A Halt at an Inn

Le Prince was famous in his own time for his popular and picturesque depictions of day-to-day life in Russia, known as 'russeries'. The present painting can be situated in a series of works from the final years of Le Prince's career in which the artist transplanted one of his favorite Russian themes - cavaliers stopping to water their horses at a country inn - to French soil. A drawing in black chalk and wash (sold, Paris, May 12, 1937, lot 59, illustrated) is preparatory to a very similar painting dated 1781 (53 x 73cm.) that was engraved by Dequauviller under the title La Guinguette. In a signed variant of the present subject dated 1781, Le Prince made several changes, including a second table of figures below the wall, and a monk and serving maid talking in the center foreground. That painting was formerly in the Kanzler Collection, sold Sotheby's, Geneva, June 28, 1979.