More drawings for Versailles

18/5/26 - Acquisitions - Versailles, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon - If the acquisition of the four major sheets by Moreau le Jeune (see the news item of 6/5/26) may perhaps have tended to eclipse the other Versailles acquisitions of the month of March, the time has now come to return to the activity carried out by the château during the Parisian sales of Drawing Week. As early as 20 March, a study by Charles de La Fosse (ill. 1) was acquired during the sale of the collections of Paul and Florence Vercier. Organised by Rossini, this marathon sale offered more than 300 varied drawings which could only attract collectors and institutions [1] drawn by attractive estimates, due to the variable condition of the works from the collectors’ holdings.

As Clémentine Gustin-Gomez had recalled in her monograph, published in 2006 (see the article), very few drawings by Charles de La Fosse are known for what was both his final decorative scheme and the last commission of King Louis XIV: the semi-dome of the Royal Chapel at Versailles (ill. 2). The drawing, hammered down at €3,800, therefore remains a rare and precious witness to the conception of The Resurrection, despite its rather poor condition and modest nature. Versailles, which hosted a remarkable Charles de La Fosse exhibition at the beginning of 2015 (see the article), is curiously poor in sheets by the artist compared with the École des beaux-arts. This drawing, which prepares the figure of the soldier lying at Christ’s feet, thus joins at the château a study of an angel acquired in May 2016 from Osenat and published in Versalia in 2018, as well as a more ambitious ceiling project acquired in 2023 (see the news item of…