JEAN-BAPTISTE PATER (VALENCIENNES, 1695 – PARIS, 1736) The Country Concert and The Rose-Picking c. 1725 Oils on canvas (a pair) 52 x 65.4 cm. René Millet Expertise Certificate These two paintings, identical in size and with complementary compositions, were conceived as a pair. At first glance, they appear perfectly symmetrical. In the shade of a cluster of trees, the same number of figures – seven – are arranged around a central couple, seated in the centre of the composition. Painted in reverse on each canvas, the setting in which our figures move depicts a rural landscape with a village on the horizon; then, closer to the viewer and off-centre, this cluster of trees, slightly overhanging, which provides a resting place for these elegant walkers. In contrast, the very foreground, a dirt track, is left empty save for the few props that give the painting its title: a musical score here, a basket of flowers there. The viewer, thus kept at a distance, is immediately informed of the subject of each scene depicted. Nevertheless, the aim here, notwithstanding the titles, is to depict romantic scenes between pairs of aristocrats who have gone out to enjoy themselves in the countryside. And our two counterparts thus seem to engage in a dialogue. Alongside the constant elements— the two couples in each scene—there are secondary characters, mostly children, who move about the protagonists with varying degrees of complicity or indifference. Thus, this little girl is sometimes in the arms of her elder sister, sometimes venturing out to pick flowers on the other side of the path. The courting couples, for their part, respond to one another subtly from one painting to the next. Their attire, ill-suited to the circumstances and surroundings, reinforces this impression of carefree behaviour, or even incongruity. The woman sumptuously dressed in a French-style silk taffeta gown in *Concert champêtre* finds her counterpart—slightly more rustic—in *Cueillette des roses*, wearing an apron tied around her waist. Objects of every desire, they catch the eye in their sparkling, iridescent pink and white finery. Their companions, eagerly at their sides, provide a striking contrast in their red actors’ costumes. One plays the guitar whilst the other is content simply to whisper sweet nothings… We are still in the early stages. The other two couples, standing back a little, are already entwined. One with their backs to us, the other facing us, they reveal to us the next stage in this romantic relationship. Here, the painter plays with their mirrored poses as if they were the same couple. The young women’s emerald-green taffeta skirts are identical, as are their lovers’ brown jackets, further reinforcing the illusion of a single scene unfolding from one painting to the next. This atmosphere of bucolic romance unfolds under the watchful eye of little cherubs hovering above the figures. Depicted in the form of sculptures one might find in a park, these putti reveal, if any further proof were needed, the true subject of these paintings. A common motif in this genre of painting, their presence in the open countryside, far from being merely anecdotal, takes on allegorical overtones, which are also found, notably, in the work of his contemporary Lancret.