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拍品专文
Despite the comparatively large number of surviving paintings by Garnier, most of which – like the Aitken canvas – are signed and dated, there has been no serious study of the artist, and his biography remains obscure. He was a pupil of the history painter and Premier Peintre du Roi, Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre, and exhibited with some frequency at the official Paris Salons from 1793 to 1814. An occasional portraitist and still life painter who enjoyed the protection of the duc de Chartres (the future Philippe-Egalité), Garnier was principally a painter of small-scale domestic genre scenes in le goût hollandaise – a fashionable style at the end of the Ancien Régime which imitated the fine finish of the of the 17th-century Dutch ‘fijnschilders’. It was a taste he shared with his compatriots, Marguerite Gérard and Louis-Léopold Boilly, although Garnier’s palette tended to be more decorative and his mood more cheerful; certainly Boilly’s inclination to tart social satire was quite alien to Garnier’s sunny artistic personality.
As with most of Garnier’s paintings, the Aitken picture is a keenly observed illustration of the costumes, furnishings and manners of fashionable society on the eve of the Revolution. In a charming scene of polite seduction, a pretty young woman in a pink gown (layered beneath a white gauze skirt) serenades her companion with her lute; her musical skills evidently extend to mastery of the guitar that sits beside her. Proficiency in playing an instrument was one of the skills required of an educated lady in 18th century France and was intended to provide a decorous diversion for both the hostess and her guests. As she strums her instrument, Garnier’s young lady gazes seductively at her handsome young companion. Wearing a bright, tomato-red frock coat over a stylish gold waistcoat and black breeches, her intended turns away from the book in his hand to concentrate on her flirtatious music-making. He lifts his head and stares into the distance – absorbed in the music – and gestures toward her in admiration. Garnier’s accuracy in reporting the precise appearance of Louis XVI chairs, a silver coffee pot and faience coffee service, and pale wood-paneled walls is prodigious and his mastery of shimmering silk demonstrates his finest ‘Metsu Manner’.
As with most of Garnier’s paintings, the Aitken picture is a keenly observed illustration of the costumes, furnishings and manners of fashionable society on the eve of the Revolution. In a charming scene of polite seduction, a pretty young woman in a pink gown (layered beneath a white gauze skirt) serenades her companion with her lute; her musical skills evidently extend to mastery of the guitar that sits beside her. Proficiency in playing an instrument was one of the skills required of an educated lady in 18th century France and was intended to provide a decorous diversion for both the hostess and her guests. As she strums her instrument, Garnier’s young lady gazes seductively at her handsome young companion. Wearing a bright, tomato-red frock coat over a stylish gold waistcoat and black breeches, her intended turns away from the book in his hand to concentrate on her flirtatious music-making. He lifts his head and stares into the distance – absorbed in the music – and gestures toward her in admiration. Garnier’s accuracy in reporting the precise appearance of Louis XVI chairs, a silver coffee pot and faience coffee service, and pale wood-paneled walls is prodigious and his mastery of shimmering silk demonstrates his finest ‘Metsu Manner’.