Lot 361: JEAN RAOUX MONTPELLIER 1677 - 1734 PARIS

TWO YOUNG LADIES SINGING IN AN ELEGANT INTERIOR

measurements note
32 1/4 by 26 in.; 82.6 by 66 cm.

signed and dated on harpsicord lower right J. Raoux 1720

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Possibly Randon de Boisset;
His sale, Paris, Julliot, February 27, 1777, lot 176, (as "Deux chanteuses près d'un clavecin") sold for 5,400 francs to Deville;
Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, May 19, 1995, lot 178;
Anonymous sale ("Property of a Private Collector, Sold Without Reserve"), New York, Sotheby's, January 24, 2002, lot 42, there purchased by the present collector.

LITERATURE

Possibly E. Bénézit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, 1976, vol. VIII, p. 605;
E. Bénézit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, 1999, vol. XI, p. 437.

NOTE

There is another version of this composition by Raoux in which the two ladies are accompanied by two musicians (see A.P. De Mirimonde, "Scènes de genre musical de l'écoles française au XVIIIeme siècle dans les collections nationales", in Revue du Louvre et des Musées de France, no. 1, 1968, p. 16, reproduced figure 6).