Three acquisitions for Versailles

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28/3/23 - Acquisition - Versailles, Musée national du château - We highlighted it in our article on this Tuesday’s sales at Drouot: the large drawing by Charles de La Fosse (ill. 1) studying a ceiling was wisely preempted at Aguttes by the Château de Versailles for the decidedly modest price of €26,000 (including fees).
This gives us the opportunity to come back to this commission, knowing that all the information we will give here is taken from Bénédicte Gady’s article published in the Bulletin du Centre de Recherche du Château de Versailles, which can be found online here (in French). We refer to it, of course, for those who wish to know everything about the commission that this new acquisition is preparing.


1. Charles de La Fosse (1636-1716)
The Peace of Nijmegen
Black stone, red chalk and white chalk highlights - 50 x 37.5 cm
Sale Aguttes, Drouot, 28 March 2023
Preempted by the Château de Versailles
Photo : Aguttes
See the image in its page

The composition of this ceiling was already known from a watercolour by the artist preserved in Würzburg (ill. 2) with 29 additional leaves reproducing the other compositions of the decoration.
This was actually painted by two artists: Charles de La Fosse and Michel II Corneille, who succeeded him, although it is not clear why the torch was passed. The importance of this gallery is fundamental: it was derived from the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, representing the victories of Louis XIV during the Dutch War, from the Passage of the Rhine to the Treaty of Nijmegen, the subject of the drawing.


2. Charles de La Fosse (1636-1716)
The Peace of Nijmegen, c. 1684-1689
Pen and brown ink, watercolour and gouache highlights - 38 × 28 cm
Würzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum
Photo: Martin von Wagner Museum/Birgit Wörz
See the image in its page

The thirty Würzburg sheets had been discovered and attributed to Charles de La Fosse by Pierre Rosenberg, and published in Clémentine Gustin-Gomez’s monograph, three of them having been exhibited in the 2015 Versailles retrospective (see article). Thanks to four drawings by Michel Corneille, some of which reproduce La Fosse’s compositions and some of which treat the same subjects in a different way, and to a large sheet by the same artist rediscovered in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs preparing a larger part of the ceiling, Bénédicte Gady has been able in this article to show convincingly that this was indeed a gallery project. Initially entrusted to Charles de La Fosse, this one was replaced by Michel II Corneille, perhaps because of the former’s departure for England in August 1689. Although the designers of this decoration, La Fosse and Corneille, seem certain, its location at the Château de Choisiy (now destroyed except for two entrance pavilions) is not sure, but is an attractive hypothesis. We therefore refer to the article to understand the very convincing demonstration of the art historian.


3. François Lemoyne (1688-1737)
Étude pour la figure d’Amphitrite (recto)
Pierre noire et rehauts de
craie blanche - 19,5 x 26 cm
Versailles, Musée national du château
Photo : Ader
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4. François Lemoyne (1688-1737)
Study of hands (verso of drawing ill. 3)
Black stone and white chalk highlights
white chalk - 19.5 x 26 cm
Versailles, Musée national du château
Photo: Ader
See the image in its page

This preemption was the third for Versailles in a very rich period of museum acquisitions. Last week, in fact, the château had already acquired two other leaves. On Monday 20th, at Ader, in a sale of old drawings that we did not have time to review due to the busy news cycle, a drawing (ill. 3 and 4) "attributed" to François Lemoyne (most likely in reality a drawing "of" this artist), preparatory to the figure of Amphitrite in The Apotheosis of Hercules in the Salon d’Hercule (and with two hand studies on the reverse for Mercury), which joined his collections (for €5,760 including fees). The Château systematically tries to collect preparatory works for the decorations of the Louis XIV period [1] and in particular of the Salon d’Hercule, of which one study was acquired in 2019 (see the news item of 8/12) and two others in 2020 (see the news item of 1/7 and of 12/12)


5. Charles Natoire (1700-1777)
Portrait of the Dauphin Louis of France
Black stone, white chalk,
brush, grey wash - 40.8 x 28.7 cm
Preempted by the Château de Versailles
Photo: Christie’s
See the image in its page
6. Charles Natoire (1700-1777)
Portrait of the Dauphin Louis of France
Oil on canvas - 272 x 194 cm
Versailles, Musée national du château
Photo: Château de Versailles
See the image in its page

Finally, on Wednesday 22 March, in the Christie’s sale (see news item of 21/3/23), the museum preempted for €25,200 (including fees) a sheet by Charles Natoire (ill. 5) preparatory to a portrait of the dauphin Louis de France, son of Louis XV and father of Louis XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X, kept at Versailles (ill. 6). Two other studies drawn for this portrait are preserved in French museums: the Musée Borély in Marseille and the Musée Atger in Montpellier.

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