Pierre Subleyras 1699-1749

"Which French painter, apart perhaps Nicolas Poussin, was like him the greatest painter of Rome?" Thus ends the long essay that precedes Nicolas Lesur’s catalogue raisonné of Pierre Subleyras, just published by Arthena. It is a brilliant conclusion to a masterly analysis of the life and work of this painter, who was born and trained in France and made his career in Italy, sadly dying very young at the end of a particularly prolific decade. Although he was never forgotten, benefiting from several biographies as early as the 17th-century, by both French (Dezallier d’Argenville) and Italian authors, it was not until 1987 that he was discovered by the general public, thanks to the memorable retrospective devoted to him at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris and the Villa Medici in Rome. This new book, the first catalogue raisonné, provides a wealth of discoveries and insights into his paintings, his way of working (in particular the development of the many replicas of his most famous works), his studio, but also life at the Académie de France in Rome when it was still housed at the Palazzo Mancini.

1. Pierre Subleyras (1699-1749)
Christ Falling Under the Cross, Helped
by Simon of Cyrene, c. 1719-1722
Oil on canvas - 170 x 157 cm
Lavaur, former cathédrale Saint-Alain
Photo: Unidentified author

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Pierre Subleyras was born in Saint-Gilles into a family of painters since both his father and uncle were painters, but modest painters, probably mainly active in the field of decoration (a fine example can be found in a chapel in the cathedral of Saint-Théodon in Uzès). They were "honest craftsmen" as Nicolas Lesur describes them.
It was in Uzès, where his parents moved when he was just a few months old, that Subleyras lived until the age of sixteen before a brief stay in Carcassonne and before joining Antoine Rivalz’s workshop in Toulouse, where he trained. Three years later, he returned to Uzès for about three years. His earliest surviving works can be traced back to this period, in particular a cycle of eight paintings depicting the Passion of Christ in Lavaur Cathedral. These paintings still make it difficult to discern the painter he would later become (ill. 1).

2. Pierre Subleyras (1699-1749)
Portrait of the Sculptor Pierre Lucas, circa 1723
Oil on canvas - 88 x 69 cm
Toulouse, Musée des Augustins
Photo: Musée des Augustins

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3. Pierre Subleyras (1699-1749)
The Annunciation, 1726
Oil on canvas - 260 x 195 cm
Toulouse, Musée des Augustins
Photo: Musée des Augustins

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This was followed by a second stay in Toulouse, this time lasting four years, where he collaborated with his former master Antoine Rivalz, while at the same time pursuing an independent career, of which the Portrait of the Painter Pierre Lucas (ill. 2) and the canvases painted for the decoration of the church of the Pénitents Blancs (ill. 3), an…