Although it is well-known that Antoine-Jean Gros's early artistic success depended heavily upon the inspiration and patronage of Napoleon Bonaparte, the extent to which this was the case has not been fully appreciated. Our knowledge of Gros's early career stems mainly from two nineteenth-century biographies that drew heavily on letters the artist wrote to his mother while he was in Italy from 1793 to 1800.1 The letters passed from one owner to another until they were dispersed in 1954 by a Paris dealer and their whereabouts became difficult to track.2 In 1978 Philippe Bordes published those that had surfaced by then, most of them from the period before Gros first met Bonaparte in December 1796.3 Using letters that have subsequently come to light and have been acquired by the Fondation Custodia, Paris, which has generously made them available, it is now possible to construct a more detailed picture of the artist's early association with Bonaparte and his circle, revealing how the Revolution altered the horizon of creative possibilities for an ambitious young Davidian, transforming him into a passionate propagandist for Bonaparte.

Henri Matisse first reached Belle-Ile-en-Mer, just north of the Bay of Biscay on the wildest stretch of Brittany's Atlantic coastline, in the summer of 1895. He was a 25-year-old art student and, apart from studying in Paris, this was the first time he had travelled outside his native French Flanders. It came as such a shock that after ten days he fled back to the mainland. 'Tu te trouves absolument dans le meme etat d'esprit dans lequelje me trouvais ily a un an . . .', he wrote a year later on a return visit to the island to his friend VJ. Roux-Champion at Pont-Aven: 'j'etais comme toije suis parti navre au bout de dix jours. Les choses me paraissaient tres originales, tres particulieres, mais d'une dfficulte colossale . . .Je n'ose pas te conseiller de venir ici, car je me souviens combien je my suis trouve effraye et ecrase il y a un an."

demoralise . .

Two damaged wooden relief carvings of the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Adoration of the Magi by Pierre Puget (Figs. 30 and 31), recently exhibited in the monographic exhibition at Marseille, are among the earliest known sculptures by the artist. The carved inscription 'P.Puget 1653' appears on the recto of both panels, while the versos are inscribed in ink (probably not in Puget's own hand) 'PETRUS PUgET DE1 sculp fECIT AQUAE SEXTIUS A.D. 1653'. Although the circumstances of their creation have yet to be established - it is not known for whom they were made or if they formed part of a larger cycle of sculpted decoration - they do provide hitherto overlooked evidence of the interests and working methods of the young artist.

The Florentine-born Jean-Nicolas Servandoni (1695-1766) enjoyed a brilliantly successful international career in London, Dresden, Stuttgart, Italy and Portugal, as well as in France, being best known as an innovative stage-designer and organiser of fetes who brought fresh vitality to the tradition of great public spectacles. It is not only this geographical spread that makes it difficult to study his output as a whole, but also the range of his activities, which spanned paint- ing, interior decoration, ornament, and, not least, architecture.'  The purpose of this note is to draw attention to some unpublished material concerning his work as an architect in France (where he was active from the mid- 1720s to the mid-  1740s), all concerning projects for members of the La Tour family, princes de Bouillon, between 1738 and 1744, the period in which Servandoni was also engaged on his great project for the facade of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. They also cast fresh light on his relationship with leading sculptors and painters of the period.

Low but sometimes steep mountains covered with scrubby vegetation surround a still, shallow lake, boggy at its edges (Fig.45); scattered huts built precariously of wood and thatch suggest a pastoral and nomadic culture. In the foreground a man milks a large mare; behind him, various figures are casually placed, squatting, walking or standing still - a child, an old man, a nursling in its mother's arms, soldiers, resting shepherds. And, dolefully stretched out on a gentle incline, swathed in drapery, lies the figure identified by the painting's title as Ovid. He appears like a fallen meteorite on whom converge the friendly but startled inhabitants of this savage country. Delacroix has given him the pose of a Madonna in a Nativity, lying down and receiving the homage of the shepherds. The brief caption in the Salon catalogue explains the subject: 'Ovide en exil chez les Scythes/Les uns I'examinent avec curiosite, les autres lui font accueil a leur maniere et lui offent des fruits sauvages, du lait de jument, etc., etc."

Renoir's portrait of a woman in the Fogg Art Museum (Fig.47) acquired its title of the Comtesse Edmond de Pourtales only after it was purchased in May 1937 by Grenville Winthrop who bequeathed it to the Museum.' Before then, it had been sold and published as presenting an unknown sitter - with no apparent cost to its marketability: Durand-Ruel acquired the painting from Camentron in 1906 for 300 francs and sold it to Adrien Hebrard ten years later for 15,000 francs.2 Although the painting has been somewhat neglected by recent historians, its broad, confident handling and the richness of its flesh tones were considered little short of 'aston- ishing' by Meier-Graefe, who attributed the heightening of Renoir's palette and the greater freedom of his brushwork around 1870 to the young painter's renewed interest in Delacroix at this time.3 Bathed in the glow of lamplight, attired in evening dress - a fan in her right hand, the silk lining of her cape draped across the arm of the upholstered chair - Renoir's sitter sinks comfortably into the protective surroundings of her home. Decorating the wall behind her at left a strutting bird of paradise, of oriental design, is set into a neo-rococo frame; heavy red curtains hang behind the chair at right; the sitter displays her wedding ring prominently.