Master Art

Depicting a group of young women enjoying goblets of wine served by frolicking, hovering putti, the present sheet is typical of André Devambez’s delightful and often enchanting compositions. It has been suggested that this drawing is a design for a menu for the famed Parisian restaurant Maxim’s, for which the artist is known to have drawn an illustration - with the title 'Sur l’herbe' - for the cover of the wine list of Côtes du Rhône. Reminiscent of the fêtes galantes of the 18th century, a genre made popular by Watteau, the composition of this drawing is similar to that of a circular painting by Devambez, also entitled Sur l’herbe, exhibited at the Salon of 1900.