5/6/23 - Acquisition - Fontainebleau, Musée national du château - The third day of the Festival de l’histoire de l’art was brightened by some excellent news: just as the event was drawing to a close, the Château de Fontainebleau sent an emissary to the sale organised by Philippe and Aymeric Rouillac at the Château d’Artigny to preempt an attractive drawing (ill. 1) by Jean-Baptiste Oudry. Signed and dated 1733, this sheet, which fetched €100,000 at the hammer, was certainly a first thought for one of the preparatory cartoons for the Tenture des Chasses royales, a veritable "kennel on canvas", as Oriane Beaufils - who carefully oversees the paintings and drawings of the Château de Fontainebleau - wrote in an essay in the catalogue for the exhibition "Les animaux du roi" ("The King’s Animals") organised at the Château de Versailles during the winter 2021-2022 (see article).
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- 1. Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755)
Deer at Bay in the Rocks of Franchard in the Forest of Fontainebleau, 1733
Pen and Indian ink, grey wash with highlights of white gouache on formerly blue paper - 32.5 x 55.5 cm
Preempted by the Château de Fontainebleau
Photo: Rouillac - See the image in its page
This large and beautiful drawing on - formerly - blue paper had only been published by Hal Opperman in 1977 and has a prestigious pedigree as it comes from the collection of Tønnes Christian Bruun-Neergaard (1776-1824), a Danish amateur who spent most of his life in Paris. He amassed minerals as well as paintings and drawings, which he was forced to sell in August 1814 at a sale where this sheet appeared under number 286, as stated in the notice drawn up by the experts from De Bayser. The drawing was auctioned again in Paris in June 1955 by the famous Maurice Rheims and subsequently remained in a private collection. Immediately recognisable, the site depicted in this hunting scene is always popular with hikers wandering through the forest of Fontainebleau: we are in the Franchard gorges, a moor animated by large, particularly spectacular rocky eminences.
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- 2. Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755)
The Stag Holding on to the Dogs on the Rocks of Franchard, 1737
Oil on canvas - 46.5 x 96 cm
Paris, Musée Nissim de Camondo
Photo: MAD Paris - See the image in its page
It is precisely against these rocks that the deer pursued by the crew is cornered, the scene immortalised in the drawing being repeated in the sketch (ill. 2) where the essence of the composition is preserved. Eight preparatory sketches for the large tapestry cartoons were acquired by Count Moïse de Camondo in 1921 and are kept in his former town house overlooking the Parc Monceau, but the ninth, separated from the rest of the series during the 19th century, had to wait until 2002 to join the ensemble. This late arrival means that it is not subject to the strict terms of the collector’s will, and can therefore be loaned, as recently during the exhibition that the Château de Versailles devoted a few months ago to the tastes and passions of King Louis XV (see article).
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- 3. Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755)
Deer at Bay in the Rocks of Franchard in the Forest of Fontainebleau, 1738
Oil on canvas - 367 x 661 cm
Fontainebleau, Musée national du château de Fontainebleau
Photo: RMN-GP/G. Blot - See the image in its page
The drawing and sketch will therefore be able to join the large tapestry cartoon (ill. 3) in autumn 2024, as the Château de Fontainebleau prepares a long-awaited exhibition entitled "Peintre de Courre: Jean-Baptiste Oudry et les chasses de Louis XV". Bringing together tapestries and preparatory studies, the exhibition will plunge visitors into the heart of one of the most important artistic projects of the 18th century, the production of the Tenture des Chasses royales, which took more than ten years to complete! The artist began by following the king hunting, sketching animals and landscapes emblematic of the royal forests, before producing various oil studies. Comparing the drawing, the sketch, the carton and - we hope - the corresponding tapestry will enable us to follow the few changes made by Oudry.
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- 4. Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755)
Deer at Bay in the Rocks of Franchard in the Forest of Fontainebleau, 1733
Pen and Indian ink, grey wash with highlights of white gouache on formerly blue paper - 32.5 x 55.5 cm (detail)
Preempted by the Château de Fontainebleau
Photo: Alexandre Lafore - See the image in its page
He naturally placed the sovereign in the centre of the scene (ill. 4), above the rock where he affixed his signature and the date of the year 1733. In the background, well lit with skilful highlights of white, the animal surrounded by dogs is cornered against the rocks: we are close to the hallali. This large sheet is particularly well done and was probably used as a presentation drawing. The king’s horse is also elegantly highlighted in white, and the mass effect of the riders encircling the rocky escarpment subtly occupies all the space in the composition. Oudry reversed the orientation of the group of horsemen and added the ruins of the medieval hermitage of Franchard on the right. Destroyed during the Hundred Years’ War, it had become a den of brigands and a ruling by the King’s Council ordered its demolition in February 1717. At the very top, the dog literally flying through the air - the victim of the deer or a fall from the top of the rock - disappears from the sketch like cardboard.
