This charming double portrait depicts the two youngest children of Charles-Germain, Saint-Aubin’s older brother. Germain-Augustin (1758-1825), on the left, was eight years old at the time and Marie-Françoise, nicknamed Rose (1755–1813), was eleven.
The Saint-Aubin family was as musical as it was artistic. Rose holds a hurdy-gurdy, and both look off to the left, seemingly unaware they are being drawn by their uncle. The naturalism of their delicately delineated features is unusual in Saint-Aubin’s oeuvre and suggests an avuncular fondness.
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Title:Germain-Augustin and Rose de Saint-Aubin, Drawn by Their Uncle
Artist:Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (French, Paris 1724–1780 Paris)
Date:1766
Medium:Gray wash over black chalk and graphite.
Dimensions:7 3/16 x 4 13/16 in. (18.2 x 12.2 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Bequest of Walter C. Baker, 1971
Accession Number:1972.118.233
Inscription: In graphite at lower margin: G. de St aubin et Rose de St aubin dessinés par leur oncle gabriel [This same inscription is repeated in pen and brown ink by another hand at lower margin of old mount] Inscribed faintly in graphite at upper margin in artist's hand: augustin de St aubin 1766 janvier [?]
Pierre Nicolas Ransonnette (French), Ransonnette sale, Paris, Feb. 21-23, 1878, lot 20.; Hippolyte-Alexandre-Gabriel-Walter Destailleur (French)Destailleur sale, Paris, May 26-27, 1893, lot 112, 2 (not sold); Destailleur sale , Paris, May 19-23, 1896, lot 852.; J. Bouillon (according to Dacier); Walter Burns (according to Schiff sale catalogue); Mortimer L. Schiff , Schiff sale, London, Christie's, June 24, 1938, lot 51.; Wildenstein & Co., Inc.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Walter C. Baker Collection of Drawings," June 2–September 4, 1960.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," February 26–May 5, 1996.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Eighteenth-Century French Drawings in New York Collections," February 3–April 25, 1999.
The Frick Collection. "Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (1724-1780)," October 30, 2007–January 27, 2008.
Musée du Louvre. "Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (1724-1780)," February 27, 2008–May 26, 2008.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," August 8–November 20, 2017.
Bean and Turcic 1986.274, Dacier 1929-31.238
Edmond de Goncourt L'art du dix-huitième siècle. 2 vols., 3rd edition. Paris, 1880–1882, I: pp. 426-427.
Emile Dacier Gabriel de Saint-Aubin: Peintre, dessinateur et graveur (1724-1780). 2 vols., Paris and Brussels, 1929-1931, cat. no. II: 238, I: 84; II: 44.
Wildenstein & Co., Inc. Timeless Master Drawings.. New York, Nov-Dec 1955, p. 102.
Claus Virch Master Drawings in the Collection of Walter C. Baker. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1962, cat. no. 77, p. 45, ill.
Jacob Bean "Curatorial Reports and Departmental Accessions: Drawings." In Annual Report of the Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 1, 1979 - June 30, 1980. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 110, New York, 1980, p. 27.
Jacob Bean, Lawrence Turčić 15th-18th Century French Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1986, cat. no. 274, p. 242, ill.
Hildegard Bauereisen Correspondances: Festschrift für Margret Stuffmann zum 24. November 1996. Edited by Martin Sonnabend, Mainz, 24 November 1996, p. 129, ill.
Perrin Stein, Mary Tavener Holmes Eighteenth-Century French Drawings in New York Collections Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1999, cat. no. 51, pp. 116-117, ill.
Pierre Rosenberg Le Livre des Saint-Aubin. Paris, 2002, fig. no. 17, pp. 56-57, ill.
Kim de Beaumont, Colin B. Bailey, Perrin Stein, Suzanne Folds McCullagh, Christophe Leribault, Pierre Rosenberg, Marie-Catherine Sahut Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, 1724-1780. Exh. cat. Frick Collection, New York, Oct. 30, 2007-Jan. 27, 2008, and at Musée du Louvre, Paris, Feb. 28-May 26, 2008. New York, 2007, cat. no. 3, pp. 114-115, ill.
Louis-Antoine Prat Le Dessin Français au XVIIIe siècle. Paris, 2017, fig. no. 851, 425-27, ill.
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