(1723–1769 Paris) “La fille surprise” (The surprised daughter), brush and brown ink, over black chalk, on laid paper, laid down on support, 27 x 21 cm, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

Provenance: Sale Comte Jacques de Bryas, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 4th-6th April 1898, Lot 3, (as Pierre-Antoine Baudouin: “La fille surprise. La jeune fille est rever, e sur son lit. Ses parents ont fait irruption dans la chambre. Le père en courroux la menace, tandis que, vers le fond, le s’ducteur prend la fuite. Dessin au bistre.”); Louis Deglatigny, Rouen (Lugt 1768a) his estate sale, Paris, Galerie Jean Charpentier, 28th May 1937, Lot 40 (as French school, 18th century.: “La Fille Surprise. Un paysan et sa femme ont fait irruption dans la est agenouill, e davent son père, adoss e au lit d, sordre. Le galante, un jeune élégant, s’échappe par une fenetre, auf fond. Lavid de sépia sur esquisse á la pierre noire. Monture ancienne.”)

Pierre-Antoine Baudouin, son of an engraver and etcher entered the Academie Royale in 1763 and exhibited annualy in the Paris salons between 1761and his death in 1769. Like Boucher he was also in the service of Madame de Pompadour, for whom he created several religious works in Versailles. His oeuvre comprises mainly detailed gouaches, watercolors and drawings with voluptuous and lubricious subjects, of which some were disseminated in prints. Denis Diderot described the artist at the time of the Paris Salon in 1765: A ”Bon garcon, qui a de la figure, de la douceur, de l’esprit, un peu libertin.”