This large drawing, the largest known by the artist, is one of the many copies Watteau made after Venetian drawings by Titian and Campagnola in the collection of Pierre Crozat. Campagnola's original drawing is now in the Louvre, inv. 5552. Watteau's copy is a larger format (330 x 465 mm) than the original (257 x 391 mm), but also shows more of the trimmed detail on the left margin. It can be assumed, that is, that Campagnola's drawing was reduced in size, for it is difficult to imagine that he would have drawn the two dogs only as a fragmented detail, as they are now shown. In his adaptive imitation, Watteau stuck quite closely to Campagnola's landscape and only omitted the three staffage figures on the right in the middle ground.
Watermark: Coat of arms with serpent inside, star and symbols around edges. (close to Heawood 688)
Watermark: Countermark: Letters "TAD" in cartouche.
Groult, Camille, 1832-1908, former owner.
Groult, Jean, 1868-1951, former owner.
Bordeaux-Groult, Pierre, 1916-2007, former owner.
Tobias Benjamin Nickel, "Die Landschaftszeichnungen von Domenico Campagnola (1500-1564)," 3 vols., PhD diss., University of Vienna, 2017, othes.univie.ac.at., 2:220, under cat. 134.
Denison, Cara D., with Stephanie Wiles and Ruth S. Kraemer. Fantasy and Reality : Drawings from the Sunny Crawford von Bülow Collection. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1995, no. 1, repr. in color.
Rosenberg, Pierre and Louis-Antoine Prat. Antoine Watteau 1684-1721, Catalogue raisonné des dessins, 3 vols., Milan, 1996, I, no. 344, p. 550, repr.
The Master's Hand : Drawings and Manuscripts from the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1998, no. 8, repr. in color.