Department For Culture Media Sport
- The painting, which was previously hung in Downing Street, is valued at over 6 million
- Export bar is to allow time for a UK gallery or institution to acquire the painting
A temporary export bar has been placed on Le Rve de LArtiste, a painting by influential 18th century French artist Jean-Antoine Watteau.
The work, valued at 6,075,000 (plus VAT of 215,020), is at risk of leaving the UK unless a domestic buyer can be found to save the work for the nation.
Watteau was one of the most original and influential French painters of his era. He was a leading figure in the development of the Rococo style and inventor of a type of painting known as the Fte Galante, often small cabinet pictures, exploring the psychology of love, usually within a landscape setting.
His popularity in Britain amongst his contemporaries is evidenced through Le Rve de LArtiste being bought in 1736 by the first Prime Minister of Great Britain, Sir Robert Walpole. The painting was hung in Lady Walpoles dressing room in 10 Downing Street for the remaining years of his administration.
Le Rve de LArtiste is an ambitious and complex picture featuring two dozen characters in a surreal, structured environment depicting some of the artists own dreams. The painting is unlike much of Watteaus other work which largely presents natural landscapes as idyllic and untamed.
Arts Minister Sir Chris Bryant said:
This painting was once owned by our first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, and was hanging for several years in 10 Downing Street, so Watteaus Le Rve de LArtiste has a fascinating connection to British History, offering us insights into the tastes and development of art in Britain in the 18th century. It portrays the artists dream, but perhapsitssurreal fantasia inspired political dreams as well. Either way, it is an important and unusual work by a genius.
I hope a UK buyer has the opportunity to purchase this work so it can continue to be studied and enjoyed by the public.
The Ministers decision follows the advice of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest. The RCEWA Committee found that the painting met the third Waverley criterion for its outstanding significance to the study of the collections in which this picture was included as well as the early and highly unusual depiction of dream imagery.
Committee Member Mark Hallett said:
This beautiful, enigmatic painting showcases Watteaus extraordinary originality, and provides us with one of Western arts earliest and most profound representations of the process of artistic creativity. It gives us a fascinating insight not only into Watteaus thinking as a painter, but into wider eighteenth-century concepts of inspiration and imagination. As such, Le Rve de lArtiste has a special, almost unique status in the artists output. This is a work that cries out for further research, interpretation and appreciation, and that fully deserves being retained for the nation.
The decision on the export licence application for the painting will be deferred for a period ending on 29 November 2024 inclusive. At the end of the first deferral period owners will have a consideration period of 15 Business Days to consider any offer(s) to purchase the painting at the recommended price of 6,075,000 (plus VAT of 215,020). The second deferral period will commence following the signing of an Option Agreement and will last for six months.
Notes to editors
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Organisations or individuals interested in purchasing the painting should contact the RCEWA on 02072680534 or rcewa@artscouncil.org.uk .
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Details of the object are as follows: Antoine Watteau (Valenciennes 16841721 Nogent-sur-Marne), The Dream of the Artist, about 1710. Oil on canvas, 95.5 x 121 cm.
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Provenance: Jacques Langlois (16811722), painter and dealer on the Pont Notre Dame, Paris; the inventory following his death on the 16th December 1722, included Le Reve, du sieur Watteau, b.d.[bordure dore]120 l. [livres]. Painting arrived in London, c. 17231; Sir Robert Walpole M.P., 1st Earl of Orford, Prime Minister of England (16761745). By 1736, as it is listed in that year in Walpoles manuscript, A Catalogue of the Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpoles Collection of Pictures, the painting is listed as hanging in Lady Walpoles dressing room at 10 Downing Street, and described thus: Watteau A dream of Watteaus, Himself asleep by a rock; Several Dancers & Grotesque figures in the Clouds 2 1 - 2 7 (25 x 31 in). Sold Cocks auction room, known as Messrs Cock & Langford, in the Great Piazza of Covent Garden, the Walpole sale, 28 April 1748, second day, lot 62, sold for 6.10/-, bought by; James Douglas, 14th Earl of Morton (17021768), on whose death, by inheritance to; Susan Elizabeth, Dowager Countess of Morton (1793-1849), widow of the 16th Earl; Sold her sale, Christies, 27th April 1850, lot 88, (The Painters Dream a very elegant design), sold for 27.6/- to Anthony. (3rd most expensive painting in sale); James Goding Esq. (d. 1857); his sale, Christies, 21st February 1857, lot 503, (The Painters Dream- one of eight Watteau in the Goding collection), sold for 36 to Webb, bought on behalf of; John Ashley Cooper (18081867), 4th son of 6th Earl of Shaftesbury, of 17 Upper Brook Street, Mayfair, London, on whose death, by inheritance to his wife; Julia Ashley, ne Conyers (c.18181907); Her sale, Christies, 25th June 1904, lot 51, sold for 68.5/- to; Martin Colnaghi (18211908); subsequently sold for FF10,000 to; Renee Gimpel (18811945) and Nathan Wildenstein (1851 1934), who then sold it for FF150,000 to; David David-Weill (18711952), c. 1914, New York; Sold Sothebys, 10th June 1959, lot 41, bought for 1,200 by Wallraf on behalf of Wildenstein & Co., London, thence sold in 1963 through the dealer Dudley Tooth to; Ivo Forde Esq (19492023); An English private collector, acquired 1993; Private collection.
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The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest is an independent body, serviced by Arts Council England (ACE), which advises the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on whether a cultural object, intended for export, is of national importance under specifi