A new Muse by Philippe Quantin preempted by Dijon

27/11/23 - Acquisition - Dijon, Musée des Beaux-Arts - Set in a spare architectural décor, surrounded by a variety of musical instruments and draped in an ample red drapery, the muse Euterpe (ill. 1) plays a long flute, as indicated by the inscription on the base of the pillar to her right. Part of the décor of the Chambre des Muses in the Château de la Motte-Ternant, this allegory of music by Philippe Quantin was destined to join the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, which holds two other canvases from this group: the muse Urania (ill. 2), which is attached to it with certainty, and, with more reservation, a Muse of uncertain identity (ill. 3). Offered for sale by Artcurial on Wednesday November 22, Euterpe was quite logically pre-empted by the museum for 28,000 euros hammer price, and will join the two Muses already on display in its 17th-century galleries in a few months’ time, after restoration.

1. Philippe Quantin (c. 1600-1636)
The Muse Euterpe, before 1628
Oil on canvas - 156.5 x 213.5 cm
Dijon, Musée des Beaux-Arts
Photo: Artcurial

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A Burgundian artist well represented in the Dijon museum’s 17th-century collections, Philippe Quantin remains little-known to this day, and only a few academic studies have added to the catalog raisonné essay published by Marguerite Guillaume over forty years ago, in 1980. Probably born in Dijon around 1600, we know nothing of his training or travels until he qualified as a "master painter" in 1622, and was appointed painter to the Prince de Condé, Governor of Burgundy, in January 1636, a few months before his death. Although municipal archives indicate that most of Quantin’s abundant output, most of which has now disappeared, was destined for Dijon’s churches and convents, he also executed a number of decorations for Burgundian châteaux with major clients. These include the decor for the Pastor Fido cabinet at Château d’Ancy-le-Franc, commissioned by the de Clermont-Tonnerre family…