(1723-1769 Paris) "La fille surprise" (The surprised daughter), brush and brown ink, over black chalk, on laid paper, laid down on support, 27 x 21 cm, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

Provenance: Auction Comte Jacques de Bryas, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, April 4-6,1898, lot 3, (as Pierre-Antoine Baudouin: "La fille surprise. La jeune fille est rever, e sur son lit. Ses parents ont fait irruption dans la chambre. Le père en courroux la menace, tandis que, vers le fond, le s'ducteur prend la fuite. Dessin au bistre."); Louis Deglatigny, Rouen (Lugt 1768a), his estate auction, Paris, Galerie Jean Charpentier, 28. Mai 1937, lot 40 (as French school, 18th century.: "La Fille Surprise. Un paysan et sa femme ont fait irruption dans la est agenouill, e davent son père, adoss e au lit d, sordre. Le galante, un jeune élégant, s'échappe par une fenetre, auf fond. Lavid de sépia sur esquisse á la pierre noire. Monture ancienne.")

Pierre-Antoine Baudouin, son of an engraver and etcher, entered the Académie royale in 1763 and exhibited in the Paris salon annually between 1761 and 1769 the year of his death. Like Boucher Baudouin was also in the service of Madame de Pompadour, for who he painted several religious works for Versailles. His oeuvre mainly comprised detailed gouaches, watercolours and drawings with lascivious and libertine subjects, of which several disseminated in prints. At the occasion of the Paris salon of 1765 Diderot described the artist as "Bon garcon, qui a de la figure, de la douceur, de l'esprit, un peu libertin."