Le Retour du bal

Original watercolour for plate No. 9 of the Le Bon Genre series published by La Mésangère (issued in 1817, 1822 and 1827). Mounted on a mat. Manuscript date and signatures in ink: "30 septembre 1806", "Théodore Lecoeur le jeune".

An outstanding watercolour signed and dated by the illustrator Théodore Lecoeur le jeune, which appeared anonymously in Le Bon Genre, the celebrated series of prints depicting Parisian fashions and manners under the Empire. The collection presents elegant female figures rendered in a semi-caricatural and humorous style, and remains among the finest achievements of French social satire in the early nineteenth century. 

The names of the artists were only rarely given on the plates of Le Bon Genre. Bibliographers (Colas, and more recently Anne-Marie Kleinert) have identified the names of Carle Vernet, J.-B. Isabey, Dutailly, D. S. Bosio, Auguste Garneray, Debucourt, Horace Vernet, Pasquier, Garbizza, Lanté, and Harriet. Yet this enigmatic Théodore Lecoeur, who signed the present original version of the plate, had not previously been recorded.