Parrocel, like his father before him, specialized in paintings of battles and hunts. His adept handling of such subjects endeared him to Louis XV, an avid hunter, leading to many royal commissions.
This drawing is a study for a painting executed in 1744 for the appartement du dauphin at Versailles, made at the time of the Dauphin's first marriage to Marie-Thérèse of Spain. The shaped surround indicates the boiserie, or ornamental carved wood, that embellished the walls of the room for which the painting was destined.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Scene of Military Life: A General Giving Orders
Artist:Charles Parrocel (French, Paris 1688–1752 Paris)
Date:1744
Medium:Red chalk, over traces of graphite
Dimensions:18 3/8 x 13 7/8 in. (46.7 x 35.2 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1963
Accession Number:63.3
Signature: Pen and brown ink, lower right corner: "charle Parrocel.f. 1744."
Marking: Stamped in black ink at lower center, collector's mark of J.D. Lempereur, Lugt 1740. Stamped in black ink at lower left corner, collector's mark of Henri Delacroix (his mark, an interlaced HD, not in Lugt)
Jean Denis Lempereur (French)Lempereur sale, Paris, May 24, 1773, possibly part of lot 652: "Deux compositions à la sanguine, pour des dessus de portes de l'appartement de Monsieur le Dauphin à Versailles."; Henri Delacroix , Delacroix sale, Paris, Palais Galliera, March 31, 1962, lot 62, pl. XXIII; Vendor: Charles E. Slatkin (American)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "French Drawings and Prints of the Eighteenth Century," August 8–October 15, 1972.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Eighteenth-Century French Drawings in New York Collections," February 3–April 25, 1999.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints: Life at Court," May 1–July 30, 2018.
Bean and Turcic 1986.229
Alexandre Ananoff "Connaissance des Arts" "Les cents petits maitres qu'il faut connaitre". 149, Paris, July 1964, p. 55, ill.
Pierre Rosenberg, Antoine Schnapper Choix de Dessins Anciens Ex. cat. Bibliotheque Municipale de Rouen, Rouen, 1970, cat. no. under no. 39, p. 84.
Linda Boyer Gillies, Colta Ives French Drawings and Prints of the Eighteenth Century. Ex. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1972, cat. no. 40.
Pierre Rosenberg French Master Drawings of the 17th and 18th Centuries in North American Collections. Ex. cat., Art Gallery of Ontario, 2 Sept. - 15 Oct., National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada, 3 Nov. - 17 Dec. 1972, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 12 Jan. - 11 Mar. 1973. Toronto, 1972, cat. no. under no. 105, p. 192.
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. 40, p. 45, 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. 30, pp. 70-72, ill.
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The Met's collection of drawings and prints—one of the most comprehensive and distinguished of its kind in the world—began with a gift of 670 works from Cornelius Vanderbilt, a Museum trustee, in 1880.
