1869
Fusain, plume et encre de Chine sur papier
30,5 x 23,2 cm - 11 13/ 16 x 9 1/16 in.
Paris, Musée d'Orsay, France - Inv. RF 29731
Dernière mise à jour : 2022-03-17 11:47:48
Référence : MSb-110
Famille de l'artiste, Montpellier - Frédéric Bazille, neveu de l'artiste - Don de Frédéric Bazille au musée du Louvre en 1949 - Musée d'Orsay [Conservé au département des Arts graphiques du musée du Louvre].
Paris, musée du Louvre, 1955, Donations et nouvelles acquisitions du musée du Louvre, n° 55 - Montpellier, musée Fabre, 1959, n° 46 - Mexico, Museo de Ciences y Arte, 1962 - Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1978, n° 42, repr. p. 92 - Montpellier, New York, 1992-1993, n° 24, repr. p. 116 - Séoul, musée national d'Art contemporain, 2000-2001, (n.n.), repr. p. 133 - Montpellier, Paris, Washington, 2016-2017, cat. 52, repr. p. 248 et fig. 86, repr. p. 141 [Les références sont du catalogue en français].
Sarraute, 1948, appendice n° 14, pp.14-15 - Sarraute, Musées de France, mai 1949, pp. 92-93, fig. 2 - Dorival, Musées de France, mai 1949, pp. 94-96 (repr.) - Bouchot-Saupique, Sarraute, Bulletin des musées de France, mai 1949, n° 4, repr. p. 95 - Daulte, Bazille et son temps, 1952, n° 22, pp. 196-197 [Thèse sous la direction de Gaston Poulain] - Mejanes, Répertoire des donateurs du Louvre, 1989, p. 144 - Daulte, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, 1992, p. 148 (repr.) - Montpellier, musée Fabre, 1992, Traces et lieux de la création, n° 23 (repr.) - Frédéric Bazille. Correspondance, Presses du Languedoc, 1992, p. 165 - Jourdan, Cat. exp. Montpellier, New York, 1992-1993, n° 24, repr. p. 116 - Bajou, Frédéric Bazille, 1993, p. 177 (repr.) - Schulman, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné, 1995, n° 22 des dessins, repr. p. 255 - Hilaire, Jones, Perrin, Cat. exp. Montpellier, Paris, Washington, 2016-2017, cat. 52, repr. p. 248 et fig. 86, repr. p. 141 [Les références sont du catalogue en français] - - Schulman, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné numérique, 2022, n° 110.
This study acquired by the Louvre is an extremely complete preparatory drawing for the Summer Scene. It allows us to reconstruct the origin of this important work by Bazille.
Sarraute accurately notes the differences between this drawing and the painting, "The landscape with the parallel poplars is about the same as the painting. There are seven people instead of eight, but the composition is the same and the square format identical. The bather on the left, sitting on the bank, seems to be feeling the water with his foot... Behind this young boy, another standing one who no longer exists in the final painting. The swimmer... is turned more to the left. In the meadow, a reclining boy and two naked wrestlers. To the right, a seated bather removes his shirt in a gesture roughly similar to that of one of the ones in Poussin's Orphée et Eurydice [Sarraute, "Two Drawings by Frédéric Bazille in the Louvre Museum", Musées de France, May 1949, No. IV, pp. 91-93].
This drawing was executed in 1869 on the banks of the river Lez, below the family estate at Méric. Bazille reinforced the presence of the characters by drawing some of them in brown ink.
The drawing is a good example of how Bazille's drawing is related to the work of the artist.
Dorival brings this drawing for the Summer Scene closer to several of Cézanne's drawings, thus showing what there may be in common between the two artists. His conclusion, however, seems to us quite excessive when he says: "What glory, for this young painter who disappeared prematurely, to have inspired from 1870 to 1905 the greatest of contemporary masters" [Ibid., pp. 94-95]. It is nevertheless certain that, without having inspired Cézanne, Bazille was in some respects his precursor.
