Lot Essay
The design of this tapestry is based on a scene by Jean-Baptiste Huët the elder (d. 1811). Huët, famous for this genre and pastoral scenes, exhibited for the first time at the Salon in 1769 and continued to do so until 1802. He supplied various designs for tapestries to the tapestry maufacturers in France, including Gobelins and Beauvais who employed him from 1790 onwards.
A tapestry with identical subject and minor variations to the background is illustrated in J. Franses, Tapestries and their Mythology, London, 1975, p. 34, plate 19, while a further version was exhibited with V. and C. Sternberg in 1966 (illustrated in V. and C. Sternberg, Four Centuries of Tapestry, Exhibition Catalogue, London, 2 - 23 November 1966, illus. 55). A tapestry with identical subject, formerly in the collection of Madame de Staël at the château de Coppet, Switzerland, was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 1 December 1966, lot 171, and a further version was sold anonymously, Sotheby's Monaco, 5/6 February 1978, lot 186.
A tapestry with identical subject and minor variations to the background is illustrated in J. Franses, Tapestries and their Mythology, London, 1975, p. 34, plate 19, while a further version was exhibited with V. and C. Sternberg in 1966 (illustrated in V. and C. Sternberg, Four Centuries of Tapestry, Exhibition Catalogue, London, 2 - 23 November 1966, illus. 55). A tapestry with identical subject, formerly in the collection of Madame de Staël at the château de Coppet, Switzerland, was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 1 December 1966, lot 171, and a further version was sold anonymously, Sotheby's Monaco, 5/6 February 1978, lot 186.