[Sidenote: Lent by _Maison Jamarin, Paris_.]
Jean Siméon Chardin (1699-1779) studied under Noël Coypel and assisted Jean Baptiste Van Loo in restoring one of the galleries of Fontainebleau. He was admitted to the Academy in 1728. His early work was devoted to still-life subjects principally, his later to peasant scenes, in which there are often fine incidental still lifes.
_Wool and Silk._ H. 9 _ft._ 8 _in._ W. 10 _ft._ 9 _in._ ]
THE PRIEST AND CARDENIO MEET DOROTHY: _The priest and the barber while looking for Don Quixote come across Cardenio. While Cardenio is telling them the sad story of how his love, Lucinda, has been stolen from him by the treachery of Don Fernando they hear someone lamenting. Following the sound of the voice, they find Dorothy disguised as a shepherd-boy bathing her feet in a stream. She is on her way to seek Don Fernando, who is her pledged husband and who has deserted her for Lucinda. In the background Don Quixote, exhausted and starved from his wanderings, lies on the ground, while the faithful Sancho pleads with him to return to Toboso._
_The border simulates a carved frame. On the lower selvage is the signature M. R. DAUBUSSON. MAGE. PICON._
The piece is one of a series of illustrations by Coypel, originally designed for the Gobelins, and was engraved and used in many editions of the romance both in France and Spain. Several looms made tapestries after the engravings, including those of Santa Barbara in Madrid.
The signature is the mark of the royal manufacture of Aubusson, and of Mage, a tapestry merchant in Paris in 1746, and Picon, dyer to the king from 1748 to 1756. The piece was evidently made in the royal works of Aubusson to the order of the dealer Mage under the supervision of Picon, who, from his position, was evidently one of the most important members of the staff there.
_The Conquest of Louis The Great_ No. 52 ]
The piece shows Aubusson work at its richest and finest. The foliage of the trees with every leaf shown and broken up into small spots of changing color is very typical of Aubusson, and quite different from the manner of the Flemish shops (cf. No. 55). The colors are remarkably fine.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]