price: U.S. $10,000

CHARLES PARROCEL

1688 — Paris — 1752

Scene of a Battle

pen & brown ink, brush & grey wash. 11.6 x 49.6 cm (4 1/2 x 19 1/2"). signed l/r: C Parrocel. laid down to an early 19th c. English (?) mount.

provenance:
private collection, Vienna;
Hermann Wallach, Madison Avenue dealer;
Private Collection, US.

Charles Parrocel was the most important chronicler of the earlier military feats of Louis XV's reign. His father had been a battle scene painter, but Charles studied in the studio of Charles de la Fosse, his father-in-law, and then th eworkshop of Bon Boullogne. At the age of 17, he was employed by the Cavalry and thus began his interest in depicting military scenes. He lived in Italy, first as a pensionnaire in Rome at the French Academy from 1713-1716 and afterwards until 1721. Upon his return home, he was received by the Academie royale de peinture et sculpture and important official commissions came his way.1

There are many comparable drawings by Parrocel, technically and subject-wise, at the Louvre. There are several sheets of battle scenes that are similar in format, ie. large, low horizontals.These can all be seen on the Louvre's web-site.
1

Biographical information taken from From Callot to Greuze, French Drawings from Weimar, catalogued by Mandrella, Mildenberger, Peronnet, and Rosenberg, Berlin, 2005, pp. 138.