14/6/23 - Art Market - Paris - Sometimes painters choose to work without color, playing only with shades of black and white, or brown. Christie’s will be selling a large-format grisaille in Paris on June 15 (ill. 1). It depicts the Last Judgment, and is no doubt a modello for the central panel of the triptych in Antwerp Cathedral, painted in 1591 in memory of Christophe Plantin, an Antwerp printer and publisher. Attributed to Jacob de Backer, an Antwerp painter who trained in Florence and Rome between 1557 and 1560, this undeniably fine modello is an early example of grisaille. The Musée des Augustins devoted a fine exhibition in 2008 to this type of painting, "Pas la couleur, Rien que la nuance!" (see l’article).
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- 1. Attributed to Jacob de Backer (1560-1590/1591)
The Last Judgment
Oil on paper pasted on panel - 57.2 × 42.8 cm
Christie’s Paris sale, 15 June 2023
Photo : Christie’s - See the image in its page
Among the other 16th-century works offered for sale by Christie’s, two pendants, The Christ of Sorrow and The Virgin of Sorrow make up a small diptych responding to the devotio moderna (ill. 2). The painter, who is anonymous, brilliantly reproduces a composition by Luca de Leyden, now lost, but known from the engraving that places the two figures in a landscape, and from copies by followers, visible in the Rijksmuseum. The treatment of the drapery is admirable, as is the expression of the figures; moreover, the choice of placing them behind what appears to be a parapet and against a neutral background sets it apart from the original composition.
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- 2. 16th century Leiden school, follower of Lucas de Leyde
The Christ of Sorrow and The Virgin of Sorrow
Oil on panel - 31.2 × 24 and 31 × 23.9 cm
Christie’s Paris sale, 15 June 2023
Photo : bbsg - See the image in its page
The most interesting works are not necessarily attributed with certainty. For example, the author of a fascinating portrait of a bearded man (ill. 3) remains unknown. He was most certainly a painter active in the Netherlands and Flanders between 1570 and 1580, and the name Antonio Moro - or Anthonis Mor - has been suggested. After a trip to Italy, Spain, Portugal and London, the artist returned to Holland in 1554. This portrait can be compared with that of the painter Lambert Lombard, preserved in the Musée de l’Art Wallon in Liège, considered a self-portrait or attributed to Antonio Moro.
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- 3. Flemish school, entourage of Antonio Moro (1519-1576)
Bust Portrait of a Bearded Man, c. 1570
Oil on panel - 63 × 42.2 cm
Christie’s Paris sale, 15 June 2023
Photo: Christie’s - See the image in its page
The 17th century is epitomized by Ribera’s Saint Jerome, one of the sale’s star pieces (ill. 4). Although the master treated the subject on numerous occasions, either full-length or in bust form, this version, dated 1648, was unknown. The expression and gesture of recollection of the holy hermit express his feverish faith in destitution, whereas the Saint Jerome from the Palais des beaux-arts in Lille, also presented in bust form, seems more meditative; it had in fact featured in the exhibition on "Portraits de la penséeught" (see article) , but also, unfortunately, in a dismaying exhibition on "Le Rêve d’être artiste" (see article).
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- 4. Jusepe de Ribera, known as Lo Spagnoletto (1591-1652)
Saint Jerome, 1648
Oil on canvas - 85.4 x 76.5 cm
Christie’s Paris sale, 15 June 2023
Photo : Christie’s - See the image in its page
Another 17th-century painting, a monumental Saint John the Baptist by Palma the Younger bears witness to the varied influences that ran through his work (ill. 5). Son of the painter Antonio Negretti, grand-nephew of Palma the Elder, and whose real name was Jacopo di Antonio Negretti, he trained with his father in Venice, studying the art of Titian, before moving to Urbino, where he discovered Raphael. He then moved to Rome, where he lived for almost nine years, copying Michelangelo, Caravaggio’s Polydore and the Roman Mannerists, before returning to Venice in 1569, where he collaborated with Tintoretto. In this painting, the painter retained the Mannerist models, as well as the colors and materials of Venice. This work belonged to the Marquis of Leganés, a Spanish politician and soldier who collected several paintings by this artist.
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- 5. Palma the Younger Venice (1544-1628)
Saint John the Baptist
Oil on canvas - 205.5 × 117 cm
Christie’s Paris sale, 15 June 2023
Photo: Christie’s - See the image in its page
In France, it’s Claude Vignon who demonstrates late Mannerism. A painting from the 1640s-1650s features a sleeping knight, surrounded by female figures, some pious, others dissipated (ill. 6). The subject is not obvious, and Vignon may well have been inspired by a painting by Raphael, the Dream of a Knight, which depicts a drowsy man torn between Virtue and Pleasure, a theme taken from the Punic Wars by Silius Italicus. Vignon chooses not to reduce the allegories of Virtue and Inconduct to two women, and deploys a procession of young girls, hands on their hearts, a cross around their necks, while other figures dance and frolic in the background.
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- 6. Claude Vignon (1593-1670)
The Knight’s Dream
Oil on canvas - 148.5 x 116.2 cm
Christie’s Paris sale, 15 June 2023
Photo: Christie’s - See the image in its page
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- 7. Louis Tocqué (1696-1772)
Bust Portrait of Marquis Charles David Godefroy de Senneville
Oil on canvas - 81.2 x 65.2 cm
Christie’s Paris sale, 15 June 2023
Photo: Christie’s - See the image in its page
The 18th century is embodied by two portraits, one of the Marquis Charles David Godefroy de Senneville by Louis Toqué (ill. 7), the other of Denis Diderot by Dmitri Grigorievitch Levitski. The Marquis de Senneville is dressed in an elegant embroidered jacket, which can be seen in other paintings by the master, worn by Joachim Colbert Marquis de Croissy or by a gentleman in the collection of the National Gallery in London. The portrait of Diderot was painted during the philosopher’s stay in Russia between 1773 and 1774.
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- 8. Anne Vallayer-Coster (1744-1818)
Still life with alabaster vase filled with flowers and fruit on a table, 1783
Christie’s Paris sale, 15 June 2023
Photo: Christie’s - See the image in its page
Diderot, who was not always kind to Anne Vallayer-Coster’s portraits, pointed out with a certain sense of formula that "the face looks nothing like her – so much the better. [1]". But Vallayer-Coster made his mark above all in the still-life genre, and it’s a flamboyant bouquet that Christie’s is offering, deployed on a large format, probably in its original frame, and the canvas in perfect condition, on its original stretcher (ill. 8). A multitude of different flowers are arranged in an alabaster vase presented on the table, where a few fruits are also visible: apples, pineapples, peaches and grapes. The work, exhibited at the Salon of 1783, was hailed by critics as "a master’s brush in the hand of one of the Graces. [2]", considered superior even to Van Spaendonck’s compositions. The canvas remained in the painter’s studio throughout his life, no doubt to show off his talent to potential buyers. There’s no doubt that this painting by a woman artist will attract the attention of museums. Surprisingly, Vallayer Coster, who was one of the few to be admitted to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1770, was absent from the distressing exhibition on "Peintres femmes (1780-1830)" at the Musée du Luxembourg (see article).