A sumptuous "classic week" at Christie's in Paris

: 1. Charles-Antoine Coypel (1694-1752)
Renaud Abandoning Armide
Oil on canvas - 100 x 80.3 cm
Christie’s Paris sale, 15 November 2023
Photo: Christie’s; See the image in its page

Should this be seen as a tribute to the famous Rothschild taste, to which the auction house strives to pay homage? Christie’s seems to have opted for accumulation, compiling up to seven (!) sales in the space of just a few days, whereas its Parisian rivals are content with a single major sale. Sandwiched between an online handbag sale and a design sale, this "classic week" has the slightly bitter taste of the dismantling of grand mansions, marking the end of the many dispersals of collections amassed by various members of the French branch of the Rothschilds in Paris or at the Château de Ferrières, but also at the Hôtel de Masseran. It was here that a painting by Charles-Antoine Coypel - almost unheard of on the market - took pride of place: Renaud Abandoning Armide (ill. 1) had in fact been exhibited at the Salon of 1725 but had disappeared since the artist’s sale after his death in 1753. As shown in a photograph published in the catalogue, it was living happily at the home of Élie de Rothschild (1917-2007), where it stood side by side with Rembrandt’s The Standard Bearer, a former "national treasure" that is now the pride of Amsterdam’s Rijkmuseum. We can only hope for a similarly prestigious destiny for this fine canvas, which surpasses The Fortune Teller, the other painting by the artist offered this Wednesday in the first of the week’s seven sales: this one has an air of déjà vu about it, as we know another autograph version, sold here last June! One of these paintings - the debate remains open - comes from the famous collection of Ange Laurent de Lalive de Jully, which will soon benefit from a long-awaited monograph.

: 2. Jean-François de Troy (1679-1752)
Judith Holding the Head of Holofernes, 1730
Oil on canvas - 195 x 147 cm
Christie’s Paris sale, 15 November 2023
Photo: Christie’s; See the image in its page

: 3. Nicolas Bertin (1667-1736)
The Resurrection of Christ
Oil on panel - 59 x 43.5 cm
Christie’s Paris sale,
until 17 November 2023
Photo: Christie’s; See the image in its page

French painting accounted for the lion’s share of this meagre sale of "Old Masters", which was extended until Friday 17 by an online-only sale that also included a few nuggets, but first we should mention a large, previously unseen painting (ill. 2) by Jean-François de Troy, brought from Italy for the occasion: considered lost by Christophe Leribault, this is a surprise from an artist who nevertheless treated the subject of Judith and Holofernes on another occasion. Readers of La Tribune de l’Art will remember The Resurrection of Christ by Nicolas Bertin, a very large painting housed in the church of Saint-Gildas d’Auray but exhibited in Saint-Malo between 2017 and 2018 (see article): one [1] of his sketches, which came from…

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