FRENCH SCHOOL circa 1730 Portrait of a... - Lot 91 - Maison R&C, Commissaires-Priseurs Associés

Lot 91
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20000 - 30000 EUR
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Result : 230 000EUR
FRENCH SCHOOL circa 1730 Portrait of a... - Lot 91 - Maison R&C, Commissaires-Priseurs Associés
FRENCH SCHOOL circa 1730 Portrait of a flautist in his study Canvas 80 x 64 cm In a carved and gilded oak frame decorated with shells in the corners with scrolls of pigs' tails and chimeras, French work circa 1710 Provenance: Sargus Collection, Château de Bussy - Rabutin in 1854; Anonymous sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, May 30, 1924, (Mes Lair - Dubreuil et Baudoin), #56, reproduced (Attributed to Louis Tocqué) ; Remained since in the family. Bibliography : F. de Sargus, Notice historique et descriptive sur le château de Bussy - Rabutin, Dijon, 1854, n° 9, pp. 86 - 87 ; G. Eyriès, Les châteaux historiques de la France, tome II, Paris - Poitiers, 1879, (Bussy-Rabutin), pp. 87 - 88, reproduced pl. XLVII ; J. Ecorcheville, " Deux portraits de Couperin " Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art français, Paris, 1907, pp. 76 - 79, reproduced p. 76. Remarkable for its plastic strength and the beauty of its coloring, our painting, done in the years 1730-1735, is a rarity in European painting. The framing is slightly narrowed and the model is depicted neither fully seated nor fully standing in his library near a globe with the arms of France, holding his flute with his score in front of him. The almost translucent texture of the wig, the pictorial quality of the white draperies and lynx furs, the golden brocades and the fine lacework do not, unfortunately, tell us anything about the identity of the model, or even about his nationality. His marked eyebrows, his quivering nose and his mischievous air accompany the fly strongly printed on his right cheek. The identity has long been discussed: Sargus, owner of the Château de Bussy-Rabutin, thought it was a portrait of Couperin. The painting is reproduced in the Eyriès book as a portrait of Michel de la Barre, a famous flautist of the end of the reign of Louis XIV; it has also been seen as a portrait of Hotteterre, de la Barre's rival. None of these hypotheses The model of the transverse flute corresponds perfectly to the three-body instruments with ivory rings and a silver key, such as the Hotteterre dynasty and some other makers built between 1680 and 1715" (Florence Getreau, written communication, 21 March 2022). Since the painting could not have been made before 1730, this flute model is slightly outdated, but the playing position is very well observed. The name of the painter is also problematic, as is his nationality. Is he French or Italian? The globe with the French coat of arms is more reminiscent of a Frenchman, but the framing and the strength of the coloring are radically different from the art of Largillierre and Rigaud. The hypothesis of a Frenchman in Italy must be considered. One can think of Louis-Gabriel Blanchet but his art seems more rustic. One can think especially of a youthful work by Subleyras painted in Rome at the beginning of the artist's arrival in the Eternal City. The intelligence of the portrait refers rather to a history painter, very temporarily devoting himself to the genre of portraiture. SOLD ON DESIGNATION: visible until the day of the sale at the René Millet appraisal office 12 Rue Rossini, 75009 Paris
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