(Paris, 1741 – 1823)
Study for “Summer, the Festival of Ceres”
Black and white chalk
545×430 mm
Signed “Callet f” at the lower left
Original mount (ill.4)
Circa 1789
Provenance : François Renaud’s Collection (Lugt 1042), Stamped lower right ; vente Christie’s New York sale, 30 january 1997, lot 195 ; Private collection, France
Our sheet is a preparatory study for one of the tapestry cartoons commissioned by the Direction des Bâtiments du Roi in 1782, for the production of a hanging to be woven at the Gobelins Manufactory. The cartoons, of considerable size (330 × 320 cm), depicted the Four Seasons, represented through four pagan festivals. Two of them – Autumn, or the Festival of Bacchus and Winter, the Saturnalia – are now housed in the Musée du Louvre, while Spring and Summer, the Festival of Ceres have been deposited at the Musée de Picardie in Amiens.
Our large drawing is a preparatory study for Summer, the Festival of Ceres, exhibited at the Salon of 1789. “This goddess had taught men how to make grain grow and to turn it into bread; in the midst of the sacrifices offered to her, women dressed in white would run with lighted torches, in remembrance of Ceres who, by the light of flaming torches, had roamed through Sicily in search of her daughter Proserpina, abducted by Pluto…” (Salon Catalogue, supplement).
While the composition is organised around the statue of Ceres, placed on a pedestal, Roman women illuminate the scene of offerings with their torches. Our drawing is a study for one of these vestals, situated on the left side of the composition, one of her torches being rapidly sketched. The hands and feet are treated with less precision, or merely suggested with quick strokes, as are those parts meant to be hidden in the final composition — here, the vestal’s right arm and her torch. This technique can be found in other preparatory drawings for tapestry, such as those by Simon Vouet.
Another sheet in black chalk, heightened with white chalk, preparatory to the same series, appeared in the Chennevières sale (4–7 April 1900, no. 58).
The painting, like the three others, was engraved in etching and burin by Jean-Charles Le Vasseur (1734–1816)(Marc Sandoz, Antoine-François Callet, Editart–Les Quatre Chemins, 1985, fig. no. 64, pl. VI).
A large presentation sketch for our composition has recently appeared on the Paris art market (Galerie Terrades, 2024).