The Artist’s Eldest Daughter Combing Her Brother, circa 1672
Dijon, musée national Magnin
Photo : GrandPalaisRmn (musée Magnin) / Adrien Didierjean
From May to September 2027, the Magnin National Museum in Dijon will present the first monographic exhibition devoted to Claude Lefebvre (1632-1675), a talented portrait painter who worked at the court of Louis XIV. A pupil of Charles Le Brun, he enjoyed great success from the 1660s onwards, receiving numerous commissions from the royal circle, the clergy, the nobility, and artistic, intellectual and scientific circles.
The presence in the Magnin Museum’s collections of one of his masterpieces, as intimate as it is surprising, La Fille aînée de l’artiste peignant son frère (The Artist’s Eldest Daughter Combing Her Brother) (circa 1672-1675), is the starting point for this project. It should be noted that the collections of the Musée Magnin cannot be loaned out due to the provisions of Maurice Magnin’s (1861-1939) will. The aim is therefore to bring together, around this painting, the most complete collection possible of the artist’s works.
The exhibition, which I will curate alongside Élodie Vaysse, curator at the palaces of Versailles and Trianon, will be an opportunity to take stock of this prolific painter, to whom only around fifty paintings can be attributed today.
Many are still in private hands, such as the Portrait of Charles Le Brun (105 x 177 cm), painted fairly early in his career, around 1650, or the sumptuous Portrait of Jacques III de Goyon-Matignon, Comte de Thorigny, painted around 1670 (Sotheby’s New York sale, 26 January 2017). A beautiful three-quarter self-portrait presented at the Galerie Coatalem in Paris in 2013 could also be attributed to him.
In view of this exhibition organised with GrandPalaisRmn, I would be grateful to anyone with information or wishing to report a work by or related to the artist to contact me:
Sophie Harent
Chief Curator / Director of the Magnin National Museum