Lot 110: A group of figures playing music under a pergola

Jean Cousin the Younger ( circa 1522- circa 1594) A group of figures playing music under a pergola black chalk, pen and brown ink, watermark crescent below quatrefoil above EDMONDENISE (similar to Briquet 5304 [Paris, 1562]) 10¼ x 16 3/8 in. (261 x 417 mm.)

An unidentified collector's mark HF in a circle (not in Lugt).

FROM A SWISS PRIVATE COLLECTION

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 17.5% on the buyer's premium.
This drawing, made on Parisian paper used circa 1562 according to Briquet, can be compared to a small group of works on paper attributed to Jean Cousin the Younger, especially a Landcsape with mythological figures in Saint Petersburg (L'Ecole de Fontainebleau, exhib. cat., Paris, Grand Palais, no. 68) and to the Birth of Adonis in Princeton (op. cit., no. 70) with which it shares a similar treatment of the figures and of the trees. But both these drawings are washed in brown ink, as is most of Cousin's drawn oeuvre.
This drawing could be a representation of Spring for a series of the Seasons, with the shearing of sheep on the right, although it has also been suggested that it could depict L'Age d'or. The pergola in the centre and the musicians in the foreground evoke Etienne Delaune's Music a drawing from a series dedicated to the Liberal Arts (Paris, Louvre; op. cit., no. 72).
The study of perspective, so careful in this drawing, was the object of thorough research by Jean Cousin's father, who published a noted Livre de perspective in 1760 and whose work had a profound influence on his son.