The 21 x 18in (53.5 x 45.5cm) oil on panel, titled Jeune fille écoutant à la porte, is a genre interior scene of a young women listening at the door of a drawing room. It is signed and dated Drölling 1804 and is probably the work shown at the Paris Salon of that year.
The painting comes with a lengthy and notable provenance. It was part of the extensive collection of art assembled by Charles Lenglart (1740-1816), a banker and lace merchant from Lille, and had passed down through the family to his descendants who offered it for auction at Daguerre’s sale on March 29 at the Drouot auction centre.
It was sold together with a small brown ink study of the little dog that features in the painting.
The subsequent lot, a similar-sized panel titled Une femme surprise, shows a young woman in a similar interior, accompanied by a similar dog, walking through an open door towards a painting propped on a chair.
‘Une femme surprise’ by Martin Drölling that sold with its preparatory watercolour for €35,000 (£29,915) at Daguerre in Paris.
This work, which is signed and dated Drölling 1808 on the back of the propped picture, is thought to be the earlier work of the two. This was offered with a pen and watercolour preparatory drawing and realised €35,000 (£29,915), just under the estimate of €40,000-60,000.
Drölling was born in Oberhergheim, near Colmar, but spent his working life in Paris. Like his slightly younger near contemporary Louis-Léopold Boilly, he specialised in genre scenes of this type picturing everyday scenes from middle-class life.
He also worked as a painter for the Sèvres factory. A sought-after artist in his lifetime, his clients included members of the Bonaparte family.
