Vouet

This refined study of putti by Simon Vouet is the preparatory sheet for a painting executed by his former pupil – later collaborator and son-in-law – Michel Dorigny (1616–1665). The painting, representing Thalia, the Muse of Comedy, belonged to a series depicting the Nine Muses. It was once recorded in the collection of Jean-Joseph Vidal and is now unlocated, surviving only through an early black-and-white photograph.

The Muses series was among the earliest projects undertaken by Dorigny after the contract formalizing his collaboration with Vouet was signed on December 9, 1640. Under this agreement, the twenty-four-year-old artist was charged with engraving Vouet’s works and substituting for him when necessary in the execution of paintings. By then, Dorigny had been active in Vouet’s studio for five years, following initial training with Georges Lallemand.

Between 1640 and 1645, Vouet entrusted Dorigny with the execution of this lively and elegant cycle. The original destination of the paintings remains unknown, and the works were later dispersed, reappearing on the art market independently of one another. Clio is preserved at the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe; Erato at the Szépművészeti Múzeum in Budapest; Terpsichore at the New Orleans Museum of Art; and Polyhymnia at the Louvre in Paris. Urania and Calliope appear together on a single large canvas at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Melpomene, Euterpe, and Thalia remain untraced. In 1999, Arnaud Brejon de Lavergnée attributed only two works in the series to Dorigny, assigning the remainder to Vouet’s workshop. In his recent monograph, however, Damien Tellas restores the entire cycle to Dorigny, while noting that it was executed under Vouet’s supervision and after his designs.

A prolific draftsman, Vouet brought back from Italy the working methods practiced by the Carracci – first in Bologna at the Accademia degli Incamminati, and then in Rome under Annibale Carracci. This approach, founded on systematic preparatory drawing, later shaped the pedagogy of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture under Charles Le Brun. It required a sequence of compositional studies and, above all, figure studies, often drawn from the live model. Yet Vouet never allowed naturalism to overshadow elegance: in their poses, gestures, and physiognomies, his figures consistently embody an idealized beauty.

For the Muses series, produced during the last years of his life, Vouet supplied Dorigny with preparatory drawings. Two sheets are known to survive: a preparatory drawing for Euterpe, now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid (inv. D-03024), and the present study, which prepares the putti surrounding Thalia. As Damien Tellas observes, “a few notable differences also appear between the two studies of the putto at right and its translation into the painting, further indicating a drawing by the master adapted and slightly interpreted by Dorigny.” This assured sheet, characteristic of Vouet’s mature style, carefully develops the putto leaning against the Muse’s legs and, more freely, the figure frolicking at her feet. The repetition of the latter’s plump face at the bottom of the sheet clarifies the upward direction of the gaze. The red chalk accents on the cheek and shoulder indicate the position ultimately adopted in the painting, evidence of the care devoted to preliminary study even for secondary figures.

The drawing also reflects the productive collaboration between the two artists. According to Tellas, the Muses series marks the end of the period during which Dorigny continued to work directly from Vouet’s drawings. Soon afterward, Vouet entrusted him with the full execution of certain commissions, including the ceiling of the staircase in the hôtel of Louis Hesselin. During these years, Vouet was occupied with numerous major projects – engraved by Dorigny – and with significant responsibilities, among them the founding of the Académie de Saint-Luc in 1648. He fell ill in January 1648 and died the following year. Dorigny, who had married Vouet’s daughter Jeanne-Angélique Vouet (born May 13, 1630) early that same year, subsequently pursued a successful career as a distinguished decorative painter before being appointed conseiller and later professor at the Royal Academy.