ÉTIENNE JEAURAT (Paris, 1699 - Versailles, 1789)

LE DÉPART DE LA NOURRICE OU LES TROIS ÂGES About 1730-1735 Oil on canvas, framed in the Louis XV period in limewood and gilded oak, carved with shells Sight: 52 x 60 cm Provenance Former Jacques Doucet collection, Paris, 1930 Private collection, Paris Exhibition Galerie Charpentier, 1944, La vie familiale, scènes et portraits Bibliography Louis Hautecoeur, Les peintres de la vie familiale, Paris, éd. Galerie Charpentier, 1945, reproduced p. 43 and quoted p. 55 The Art quartely, Spring 1969, reproduced p. 158 and quoted p. 155 Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, French Eighteenth century paintings, London, 1984, p. 132 Catalogue raisonné of the painter being prepared by Sylvie de Langlade, who will include it under number 29 The scene takes place on a dirt road, in front of a dilapidated hovel. A lady of quality, dressed in a yellow dress, hands over her newborn baby to a nurse on a donkey, under the watchful eye of an old lady in black. In the background, the men exchange gold coins. Away from the main group, a couple of peasants [a shepherd and a shepherdess?] draw attention to the left-hand side of the painting, which opens onto a luminous harbour landscape with its neoclassical portico. The presence of the black woman, perceived as an allegory of old age, introduces a symbolic dimension into the work, which would then represent the Three Ages of Life. This painting by Étienne Jeaurat has enjoyed great critical acclaim. Already during the artist's lifetime, Étienne Aubry (Versailles, 1745-1781) took up the model in a composition emptied of the secondary figures and entitled Les Adieux à la nourrice (fig. 1). His painting sheds light on the meaning given to our genre scene in the 18th century: it could be inspired by La Fontaine's fables, "The Fruit of Secret Love" or "Fortune and the Young Child". Appointed painter to the king in 1767, Jeaurat trained in the workshop of Nicolas Vleughels (Paris, 1668 - Rome, 1737). He was admitted to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1733. In addition to the historical subjects and religious paintings that belong to the great academic genres, he continued to paint genre scenes that he rarely signed. Our painter shines here by the originality of the iconographic theme. His style is still marked by the manner of his master, a pupil of Mignard (Troyes, 1612 - Paris, 1695) and friend of Watteau (Valenciennes, 1684 - Nogent-sur-Marne, 1721). Our painting is thus in the movement of the art of the Great Century while it announces the libertine effrontery of the Age of Enlightenment. Additional information given by the collector is accessible by QR Code in the PDF.