Woman Playing the Violin, Seen from the Front

Musicians figure prominently in Carmontelle’s portrait drawings throughout his career and, with their implication of movement, provide some of his more lively subjects. Although he would depict the young Mozart, for the most part his subjects were aristocratic amateurs. In cultured households, such performances were a favored form of entertainment. The Wrightsman pair of drawings, showing a standing woman playing the violin seen in three-quarter view and from the back, is unusual in that their mounts bear neither inscription nor date. They can, however, be compared stylistically to an early group of drawings Carmontelle made when he was employed as a tutor in the household of the duc de Chevreuse. Many of these are dated in or around 1758 and share the high horizon line, blank background, and patterned floor of the Wrightsman pair. In general, watercolor is added more sparingly in the early drawings, allowing the red and black chalk to predominate. Moreover, Carmontelle’s preference for profile portraits had not yet become entrenched and one sees a number of three-quarter views. The Portrait of Madame de Montainville Playing the Guitar (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), Madamoiselle Grimperel Playing the Viola da Gamba, and Madamoiselle de la Perrière Holding a Fan (sold Christie’s, New York, January 13, 1993, lots 92-93) are all shown in three-quarter view. The second sheet of the Wrightsman pair, the drawing of the same woman seen from behind, is a daring idea for a pendant and without parallel in Carmontelle’s published oeuvre.


The sitter wears a blue-green and white striped robe à la française, a style where pleats fell straight from the shoulders down the back. Paniers create a broad silhouette for the hips. This style was popular over many years, but was generally displaced by the robe à la polonaise beginning in the mid-1770s. A similar dress was worn by Madamoiselle de la Perrière. The sheet music visible on the music stand in the drawing of the woman seen from the front is inscribed, "SONATA.I/ TARTINI". Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770) was a violinist, composer, and teacher active in Padua, but well-known throughout Europe. He composed over 170 sonatas for violin.


The pair of drawings may have stayed in the artist’s collection as the green mounts resemble those made by Pierre de La Mésangère, despite their lack of inscriptions. Although their subsequent history is not known, an intriguing mention can be found in the unillustrated supplement of a catalogue of an exhibition of Carmontelle’s work that was held at the Galerie André Weil in Paris in 1933. A pair of drawings, both entitled Portrait de dame jouant du violon were listed as lent by Mme Alexandre Dumas (Louis de Carmontelle, Lecteur du Duc d’Orléans (1717-1806), exhibition catalogue, Galerie André Weil, Paris, November 14-28, 1933, nos.79-80).


Perrin Stein, adapted from The Wrightsman Pictures, New York, 2005, cats.64-65, pp.237-40