Table Of ContentThe Drawings
f
of Raymond Lafage
Self-Portrait, Louvre.
Nathan T. Whitman
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN I ANN ARBOR I MICHIGAN
The Drawings
of Raymond Lafage
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SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V. 1963
ISBN 978-94-015-0368-6 ISBN 978-94-015-0941-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-0941-1
Copyright 1963 6y Springer Science+<Business :MeaUJ. (])onfreclit
Origina{{y pu6Cislied 6y :Martinus %jlioff, Tlie Jfague, Tlie :Netlierfand.s in 1963
Sojtcover reprint of tlie liardcover 1st edition 1963
Ali right reserved, including the right to translate or to
reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form.
To
Jakob RosenberB
teacher and friend
Foreword ix
List of Illustrations xiii
The Life
I
The Style 19
Contents
The Drawings 40
Appraisal and Evaluation 64
Bibliography 79
Notes 82
Index 90
Illustrations
vii
The French seventeenth century remains at the present
moment one of the few areas in the history of later western
art which still needs intensive study. Even the work of Pous
sin, its most outstanding painter and the object of a continu
ous stream of encomiums stretching back to his own life
time, has only recently begun to be explored with the full
scholarly apparatus of contemporary art history, and a
definitive monograph is probably still some years in the
future. La Tour and the Le Nain brothers have been intro
Foreword
duced into the company of great artists only within the past
quarter century, and with significant discoyeries still being
made complete evaluations are as yet not even to be contem
plated. After numerous casual encounters with the frequent
ly handsome if astonishingly varied canvases of Bourdon,
one becomes suspicious of the ever repeated dismissal of his
work as merely eclectic and longs for a revealing analysis of
his purposes and patronage. The harsh Latinity of Valentin,
the sumptuous strangeness ofVignon, the audacious languor
of Antoine Coypel, these are some of the many topics that
still await careful investigation and evaluation. Only then,
on the basis of these needed studies, will some future synthe
sist be able at long last to arrive at a truly judicious, compre
hensive, and penetrating view of this complex period.
It is within the context of this broadly envisioned pattern
that I present this monograph on an even less recognized
artist of the age of Louis XIV. In the eighteenth century no
introduction or justification would have been necessary, for
ix
the drawings of Raymond Lafage graced the cabinets of large mass of his drawings, assuredly the major portion of
connoisseurs from London to Vienna and he was favorably, his production, which is stored in some of the world's great
I fear extravagantly, compared to the great Michelangelo. repositories of graphic art - the Albertina, the Cabinet des
Apparently the first French artist to work entirely as a Dessins in the Louvre, the Royal Library at Windsor, the
draughtsman, Lafage in 1683, a year before his premature British Museum, the National Museum in Stockholm. From
death, sold some drawings to the young Crozat and thereby these drawings I have with great care and no little debate
helped to inaugurate the age of the amateurs, that glittering culled for publication a selection which I believe both repre
elite of which Crozat was such a preeminent founding sents the varying aspects of his style and also exhibits
member. Not only historically but also stylistically Lafage something of his range and quality. At all times I have
has his importance: while many of his drawings remain sought to maintain a balance between historical and cultural
stolidly academic, others - and they are usually the best documentation on the one hand and stylistic and qualitative
exhibit a dawning spontaneity that presages the rococo and analysis on the other, thereby endeavoring to avoid the
links him to the sensualist current in French art. dangers of methodological partisanship and to present La
I do not pretend in this study to have solved all the fage's work and development within as manifold a context
problems which the work of Lafage presents. The tenuous as possible.
but perceptible influence of the School of Fontainebleau on If I have achieved any success in these aims it is in large
some of his drawings will need future elucidation and expla part due to the inspiring training and guidance which I have
nation, most suitably perhaps within the context of a detailed received from Dr. Jakob Rosenberg. His meticulous sensi
analysis of the stimulus which courtly mannerism exerted tivity to problems of style and quality has served as a conti
on the formation of the entire French rococo style. The nuous stimulus to my efforts, and his encouragement and
sketchbook at Dusseldorf, an important document that so comments have been invaluable not only to the completion
far seems to have remained almost totally unknown, de of this book but to my professional career in general. Of
serves a specialized investigation of its considerable stylistic hardly less importance has been the close and vigorous
and iconographic enigmas. Similarly I have not attempted friendship which I have been privileged to maintain over the
to track down every drawing attributed to Lafage, of which years with my colleague, Dr. Marvin J. Eisenberg; the fruits
there are many widely dispersed in private collections as well of our animated discussions, our agreements and divergences,
as in the smaller museums. Rather, my aims have been more are interwoven into the fabric of this study in many more
modest and, I believe, more fundamental, namely, to formu ways than we ourselves could now recognize. Suggestions
late precisely and rigorously the exact characteristics of his and observations from other colleagues have likewise been
style in its several aspects and thus to provide a more solid gratefully received and incorporated into the text in one
basis than has been heretofore available for the study of indi way or another: from Dr. Harold E. Wethey, Dr. Cornelius
vidual examples of his work. In order to accomplish this C. Vermeule, Miss Agnes Mongan, and Mr. George H. For
purpose I have studied exhaustively over some years that syth. I also owe a very large debt of gratitude to Mr. Donald
X
Billiar whose particular training and unflagging patience without solicitation, supplied me with photographs, exhi
proved of inestimable value in the final revision of the manu bition catalogues, and very valuable information. M. le com
script. He infused me with an appreciation of the subtleties te Henri Begouen, the distinguished anthropologist whose
of English grammar and its underlying logic which consider avocation was the study of the work ofLafage, sent me a copy
ably exceeded my previous experience. of his article, which to my knowledge does not exist in any
The authorities of the various museums which possess American library, and a kind letter of encouragement to my
drawings by Lafage have been most helpful in supplying labors. A conversation with Mlle. Arvengas of Lisle-sur-Tarn
photographs and information. Mr. Nils Lindhagen of the gave me several initial leads to valuable sources of drawings
National Museum in Stockholm and Miss A. Helen Scott and information. For aid in obtaining archival material in
Elliot of the Royal Library at Windsor both showed extreme Italy I am greatly indebted to my friends, Dr. Antonas Melni
courtesy in this regard; the latter lady even allowed an inno kas and Dr. Bernard T oscani.
cent American to work in the Library on Ascot Day when My final thanks must go to the guardians of the Rackham
the rooms are regularly closed to visitors because of the Research Fund of the University of Michigan. The greater
presence of the Sovereign. Dr. J. Q. van Regteren Altena of part of my research was carried out by means of a travel grant
the Rijksmuseum and M. Jean Claparede of the Musee Fabre from this Fund for the year 1956, and the manuscript was
in Montpellier responded to my inquiries with alacrity and completed in the summer of 1959 with the assistance of an
warm interest. The British Museum and the Albertina sent other grant from the same source. The supporting funds for
me detailed lists of their holdings which have been of great the publication of this book are likewise derived from this
value in my researches. Above all M. Robert Mesuret of the admirable endowment.
Musee Paul-Dupuy in Toulouse has generously, and often
xi
