JEAN-BAPTISTE PATER (VALENCIENNES 1695-1736 PARIS)

Musicians, soldiers or courtiers are common characters in the graphic œuvre of Pater, often depicted at rest under the sun. Pater’s method was one of repetition; the same figures are repeated from one composition to another. This courtier is close, with slight differences, and in reverse, to the figure on the left of the painting The Dance, in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden (inv. Gal.-Nr. 788; F. Ingersoll-Smouse, Pater, Paris, 1928, no. 242, fig. 80).