Item | Waddesdon Manor

Back to Search Results Search Again

artist or maker

Lancret, Nicolas (b.1690, d.1743)

Date

1730-1732

dated by print of 1732

Place of production

Paris, France

Medium

oil on canvas

Type of object

paintings

Accession number

2490.2

Rectangular oil painting of a figural group in a wooded river landscape, representing the element of Water, and allegories of the snares of Desire and Love. In the background, there are trees, a mill pond and, to the left, mill buildings. At lower left, there is a boatman sitting in a punt pushing on a pole. Next to the boat, two roughly dressed fishermen stand in the water up to their thighs pulling on nets.

In front of the pond, there is a group of figures. A man wearing a wide brimmed hat, jerkin and stripy trousers stands to the left of cente. He holds a large fishing net secured on two curved poles attached to a straight pole. A fish dangles from the net. In front of him, a boy with bare feet is on hands and knees. There is a pile of fish before him. He places a crayfish in the skirts of a standing girl before him.

A young woman, with a straw hat, stands behind the girl and reacts with surprise to the crayfish. She holds her arm across a girl who cranes to see. A well-dressed woman sits, back visible, to the left, half cut-off by the edge of the composition. To the right of the kneeling boy, a young girl fishes in the pond with a rod.

Commentary

Nicolas Lancret made a set of paintings depicting the four elements for one of his most important patrons. The two depicting children playing with air and water are now at Waddesdon (acc. nos 2490.1-2). The other two paintings are now in Madrid and Rome.

The four paintings were made for Henri-Camille Marquis de Béringhen around 1730. In 1732, soon after the paintings were made, they were engraved by N. Tardieu with verses commenting on the subjects. The poem accompanying 'Water' dwelt on the painting's allegorical meaning of the work, which had to do with snares and traps of love, with such lines as 'he himself succumbs to the charms of a beautiful girl, He is caught in his own nets'.

Lancret depicts a group of girls, probably being chaperoned by the young woman in the salmon dress wearing a straw hat, encountering lower class fishermen, at work in a mill pond. In the centre, a young peasant places a crayfish in the skirts of one of girls. Her chaperone recoils with some alarm, and prevents another of her charges from approaching. The crayfish may have a particular significance. In the 17th century, it was used as a symbol for those on the make: perhaps a warning about the intentions of the boy, which appear innocent enough, but might harm the girl's future reputation. The girl receiving the attentions of the boy is contrasted with the girl on the right, who fishes happily on her own.

Paintings of the four elements were popular in the Netherlands during the 16th and 17th centuries. Dutch painters often combined natural objects with genre or biblical scenes relating to each element. Lancret developed this approach through reference the paintings of Antoine Watteau. After the deaths of Watteau in 1721 and Claude Gillot in 1722, Lancret inherited their mantle as the foremost painter of scenes of fashionable outside parties known as 'Fête Galantes'. He combined the elegant parties depicted by Watteau with lively scenes seemingly taken from everyday life that often have allegorical meanings. Similar sets of paintings are in the National Gallery, London.

Lancret made many chalk studies of children playing, some of which are in Waddesdon's collection. Lancret's paintings of children either emphasise active games, like hide-and-seek, or games that need fewer players, like in this painting. These depictions often suggest flirtatious teasing, as occurs here.

The accompanying picture of 'Air' at Waddesdon also focuses on children, whereas those depicting 'Earth' and 'Fire' concentrate on adults. This may explain why Ferdinand de Rothschild decided to take just these two. The painting 'Earth' may have been owned by Alfred de Rothschild (1842-1918), Ferdinand's brother-in-law, who also teamed up with Ferdinand to buy works from the Van Loon collection (acc. nos 2563, 2571). The painting depicting 'Earth' is in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid and the painting of 'Fire' is in the Palazzo Barberini, Rome.

Phillippa Plock, 2011

Physical description

Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)

403 x 329

Signature & date

not signed or dated

Inscriptions

113
Inscription
[verso, stretcher, upper centre, chalk]

113
Inscription
[verso, frame, upper centre, chalk]

CASE 24
Inscription
[verso, frame, upper centre, blue pencil]

111
Inscription
[verso, frame, ink]

Labels

147
Label
[verso, stretcher, upper left, round label, ink]

FIGURES FISHING
BY A STREAM
LANCRET
Label
[verso, stretcher, upper left, ink]

23229
Label
[verso, stretcher, upper centre, ink]

Tower Room
Lancret (Right)
Label
[verso, stretcher, lower left, ink]

Tower Room
Right of door entering
(Right)
Label
[verso, frame, lower left, ink]

61
Label
[verso, stretcher, lower left, printed label]

History

Provenance

Acquired by the Marquis Henri-Camille de Béringhen (b.1693, d.1770); sold in the Marquis de Béringhen sale, Paris 2 July 1770, lot 30, with the three other paintings in the set for 956 livres; possibly purchased by the Comte de la Guiche (active Circa 1770); possibly sold in the sale of the Comte de la Guiche, described as the collection of the Marquis de Lassay, Paris, 22 May 1775, lot. 71, with the three other paintings in the set for 801 livres; acquired by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (b.1839, d.1898) before 1884 (when 'Earth' is recorded as belonging to Alfred de Rothschild); inherited by his sister Alice de Rothschild (b.1847, d.1922); inherited by her great-nephew James de Rothschild (b.1878, d.1957); bequeathed to Waddesdon (National Trust) in 1957.

Exhibition history

Royal Academy Winter Exhibition, 1949-50, London, no. 113, lent by James de Rothschild (with errors in the catalogue entry, not altogether corrected in Corrigenda)

Collection

Waddesdon (National Trust)
Bequest of James de Rothschild, 1957

Bibliography

Georges Wildenstein; Lancret: biographie et catalogue critiques; Paris; Editions des Beaux-Arts; 1924; pp. 69-70, no. 2.
Anita Brookner, French Pictures at Waddesdon, The Burlington Magazine, 101, 1959, 271-273; p. 272.
Ellis Waterhouse, Anthony Blunt; Paintings: The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor; Fribourg; Office du Livre, The National Trust; 1967; p. 254, cat. no. 116, ill.
Jane Turner; Dictionary of Art; 34 vols; London; Grove; 1996; p. 692; mentions painting in article on Lancret by Mary Taverner Holmes, as untraced.
Christopher Wright; The Schorr Collection Catalogue of Old Master and Nineteenth-Century Paintings; 2 vols; London; MGFA; 2014; vol. 1, p. 145, fig. 182.; with incorrect provenance.

Related files

- http://www.emblems.arts.gla.ac.uk/french/emblem.php?id=FALd026 [accessed 2 July 2009, on symbol of the crayfish for people on the make from Alciato's Emblem book of 1615]
- http://www.emblems.arts.gla.ac.uk/french/emblem.php?id=FALd026 [accessed 2 July 2009, on symbol of the crayfish for people on the make from Alciato's Emblem book of 1615]

Indexed terms

Search

Your visit

What's on

The Collection

About us