Alexandre Gabriel DECAMPS (1803-1860) Don... - Lot 84 - Crait + Müller

Lot 84
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Result : 4 200EUR
Alexandre Gabriel DECAMPS (1803-1860) Don... - Lot 84 - Crait + Müller
Alexandre Gabriel DECAMPS (1803-1860) Don Quixote and Sancho Panza Watercolor on paper. Signed lower right. 14 x 22,5 cm (at sight) Our watercolour is probably a preparation for an oil composition Don Quixote and Sancho Panza (now in a private Dutch collection). Decamps executed three other oil compositions on the same subject: Don Quixote loading the sheep (Boston Fine Arts Museum), Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in the corn (Victoria and Albert Museum), and Don Quixote meeting the beautiful Dulcinea (Chantilly). In order to meet the demands of amateurs, Decamps was often led to repeat the same subject several times. The artist probably chose to illustrate chapter VII of Cervantes: After a first departure failed by his knighthood and a pitiful return, Don Quixote chooses a squire and sets out again to conquer his glory: "Sancho Panza went on his donkey, like a patriarch with his saddlebag and his wineskin (...). Don Quixote took precisely the same direction and the same path as on his first outing, that is to say, across the plain of Montiel, (...) it was very early in the morning and the sun's rays, striking only at an angle, did not yet bother him." Decamps seems to illustrate Cervantes' text as closely as possible, particularly with regard to the morning light, but he focuses our attention on the two heroes and their mounts, whom he contrasts. Don Quixote, standing on his stirrups, has the motionless look of a man in his dreams, while the good fat Sancho, with his realistic nature, is slumped heavily on his already tired donkey!
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