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- 5. Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755)
Deer at Bay in the Rocks of Franchard in the Forest of Fontainebleau, 1738
Oil on canvas - 367 x 661 cm (detail)
Fontainebleau, Musée national du château de Fontainebleau
Photo: Alexandre Lafore - See the image in its page
The most delightful change, however, remains the addition of a new figure at the bottom right of the composition: Oudry has in fact depicted himself (ill. 5) drawing the hunt, almost directly above the medieval ruins. Staring at the viewer, his debonair face is fairly well preserved, while the rest of the corner of the canvas has unfortunately suffered much more. In 2021, the Château de Fontainebleau has launched a major restoration campaign for the series of painted cartoons that have fallen victim to the vagaries of history. Although they appear to be an integral part of the building, as Vincent Droguet so eloquently wrote in 2003, they have only been kept at the château since the 19th century: entered in 1828, under the reign of Charles X, the cartoon for Deer at Bay in the Rocks of Franchard in the Forest of Fontainebleau was not enshrined until 1835 in the panelling of the rooms now known as the Appartement des Chasses. As we explained last month (see news item of 16/3/23), some of these cartons are currently being restored in preparation for the 2024 exhibition, while others will have to wait a few more years: patrons interested in this fine project can find out more from this page.
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- 6. Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755)
Deer at Bay in the Rocks of Franchard in the Forest of Fontainebleau, 1738
Oil on canvas - 367 x 661 cm (detail)
Fontainebleau, Musée national du château de Fontainebleau
Photo: Alexandre Lafore - See the image in its page
Somewhat forgotten because of their historic location, which is at a dead end in the current free tour circuit and therefore often closed to the public, these rooms should not fail to reveal some fine pieces of painting (ill. 6): Oudry produced some of the most successful paintings of his long career here, certainly prepared by numerous drawings, few of which have survived. The precise chronology of the project is still somewhat unclear, as can be seen from the years separating this work dated 1733 and the cartoon presented to the King on 1 June 1738, before being exhibited at the Salon under the number 96. The tapestries - intended for Louis XV’s flat at the Château de Compiègne - were woven from 1735 at the Manufacture des Gobelins. A large drawing, kept in the Department of Graphic Arts at the Musée du Louvre, is easily linked to the genesis of the project, even if it was not directly included in the sketches or cartoons. We should also mention the sheet in the Morgan Library, located in the forest of Compiègne (ill. 7), which prepared the first cartoon in the series.
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- 7. Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755)
Meeting at the Crossroads of the Puits du Roi, circa 1733
Pen and brown wash, white highlights on formerly blue paper - 21.3 x 52.2 cm
New York, The Morgan Library & Museum
Photo: The Morgan Library & Museum - See the image in its page
These paintings of dogs and hunting were brought back into the limelight on the occasion of a first exhibition entitled "Les animaux d’Oudry" (Oudry’s animals) held simultaneously at Versailles and Fontainebleau in the winter of 2003-2004, This was followed by the opening of the Appartement des Chasses for the exhibition "Louis XV à Fontainebleau" in spring 2016 (see news item of 16/8/20), but above all the famous royal pack was spectacularly enriched by a new "portrait of dogs" in autumn 2020 with the acquisition of Cadet and Hermine from the heirs of Count Robert de Moustier (see news item of 16/8/20). This delightful painting was presented a year later in a show entitled "Cave canem", which served as a prelude to the 2024 exhibition.
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- 8. Nicolas Pierre Pithou le Jeune (1750-1818) after Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755)
The Deer at Bay in the Rocks of Franchard in the Forest of Fontainebleau, 1780
Soft porcelain and gilded wood - 40 x 47 cm
Versailles, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et Trianon
Photo: RMN-GP/J.-M. Manaï - See the image in its page
Louis XVI inherited his grandfather’s passion for the art of hunting and commissioned his Manufacture de Sèvres to produce nine soft-paste porcelain plaques for his inner flat in Versailles faithfully reproducing the cartoons in the Tenture des Chasses royales! Having never left the national collections despite the vagaries of history, they were able to return to Versailles thanks to Pierre de Nolhac, but it is the face of the last sovereign of the Ancien Régime that can be seen on them. Perfectly documented thanks to a rich article published by Marie-Laure de Rochebrune in Versalia, they do of course include the episode of the Franchard rocks (ill. 8) but without Jean-Baptiste Oudry’s endearing self-portrait. Only time will tell whether they will make the trip to Fontainebleau next year, where we are already looking forward to admiring some pieces from the second weaving of the hanging - preserved in Italy - while the tapestries destined for Compiègne will not leave this other important hunting residence. Fontainebleau, for its part, is not sufficiently well known for its graphic art collections, and has undertaken to bring them back into the limelight in an exhibition planned for autumn 2023 entitled "Portraits d’un château", pending the opening of a full-fledged graphic arts cabinet, which is still lacking at the "house of the centuries".