Pater painted subjects pioneered by his teacher, Antoine Watteau, including the fête galante and the military troops that both artists favored early in their careers. Pater’s reception piece to the French Royal Academy in 1728 was The Soldiers’ Merrymaking (Museé du Louvre, Paris). Like Watteau, Pater probably knew such subjects firsthand in the wake of Louis XIV’s waning military success, but he also took into account artistic precedents from Northern European artists. Rather than depict triumphant or heroic combat in the manner of battle painters, Pater focused on the improvised camps where soldiers slept, smoked, drank, and ate in the company of women.
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Title:Troops at Rest
Artist:Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater (French, Valenciennes 1695–1736 Paris)
Date:ca. 1725
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:21 1/4 x 25 3/4 in. (54 x 65.4 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Ethel Tod Humphrys, 1956
Accession Number:56.55.2
In 1709, the armies of Louis XIV suffered a bitter loss at Malplaquet, near Valenciennes. The young Pater certainly saw and may have suffered deprivation, in the wake of troop movements and other travails of war. This suggests why the figures are so closely observed. See also 56.55.1.
Katharine Baetjer 2010
Baron Adolphe de Rothschild, Paris (until d. 1900); Baron Maurice de Rothschild, Paris (1900–1924; sold to Wildenstein); [Wildenstein, New York, from 1924; sold to Macbride]; Mrs. Herbert Macbride, later Mrs. Julian Humphrys, New York (by 1928–d. 1956)
City Art Museum of St. Louis. "French Art of the XVIII Century," January 15–February 15, 1923, no. 20 (as "War Scene," lent by Baron M. de Rothschild).
Baltimore Museum of Art. "French Art of the XVIII Century," January 4–February 3, 1924, no. 15 or 16 (as "War Scene," lent by Baron M. de Rothschild).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "French Painting and Sculpture of the XVIII Century," November 6, 1935–January 5, 1936, no. 7 (as "Troops at Rest," lent by Mrs. Julian Humphrys).
Martigny. Fondation Pierre Gianadda. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Chefs-d'œuvre de la peinture européenne," June 23–November 12, 2006, no. 35.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Watteau, Music, and Theater," September 22–November 29, 2009, no. 21.
Florence Ingersoll-Smouse. Pater. Paris, 1928, pp. 16, 70, no. 417, fig. 126, as owned by Mrs. Herbert MacBride, New York.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 370, ill.
Katharine Baetjer inThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Chefs-d'œuvre de la peinture européenne. Exh. cat., Fondation Pierre Gianadda. Martigny, 2006, pp. 191–94, no. 35, ill. (color, overall and detail).
Katharine Baetjer inWatteau, Music, and Theater. Ed. Katharine Baetjer. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2009, p. 63, no. 21, ill. p. 65 (color).
Katharine Baetjer. French Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art from the Early Eighteenth Century through the Revolution. New York, 2019, pp. 107–10, no. 26, ill. (color).
Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater (French, Valenciennes 1695–1736 Paris)
early 18th century
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