Three sales at the Hôtel Drouot - La Tribune de l'Art

26/3/23 - Art Market - Paris - On Tuesday 28 March (and on 29 March for one of them as well), three sales at the Hôtel Drouot will present a number of notable works, following on from those we described this week and which we will discuss at length due to the numerous preemptions or museum purchases that took place (including two from the Musée d’Orsay in last Friday’s Ader sale of ancient and modern drawings which we did not have time to mention).

: 1. Bernardino Campi (1520-1591)
Album containing sixteen scenes from the life of Saint Bruno
The Death of Raymond Diocres
Black pencil, pen and grey ink, brown and grey wash, white gouache highlights -
Album: 11.5 x 15 cm, sheet: 11 x 14 cm
Daguerre sale, Drouot, 28 March 2023
Photo: Daguerre; See the image in its page

: 2. Bernardino Campi (1520-1591)
Album containing sixteen scenes from the life of St Bruno
The Construction of the Charterhouse
Black pencil, pen and grey ink, brown and grey wash, white gouache highlights -
Album: 11.5 x 15 cm, sheet: 11 x 14 cm
Daguerre sale, Drouot, 28 March 2023
Photo: Daguerre; See the image in its page

At Daguerre (catalogue), where the sale of the portrait of the Count d’Argenson presented in the catalogue was finally postponed, we shall retain a small album of drawings (ill. 1 and 2) by the Cremonese painter Bernardino Campi (who does not seem to have any family ties with the other Campi from the same town, Vincenzo, Antonio and Giulio). The sixteen compositions represent scenes from the life of St Bruno. Are they projects for a cycle of paintings or frescoes that were actually painted? The catalogue entry does not say, probably because the conditions of creation of this notebook are unknown. It should be noted, however, that Bernardino Campi worked at least once for the Carthusian monks in the oratory of the castle of San Colombano al Lambro, but there he depicted scenes from the life of St Mary Magdalene.

: 3. Jacob Adriaens Backer (1608/9-1651)
Portrait of a Man in Bust, 1637
Oil on panel - 91 x 66 cm
Daguerre sale, Drouot, 28 March 2023
Photo: Daguerre; See the image in its page

: 4. Jacob Adriaens Backer (1608/9-1651)
Portrait of a Lady in Bust, 1637
Oil on panel - 91 x 66 cm
Daguerre sale, Drouot, 28 March 2023
Photo: Daguerre; See the image in its page

In the same sale, a pair of bust portraits by Jacob Adriaens Backer (ill. 3 and 4), a contemporary of Rembrandt, to whom these two paintings are reminiscent, are of particular quality. Although Backer was not his pupil, he was close to him through his friend Govert Flinck, who worked in Rembrandt’s studio. It is possible that the unidentified models are members of the Mennonite Church, probably from the Waterland congregation, of which the painter had been elected preacher. Rembrandt was also the author of portraits of members of this congregation.

: 5. Jean-Marc Nattier (1685-1766)
Portrait of Marc Pierre de Voyer de Paulmy, comte d’Argenson
Oil on canvas - 136 x 104 cm
Daguerre sale, Drouot, 28 March 2023
Photo : Daguerre; See the image in its page

Although Rigaud’s portrait of the Count d’Argenson was not sold in this auction, it should be noted that the same model, this time by Jean-Marc Nattier (ill. 5), was indeed sold at auction. It is the counterpart of a portrait of his wife still in private collection.

: 6. Goswin Van der Weyden (1455/65-c. 1538)
Mother with Child Surrounded by Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Margaret of Antioch
Oil on panel - 72,4 x 64,2 cm
Sale Aguttes, Drouot, 28 March 2023 (work not allowed to leave Italy)
Photo: Aguttes; See the image in its page

At Aguttes (catalogue), which this time is not selling in his auction house in Neuilly, but at Drouot, we shall first point out a curiosity, not concerning the work directly, but the conditions of its adjudication. A Flemish painting by Goswin Van der Weyden (ill. 6), Rogier’s grandson, will be sold by designation: kept in Italy, it had not obtained its export licence and could not therefore leave that country. What is more surprising is that it only entered Italy very recently, having been sold less than twenty years ago in London at Sotheby’s and once before at Sotheby’s in 1992. But beyond the Alps, the legislation is much stricter than almost anywhere else, since even recently imported works can be banned from leaving. The reason for this is that the painting had belonged to the collection of Marie-Louise of Austria, Duchess of Parma, in the 19th century. This puts into perspective the opinion of those who believe that France is doing too much in the conservation of national treasures. This very excessive case would have been impossible, even for a temporary ban on leaving the country.

: 7. 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
Photo: Aguttes; See the image in its page

Among the drawings, the subject of the moment, a large sheet by Charles de La Fosse (ill. 7), particularly interesting from the historical point of view, stands out. It is a project for the gallery of the Château de Choisy that La Fosse carried out with Michel II Corneille, who probably took over the work, either because the first had not been satisfactory, or rather because of his departure for England. What we know of this commission is perfectly analysed by Bénédicte Gady, who studied it in an article in the Bulletin du Centre de Recherche du Château de Versailles available online and to which we refer.

Finally, for the sake of anecdote (and to follow up on the information given on this site), a painting that had been in the news when it was presented as a possible sketch for David’s The Death of Marat (see the news item of 15/9/08) is now presented as after the Brussels painting, as two pigments found through analysis were not used at the time. This demonstrates once again the need for caution in the area of attribution. If the David hypothesis seemed attractive to us - wrongly so - we were right to remain careful.

: 8. Pierre Macret (1727-after 1796)
Curved chest of drawers
Rosewood, amaranth, gilt bronze - 82,5 x 92,7 x 47 cm
Coutau-Bégarie sale, Drouot, 28 March 2023
Photo: Coutau-Bégarie & Associés; See the image in its page

We will end with the Coutau-Bégarie & Associés sale (catalogue), a very rich sale that will take place over two days, with works of all kinds, from furniture to drawings, including objets d’art, sculptures and paintings.
Of particular interest is a chest of drawers stamped by Pierre Macret (ill. 8), bearing the mark of the Château de Fontainebleau, modestly estimated at 15,000 to 20,000 €, which we can therefore hope will return to where it was just before the Revolution.

: 9. Rome, late 16th century
Christ and Saint Peter
Sanguine and estompe - 22 x 16,2 cm
Coutau-Bégarie sale, Drouot, 29 March 2023
Photo: Coutau-Bégarie & Associés; See the image in its page

The drawings that will sell on Wednesday come from a "unpublished aristocratic collection assembled in the 19th century". Many are of quality, even anonymous, and we shall retain a beautiful sanguine of the "Roman school of the end of the 16th century" (ill. 9), estimated at only 800 to 1,200 €, which shows that one can collect even with reduced means.

: 10. Philippe de Champaigne (1602-1674)
The Rest of the Holy Family During the Flight into Egypt
Pen and brown ink, grey wash - 18 x 21.5 cm
Coutau-Bégarie sale, Drouot, 29 March 2023
Photo: Coutau-Bégarie & Associés; See the image in its page

Amongst the identified leaves, we will finally reproduce a Recovery of the Holy Family during the Flight into Egypt by Philippe de Champaigne (ill. 10), unpublished and probably a presentation drawing for the commissioner of a painting not found to date.