Joseph Marie VIEN (Montpellier 1716 - Paris 1809). Reading love letters. Pen and brown ink, brown wash. Signed and dated lower right "1798" (minor scuffing at upper right, slightly oiled). Height : 21.5 cm - Width : 28.2 cm Note: our sheet is part of the "Bonheur de la vie" suite, most of whose drawings are preserved in the Louvre in an album acquired in 1965. The Musée des Beaux Arts de Béziers holds a preparatory sketch of our drawing (inv.1978), (see : T.W. Gaehtgens and J. Lugand, Joseph Marie Vien, Arthéna, Paris, 1988, p.266, fig.255, rep.). In his memoirs, after the completion of two other suites, "Jeux des nymphes et des amours" and "Les vicissitudes de la guerre", Vien states that "when these drawings were removed, I imagined (for I could not remain idle) to make a third suite composed of thirty-one subjects representing 'Le bonheur de la Vie ou l'union de l'hymen et de l'amour'". Expertise provided by de BAYSER - 01 47 03 49 87 - info@debayser.com