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Lot Essay
Considering the painting's style, Margret Stuffmann is inclined to date it to the end of the 17th century, around 1690 (verbal communication); this is the period when La Fosse had just returned to Paris from London, where he had worked for Ralph, Duke of Montague (the former English ambassador to France) painting monumental decorations for Montague House.
The Biblical source of the painting is found in Luke 10:38-42. Martha, the busy housekeeper, chided her contemplative sister, Mary Magdelene, for sitting apparently idle at Christ's feet and listening to his words. But Christ told Mary that it was she who played the better, indeed the necessary role. La Fosse's painting tenderly depicts the Biblical story, effectively rendering a grand manner history subject as an intimate genre scene of daily life, despite its obviously classicizing landscape background.
Two variant versions of the composition are known: one canvas, of larger dimentions (105 x 147 cm.), is in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow (reproduced in I. Kouzentsova, La Peinture Francaise au Muse Pouchkine, 1980, no. 288, illustrated) and includes a second figure in the left background and a different arrangement of Martha's hair; the other version, in the Muse d'Alencon, is the same size as the present painting but includes among its variations another costume for Mary and a differently designed chair between her and Christ. The Kupferstichkabinett, Munich has a study on blue paper for the composition, exhibiting minor variations from painted versions. A drawing in trois crayons and pastel in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm is closely related to the head of the servant in the left rear of our painting, and it once belonged to Pierre Crozat, La Fosse's most important patron in the later years of his life (see P. Bjurstrom, Drawings in Swedish Public Collections 2: French Drawings of the 16th and 17th Centuries, 1976, no. 456).
La Fosse's painting probably inspired another picture of the same subject made by Antoine Coypel for the Duc de Bourgogne; although it is today lost, it was engraved by Simonneau in 1712 (see N. Garnier, Antoine Coypel, 1989, no. 105, fig. 299).
The Biblical source of the painting is found in Luke 10:38-42. Martha, the busy housekeeper, chided her contemplative sister, Mary Magdelene, for sitting apparently idle at Christ's feet and listening to his words. But Christ told Mary that it was she who played the better, indeed the necessary role. La Fosse's painting tenderly depicts the Biblical story, effectively rendering a grand manner history subject as an intimate genre scene of daily life, despite its obviously classicizing landscape background.
Two variant versions of the composition are known: one canvas, of larger dimentions (105 x 147 cm.), is in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow (reproduced in I. Kouzentsova, La Peinture Francaise au Muse Pouchkine, 1980, no. 288, illustrated) and includes a second figure in the left background and a different arrangement of Martha's hair; the other version, in the Muse d'Alencon, is the same size as the present painting but includes among its variations another costume for Mary and a differently designed chair between her and Christ. The Kupferstichkabinett, Munich has a study on blue paper for the composition, exhibiting minor variations from painted versions. A drawing in trois crayons and pastel in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm is closely related to the head of the servant in the left rear of our painting, and it once belonged to Pierre Crozat, La Fosse's most important patron in the later years of his life (see P. Bjurstrom, Drawings in Swedish Public Collections 2: French Drawings of the 16th and 17th Centuries, 1976, no. 456).
La Fosse's painting probably inspired another picture of the same subject made by Antoine Coypel for the Duc de Bourgogne; although it is today lost, it was engraved by Simonneau in 1712 (see N. Garnier, Antoine Coypel, 1989, no. 105, fig. 299).