A young woman reading music

A study for Lancret's Concert pastoral, a lost painting known through an engraving and a painted copy (see respectively G. Wildenstein, Lancret, Paris, 1924, no. 272, fig. 68; and Sotheby's, London, 30 October 2017, lot 44). As suggested by Mary Tavener Holmes, whom we thank, the drawing dates to the mid 1720s, as is evident from its style and crisp use of red chalk. Typical of the artist's manner, Lancret applied different pressures on the chalk while defining the figure: delicately light on the face, bold and expressive over the dress, particularly over the left shoulder, in order to emphasize the figure's subtle movement.