A painting attributed to Noël Quillerier preempted by the Musée Carnavalet

24/7/24 - Acquisition - Paris, Musée Carnavalet - The Musée Carnavalet recently preempted from Osenat in Versailles, thanks to the La Marck Fundation, for €6,930 including costs, a very interesting painting depicting The Conference of Louis XI with Saint Francis of Paola (ill. 1), an episode from the meeting in May 1483 between the King of France and the saint who had been sent by the Pope to heal him through his prayers. Realising that the King’s state of health was desperate, Francis could only help him to die a Christian death, which he did three months later, on 30 August.

1. Attributed to Noël Quillerier (1594-1669)
The Conference of Louis XI with Saint Francis of Paola, c. 1650
Oil on panel - 93.5 x 47 cm
Paris, Musée Carnavalet
Photo: Paris Musées (public domain)

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Painted on panel, the work was part of a decoration adorning the chapel dedicated to the Saint in Paris, in the church of the convent of the Minimes, an order he had founded, and which was destroyed in 1798. The chapel was the first on the right of the choir. Granted to the Prince de Condé in 1637, it boasted on its altar one of the last masterpieces painted by Simon Vouet ( probably with the help of Michel Dorigny [1]), now preserved in a church in Quebec (ill. 2). This altarpiece was one of the paintings sent across the Atlantic by Abbé Desjardins, and although it was published in the catalogue devoted to this ensemble at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rennes (see article), it unfortunately could not be exhibited there.

2. Simon Vouet (1590-1649)
Saint Francis of Paola Raising a Child, 1648
Oil on canvas - 335 x 187 cm
Saint-Henri-de-Lévis, église Saint-Henri
Photo: Wikimedia (public domain)

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The rest of the chapel was decorated with panelling consisting of nine panels, including the work acquired by Carnavalet, and other subjects (a landscape, Vrtues, etc.). The commission contract, published by Nicolas…