Attributed to Carel VAN FALENS (Antwerp 1683-Paris 1733) Le - Lot 178

Attributed to Carel VAN FALENS (Antwerp 1683-Paris 1733) Le repos pendant la chasse Pen and brown ink, brown and gray wash over black pencil lines 19 x 28.9 cm Large horizontal center folds, small hole at lower left, slightly unstained, freckles, small restored edge chips Legended "Van Falens" on mounting frame Provenance: Former Philippe de Chennevières collection, his stamp lower left (L. 2073) Former Amédée-Paul-Émile Gasc collection, partially faded stamp lower right (L. 1131) A Dutch painter who spent most of his career in Paris, Carel Van Falens was one of the most important followers of the Dutch Golden Age painter Philipps Wouwerman. A pupil of Constantin Francken in his youth, he left Antwerp at the age of twenty for France, where his career as an artist was launched as Wouwerman's restorer and copyist. He obtained lodgings at the Louvre, became restorer to Philippe d'Orléans, then painter to Louis XV in 1724, before being admitted to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1726. Our drawing represents the artist's favorite subject, the hunting scene, here depicted in the moment of halting. A moment of sociability as much as relaxation, dogs, hunters and valets are easily sketched. After quickly sketching the scene in pencil, the artist works the volumes with large flat areas of gray wash, which are then picked up again with brush and brown ink to correct details and add a few decorative elements, such as the reeds in the foreground. Expert : Cabinet de Bayser