Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Laissez faire mon fils

Hubert François Gravelot
1699-1773

Laissez faire mon fils

ca. 1767
5 1/2 x 3 5/16 inches (139 x 85 mm)
Pen and black ink over graphite, on paper; incised with the stylus.
1968.15:26

Gift of John F. Fleming.

Notes
Gravelot's drawing is preparatory for an engraved frontispiece to Act IV of Beaumarchais' five act play “Eugénie” (Paris : Merlin, 1767). Several figures are shown gathered in a room; at center a gentleman armed with a sword rushes towards a man standing on the left, as two other men attempt to intercede. See 1968.15:27 for another preparatory drawing by Gravelot for this scene, which was ultimately engraved by Jean Charles Le Vasseur (1734-1816).
Inscriptions/Markings
Drawing captioned "Laissez faire mon fils" and signed at bottom "H. Gravelot inven."
Associated names
Fourquevaux, Joseph de Beccarie de Pavie, marquis de, 1762-1841, former owner.
Bocher, Emmanuel, 1835-1919, former owner.
Olry-Roederer, Léon, 1869-1932, former owner.
Rosenbach, A. S. W. (Abraham Simon Wolf), 1876-1952, former owner.
Fleming, John F. (John Francis), 1910-1987, former owner.
Bibliography
Kraemer, Ruth S. "Drawings by Gravelot in the Morgan Library." Master drawings, XX (Spring 1982), p. 10, no. 23.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department