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Lot Essay
Although Louis Fagon was an important patron of Charles Coypel -- among the works he commissioned from the artist was the satirical genre painting Children playing at their toilette in 1728 (sold, Christie's, London, 9 July 1999, lot 50; private collection, California) -- The Cheerful Democritus and The Sorrowful Heraclitus could not have belonged to the intendant des finances, as they are dated two years after his death. The pair of paintings was instead brought to the Château de Voré by Claude-Adrien Helvétius, although whether he commissioned the paintings from Coypel or acquired them after they were exhibited at the 1746 Salon is unknown. Their subject matter would certainly have held special significance for Helvétius, himself one of the most important philosophers of the century.
Democritus (c.460-370 B.C.) and Heraclitus (c.540-475 B.C.) are often thought of as 'the laughing and crying philosophers'. Democritus, a Greek born at Abdera in Thrace, was said to have laughed continually at the folly and vanity of mankind. Both Seneca and Juvenal contrasted his philosophic system to that of the earlier Heraclitus of Ephesus, a melancholic who wept at Man's follies and frailty. From the Renaissance onward, their texts were used to support the view that a cheerful attitude was proper to a philosopher, and the pair are widely represented in baroque art, either together in one picture or -- as here -- in companion pieces. For Rubens' representation of the philosophers, see Christie's, London, 17 December 1999, lot 26.
Coypel drew very precise modelli for the paintings in black and white chalks on buff paper; the study for Heraclitus was formerly in the Prat collection, Paris (sold, Christie's, New York, 30 January 1998, lot 185; fig. 2), and the drawing of Democritus is in a private collection, New York (fig. 1). In both paintings and drawings, the philosophers lean on parapets and are posed emerging from trompe-l'oeil windows, a devise that Coypel often used, and had employed to stunning effect in his portraits of Monsieur and Madame Dupillé in 1733 (collection of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart Resnick).
In The Cheerful Democritus, Coypel was also paying homage to his father, Antoine Coypel, by taking up the theme of one of the elder artist's most famous paintings; it was an allusion that would certainly not have been lost on the owner of the picture, given the close links between the two generations of the Helvétius and Coypel families. Antoine Coypel's splendidly Rubensian Democritus (Musée du Louvre, Paris) was painted in 1692, after which it passed through a series of distinguished collections; however, a replica of the painting remained with the artist's family and appeared in Charles Coypel's estate sale after his death.
Democritus (c.460-370 B.C.) and Heraclitus (c.540-475 B.C.) are often thought of as 'the laughing and crying philosophers'. Democritus, a Greek born at Abdera in Thrace, was said to have laughed continually at the folly and vanity of mankind. Both Seneca and Juvenal contrasted his philosophic system to that of the earlier Heraclitus of Ephesus, a melancholic who wept at Man's follies and frailty. From the Renaissance onward, their texts were used to support the view that a cheerful attitude was proper to a philosopher, and the pair are widely represented in baroque art, either together in one picture or -- as here -- in companion pieces. For Rubens' representation of the philosophers, see Christie's, London, 17 December 1999, lot 26.
Coypel drew very precise modelli for the paintings in black and white chalks on buff paper; the study for Heraclitus was formerly in the Prat collection, Paris (sold, Christie's, New York, 30 January 1998, lot 185; fig. 2), and the drawing of Democritus is in a private collection, New York (fig. 1). In both paintings and drawings, the philosophers lean on parapets and are posed emerging from trompe-l'oeil windows, a devise that Coypel often used, and had employed to stunning effect in his portraits of Monsieur and Madame Dupillé in 1733 (collection of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart Resnick).
In The Cheerful Democritus, Coypel was also paying homage to his father, Antoine Coypel, by taking up the theme of one of the elder artist's most famous paintings; it was an allusion that would certainly not have been lost on the owner of the picture, given the close links between the two generations of the Helvétius and Coypel families. Antoine Coypel's splendidly Rubensian Democritus (Musée du Louvre, Paris) was painted in 1692, after which it passed through a series of distinguished collections; however, a replica of the painting remained with the artist's family and appeared in Charles Coypel's estate sale after his death.