A masterpiece by Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre for the VMFA in Richmond

25/7/24 - Acquisition - Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts - Everything about this painting is appealing: its format, composition, colouring and beautiful story could have justified its entry into French public collections when it reappeared at Aguttes in Neuilly on 16 September 2018, where it fetched the princely sum of €220,520! Having escaped from French museums, it was acquired by the Aaron gallery, which carefully restored it before entrusting its study to Nicolas Lesur, a specialist in Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre alongside Olivier Aaron, who passed away in November 2018. Founded by the art historian’s father and now run by his brother Hervé, the gallery was ideally placed to defend this superb ceiling project, mentioned in the monograph published by Arthena in November 2009 (see article) but lost since the end of the 18th-century. Exhibited at Fine Arts Paris and TEFAF, this masterpiece appealed at first glance but never seemed to find a buyer until Sylvain Cordier - Paul Mellon Curator and Head of the Department of European Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts - announced its purchase by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond just a few weeks ago.

: 1. Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre (1714-1789)
Apollon dans son char, projet de plafond, vers 1755-1760 (détail)
Huile sur toile - 105 x 237 cm
Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Photo : Galerie Didier Aaron; See the image in its page

This ambitious and abundant composition (ill. 1) has thus crossed the Atlantic under the noses of French museums, in the manner of the Solimena that reappeared in 2022 at Tajan (see the news item of 14/9/22): we can only salute the VMFA’s coup [1]. Readers of La Tribune de l’Art are now very familiar with the museum’s judicious and dynamic acquisitions policy! Let’s stop bemoaning the departure of such a fine painting and focus instead on its qualities, which are amply described in the lavish notes that the Aaron gallery entrusted to Nicolas Lesur.…

To access this content, you must subscribe to The Art Tribune. The advantages and conditions of this subscription, which will also allow you to support The Art Tribune, are described on the subscription page. If you would like to test the subscription, you can subscribe for one month (at €8) and if you don’t like it, you can send us an e-mail asking us to unsubscribe you (at least ten days before the next direct debit).

If you are already a subscriber, sign in using this form.