17/6/23 - Acquisition - Saint-Cloud, Musée du Grand Siècle - This was undoubtedly one of the finest pictures at Christie’s Paris sale on 15 June, but it was nevertheless sold for less than the low estimate. Such are the vagaries of auctions. Be that as it may, this one delighted the Musée du Grand Siècle, which was able to preempt for €403,200 a masterpiece by Pierre Patel thé Elder, a canvas that had remained unpublished until today (ill. 1).
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- 1. Pierre Patel (1604-1676)
Landscape with Antique Ruins and Figures, c. 1650
Oil on canvas - 68 x 81 cm
Preempted by the Musée du Grand Siècle
Photo: Christie’s - See the image in its page
This painting was kept in the 19th century at the Chateau de la Hartempied, in Sablé-sur-Sarthe, and was acquired from the descendants of the owners in the 1970s by a Versailles collector. Although Nathalie Coural, author of the artist’s catalogue raisonné published by Arthena in 2001, was unaware of it, the composition was known to her thanks to a drawing kept at the Fondation Custodia (ill. 2) soberly named in a purely descriptive manner Landscape with Ruins on the Right. Although the sheet is unquestionably very close to the painting, there are nevertheless a number of differences that suggest that it may be a more precise preparation for another painting that has yet to be found. The variations are mainly in the figures and cows, which are arranged differently, and in the tree on the left, a smaller part of which is visible in the painting.
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- 2. Pierre Patel (1604-1676)
Landscape with Ruins on the Right, c. 1650-1655
Black stone and white chalk highlights - 68 x 81 cm
Paris, Fondation Custodia
Photo: Fondation Custodia - See the image in its page
With its beautiful cold colours, and the light that bathes the ruins, seeming to situate the scene shortly after sunrise, the work is typical of Patel’s classical landscapes, which themselves fit perfectly into what has been called Parisian Atticism.
It can be dated to around 1650, after the artist, at the height of his career, had taken part in decorating the Hôtel Lambert with two paintings, both now in the Musée du Louvre.
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- 3. Henri Mauperché (1602-1686)
Christ and the Blind, c. 1650
Oil on canvas - 64.5 x 50.2
Saint-Cloud, Musée du Grand Siècle
Photo: Suzanne Nagy - See the image in its page
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- 4. Gaspard Dughet (1615-1675)
Landscape with Hunters
Oil on canvas - 74 x 99 cm
Saint-Cloud, Musée du Grand Siècle
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
The Musée du Grand Siècle, already rich with a painting by Henri Mauperché (ill. 3) an artist very close to Patel, and another by Gaspard Dughet (ill. 4), donated by Pierre Rosenberg, as well as two paintings by Jean Lemaire-Poussin recently acquired, one by purchase (see the news item of 17/10/22, the other by deposit from the City of Paris (see the news item of 5/12/22, thus enriching its collection of classical landscapes in a superb manner. It still lacks a painting by Claude Lorrain (but the collection donated by Pierre Rosenberg includes several works by this artist) and, of course, a landscape by Nicolas Poussin himself, a gap that will be difficult to fill other than through a deposit.