Provenance:    

Schwarz Collection

Sotheby’s, New York, 16 January 1986, lot 98, as by Claude Gillot

With Richard Allan Berman, New York, 2000; from whom acquired by:

Private Collection, New York

This intriguing drawing by the little-known Jacques Vigoureux-Duplessis is a remarkable example of chinoiserie—a decorative style that flourished in Europe, but particularly in France, throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. Chinoiserie works are characterized by evocations of Chinese motifs and were specifically European interpretations or imitations of the decorative ornamentation seen on wares imported from Asia.

In this Allegory of Winter, Vigoureux Duplessis demonstrates his talent for fusing Western artistic traditions with the allure of Eastern imagery. At the center of the composition two figures in Chinese attire sit by a fire as they warm their hands. Looming over them is an allegorical bearded male figure who looks down from a floating cloud as he blows gusts of wind towards them. He is accompanied by two putti who join in directing breaths of wind towards the figures, wafting in the cold.

Our drawing raises the possibility that Vigoureux Duplessis designed three other companion pieces, each devoted to the remaining seasons, which have yet to re-emerge. Stylistically, our sheet corresponds to other known works by the artist—all consonant with the technique, range of subjects, and the marriage of Eastern and Western themes with which he is associated.  Vigoureux Duplessis’ depiction of Chinese children seated on a puffy cloud is especially close to our drawing in the similarly bold application of the wash (Fig. 1).

We are grateful to Dr. Martin Eidelberg for confirming Jacques Vigoureux Duplessis’ authorship of this sheet based on firsthand inspection. Eidelberg has included the drawing in his essay on the artist featured in his online publication focused on the works of Antoine Watteau and his contemporaries.[i] The sheet includes several faint sketches in red chalk, including one of an ornamental animal head possibly patterned after the design of a Chinese lion. It is also indistinctly inscribed in French in red chalk along the left edge.

[i] Martin Eidelberg, “Jacques Vigoureux Duplessis and Chinoiserie,” Watteau and His Circle, August 2023. http://watteauandhiscircle.org/VIGOUREUX_Duplessis.htm.