting a connection to Natoire.The composition was etched in 1806 by Pierre Peyron, who believed it to be by Poussin. See P. Rosenberg and U. van de Sandt, Pierre Peyron, 1744-

1814, Paris, 1983, p. 148, fig. 171.

43. Inv. no. MA 362. Pen and brown ink, over red chalk; 230 x 334 mm. See C. Nicq and P. Nicq, Petits et Grands Mattres du Musee Atger. Cent dessins fran(ais des 17eme et 18eme siecles, Mus6e Atger, Montpellier, 1996, no. 47. The authors do not assign the sheet to a particular member of the Parrocel family of artists.

44. Fig. 21: Montpellier, Musee Atger, inv. no. MA 53. Red

chalk, pen and brown ink, brush and gray wash, height- ened with white; 492 x 304 mm. Fig. 22: New York, The

Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 1975.131.120. Red

chalk, pen and brown ink, red and gray wash, heightened with white, traces of black chalk underdrawing for fig- ure and animals; 418 x 276 mm. The buildings on a steep hillside are reminiscent of the Villa d'Este.

45. See Duclaux, 1991, nos. 36-50.

46. Following the logic of this hypothesis, the red chalk marks on the added strip would be by Natoire. Stylistically, they do not correspond to the handling of the chalk on the

original (upper and lower) portions of sheet. Examination

by infrared camera in the Department of Paper Conservation at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (by Marjorie Shelly on 12 August 1999) confirmed that the chalk in the central strip is of a different composition than that on the rest of the sheet.

47. Lot no. 146: "Deux grands & beaux dessins d'architec- ture faits a la plume, laves au bistre & legerement col-

ories, sur papier blanc; Charles Natoire en a fait les fig- ures, qui representent, l'un Jesus Christ qui ordonne aux Malades de se laver dans la Piscine, & l'autre lesVendeurs chasses du Temple." Lot no. 156: "Deux Dessins d'archi-

tecture, forme en hauteur, ils paroissent avoir ete colories

par Charles Natoire en y placant diverses figures," although the copy of the catalogue annotated and illustrated by Saint Aubin has the word "Dessins" in lot no. 156 crossed out and replaced with "estampes." See E. Dacier, Catalogues de ventes et livrets de Salons illustres par Gabriel de Saint-

Aubin, vol. 8, Paris, 1913, pp. 26-27.

48. "J'ay l'honneur de vous adresser ce petit paquet qui con- tient deux desseins que M. Panniny m'a remis pour M. Mariette. Je l'ay rendu un peu plus epais, esp&rant que vous ne le trouveriez pas mauvais," in Correspondance, vol.

11, p. 398, no. 5539.

49. Location unknown. Pen and ink, brush and wash; dimen- sions unknown.With Giancarlo Baroni in 1968 as Pannini.

50. The architecture, for example, is very close to that shown on a sheet with watercolor exhibited at Bob P. Haboldt

Co., Inc. in New York in 1991 (catalogue no. 22).

51. Dacier, 1913, p. 27. Natoire's collection (what had not

already been sold by his brother) was sent from Rome to be auctioned off in Paris one year after the artist's death. Thus, the experts would have been unfamiliar with Natoire's collection and with his working methods, and here simply followed the inscription in cataloguing the lot.

52. Le dessin en couleurs, aquarelles, gouaches, pastels, 1720-1830, exh. cat., Galerie Cailleux, Paris, 5 June - 13 July 1984, no. 58.

53. Location unknown. Pen and brown ink, brush and gray wash, heightened with watercolor; 230 x 360 mm. Paris, Hotel Drouot, 25 June 1993, lot no. 32.

54. Lot no. 154: "Deux dessins de forme en travers & colories; dans l'un on remarque le Nil du Vatican & la statue de

Marc-Aurele, dans l'autre, la pyramide de Cestius, & cha- cun est orn6 de differentes figures," in Dacier, 1913, p. 27.

186