
Mademoiselle Marie-Jeanne Fesch Chevallier
Louis René Boquet
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Mlle. Marie-Jeanne Fesch Chevallier (Paris 1722 - after 1789 Paris) was a famous French opera singer. She made her debut with the Paris Royal Opera in 1741 starring as Cybèle in Lully's Atys, and she retired from the stage in 1761 after collaborating with Boquet for her costume in Lully's Armide. This drawing is close in style to drawings by Boquet preserved in the Bibliothèque de l'Opéra, Paris. From http://www.artlyriquefr.fr/dicos/Opera%20Cantatrices.html: CHEVALIER (Marie-Jeanne FESCH dite Mlle). — Soprano (Paris, 12 septembre 1722 – 1789). Elle débuta à 18 ans, et se retira après 1763. Elle chanta des opéras de Lully, parmi lesquels : PHAETON ; THESEE ; PERSEE ; ARMIDE ; ALCESTE ; et des opéras de Rameau : LES FETES DE L'HYMEN ET DE L'AMOUR ; ACANTHE ET CEPHISE. Elle créa en 1741 LE TEMPLE DE CNIDE (Vénus) ; en 1743 LES CARACTERES DE LA FOLIE (Vénus) ; en 1745 ZELINDOR, ROI DES SYLPHES (la Muse) ; en 1745 LES FETES DE POLYMNIE de Rameau ; en 1745 LE TEMPLE DE LA GLOIRE de Rameau ; en 1749 ZOROASTRE (Erinice) de Rameau ; en 1751 LES AMOURS DE TEMPÉ (Elemire) ; en 1753 TITON ET L'AURORE (Pales) ; en 1757 LES SURPRISES DE L'AMOUR (Uranie) ; en 1760 CANENTE (Circé) ; en 1763 POLYXENE (Hécube).
Drawings and Prints
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.