
Art Institute of ChicagoPublic domain
The Old Savoyard
Jean Antoine Watteau · c. 1715
Provenance
Ownership history
- Jean de Julienne (died 1766); sold, Paris, March 30-May 22, 1767, de Julienne Sale, lot 769 [London 1948 auc. cat.]. Mrs. A. L. Grimaldi; sold, Sotheby’s, London, February 25, 1948, lot 85. Georges Wildenstein, London, by 1957 [Washington, D.C., 1984; Parker and Mathey 1957]. Mrs. Corina Kavanagh, Buenos Aires; sold, Sotheby’s, London, March 11, 1964, lot 220, to the Art Institute.
Recorded by Art Institute of Chicago.
Exhibitions
Exhibition history
- Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, "French Master Drawings of the 17th and 18th Centuries in North American Collections," 1972, cat. 153, cat. by Pierre Rosenberg.
- The Art Institute of Chicago, "The Regenstein Collection of European Drawings," 1974, pp. 54-55, cat. 26 (ill.), cat. by Harold Joachim.
- The Art Institute of Chicago, "Selected Works of 18th Century French Art in the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago," January 24-March 28, 1976, p. 44, cat. 30 (ill.).
- Paris, Musée du Louvre, "Dessins français de l’Art Institute de Chicago de Watteau à Picasso," October 15, 1976-January 17, 1977, n.p., cat. 1 (ill.).
- Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut, "Französische Zeichnungen aus dem Art Institute of Chicago," February 10-April 10, 1977, pp. 12-13, cat. 1 (ill.).
- Washington, D.C., The National Gallery of Art, "Watteau," June 17-September 23, 1984, cat. 52; also traveled to Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, October 23, 1984-January 28, 1985; and Berlin, Charlottenburg Château, February 22-May 26, 1985.
- The Art Institute of Chicago, "Great Drawings from The Art Institute of Chicago: The Harold Joachim Years 1958-1983," July 24-September 30, 1985, pp. 88-89, cat. 36 (ill.), cat. by Martha Tedeschi.
- The Art Institute of Chicago, "In Context: Recent Acquisitions to the Regenstein Collection," February 20 -April 28, 1995.
- The Art Institute of Chicago, "The Broad Spectrum: Color on Paper, Past and Present," September 12–October 31, 1999, hors. cat.
- New York, Frick Collection, "Watteau and His World: French Drawing from 1700-1750," October 19, 1999-January 9, 2000, cat. 14, cat. by Alan Wintermute, et al.; traveled to Ottawa, the National Gallery of Canada, February 11-May 8, 2000.
- London, Royal Academy of Arts, "Watteau: The Drawings", March 12, - June 5, 2011, cat. 27, pp. 18, 23, 80-82, cat. by Pierre Rosenberg, et. al.
- The Art Institute of Chicago, "Lines of Connection: Drawing and Printmaking 1400-1850", March 15 - June 1, 2025, p. 75, 78. 117-18, 120-21, 211, fig. 61 (ill.), cat. by Jamie Gabbarelli, Edina Adam, et. al.
Literature
Published references
- Edmond de Goncourt, Catalogue Raisonné de l’Oeuvre Peint, Dessiné et Grave d’Antoine Watteau (Paris, 1875), p. 243, no. 370.
- K. T. Parker and J. Mathey, Antoine Watteau, Catalogue Complet de son Oeuvre Dessiné (Paris, 1957), no. 492 (ill.).
- Art Quarterly, 27 (1964), p. 499.
- Bilder und Preise, 24 (June 28, 1965).
- Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Supplement (February 1965), no. 186.
- Hugh Edwards, "Two Drawings by Antoine Watteau," Museum Studies (1966), pp. 8-14 (ill.).
- Edgar Munhall, "Savoyards in French 18th Century Art," Apollo (February 1968), no. 5 (ill.).
- Pierre Rosenberg, Mostra di Disegni Francesi da Callot a Ingres (Florence, 1968), p. 62.
- Rosenberg, French Master Drawings, no. 153 (ill.).
- John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago (London, 1970), p. 147 (ill.).
- Gottfried Lindemann, "Prints and Drawings: A Pictorial History", (Praeger Publishers, Inc. 1970), pp. 177 (ill.), 175-176.
- Donald Posner, "An Aspect of Watteau ‘Peintre de la Réalité’," Études d’Art Français Offertes à Charles Sterling (Paris, 1975), pp. 282 and 285.
Comparables
Related holdings by the same hand

Fête champêtre (Pastoral Gathering)
Art Institute of Chicago

The Dreamer (La Rêveuse)
Art Institute of Chicago

Study for The Feast of Love
Art Institute of Chicago

Italian Comedians
Art Institute of Chicago

Landscape with a Castle
Art Institute of Chicago

A Bewigged Painter (Possibly Claude Audran), Seated at his Easel, Seen in Profile
Art Institute of Chicago

Three Studies of Seated Women
Art Institute of Chicago

Allegory of Spring, or the Young Gardeners
Art Institute of Chicago
Museum holdings, not sale records. Auction results are only shown when a licensed price source is connected.
Research assistant