Jean-Michel MOREAU (Paris 1741 - 1814)

Example of humanity given by Madame la Dauphine Pen and grey ink, grey wash, watercolor 11 x 18 cm Our drawing, which has been passed to sanguine on the reverse, is probably the drawing made for the engraving. A second drawing, signed and dated 1773, (pen and brown ink, brown wash, 12.3 x 19.5 cm), is kept at the Albertina in Vienna (see the catalog of the exhibition Marie - Antoinette, Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand - Palais, 2008, n°76, reproduced. The composition was engraved by François Godefroy, in reverse (see Opus quoted above, n°76a, reproduced). It is dedicated to the Empress Marie-Thérèse. This composition relates a happy episode in the life of Marie-Antoinette, then Dauphine, which occurred on October 16, 1773, during a hunt at Fontainebleau While hunting in the forest, Louis XV was informed that the winegrower Pierre Grimpier had been wounded by a stag. The king sent for a doctor. As soon as he left, Marie-Antoinette got out of her carriage to reassure the distressed wife of the winegrower, and gave her his purse. This good deed made her very popular.