Guillaume BOICHOT (Châlon-sur-Saône, 1735 - Paris, 1814) - Lot 136

Guillaume BOICHOT (Châlon-sur-Saône, 1735 - Paris, 1814) Bacchanal Pen and wash in Indian ink and brown ink, framing border 410 x 313 mm original oval form Provenance: Rouen, André-Hippolythe Lemonnier (1793-1871), his collection mark, Lugt 1330 a; France, private collection. Brief biography : It was only after training as an ornamentalist in his native region that, around 1756, Guillaume Boichot was to join Simon Châlle's workshop in Paris. Following two stays in Rome in 1765 and again in 1768-1770, during which the Romanesque culture left its mark on him, Boichot alternated his work as a sculptor between southern Burgundy and Paris. He was admitted to the Académie Royale in 1788, and from then on worked exclusively in Paris on the most important monuments of the era, from the Pantheon to the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, not forgetting the church of Saint-Roch and the Grande Armée column. His drawings, mainly preserved at the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Musée Vivant Denon, bear witness to his ability to evolve from the last third of the 18th century to the dawn of the Revolution and the splendors of the Empire. His drawings from the Italian period, like this one, testify to his assimilation of Arcadian culture, and must date from his return from Rome in 1770 or shortly thereafter. This is one of his rare large-format drawings intended exclusively for amateurs, and its seductive subject perfectly reflects the taste of the period preceding the neo-classical period. A typical sculptor's drawing, it may foreshadow a project for a bas-relief terracotta. Smaller sheets are preserved in the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Mounting, gilded wood frame