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Lot Essay
One of the most original figures of French 18th-century painting, Charles Coypel came from a dynasty of artists, with both his father, Antoine, and grandfather, Noël, painters of note. From childhood, Charles was acquainted with many of the great writers and poets of his day, and his father was a close friend of Racine, Boileau and La Fontaine. Charles inherited his father's passion for literature and himself wrote plays, poems and essays. He entered the Académie Royale in 1715, aged 21, where he trained as a history painter, and soon became one of the most celebrated painters of his time, considered by his contemporaries to be the equal of François Lemoyne and Jean-François de Troy. Official recognition followed and, in 1747, he was appointed First painter to King Louis XV and Director of the Académie.
The present painting illustrates a scene from Racine's tragedy Andromache. The tragic moment that Coypel depicts comes in Act III, Scene IV when Pyrrhus orders a soldier to take Astyanax, the two-year- old heir to the Trojan throne, away from his mother, Andromache, widow of the Trojan hero, Hector, who had been killed during the war with the Greeks. After the war, Andromache and Astyanax had been held prisoneer at the court of King Pyrrhus who had secretly fallen in love with Andromache. During the preceeding scenes, Pyrrhus had offered to marry Andromache and to raise Astyanax as their son; but the inconsolable widow would not betray her dead husband with a second union. Angry at Andromache's refusal, Pyrrhus decides to give the child to the Greeks to face certain death at their hands.
Coypel heightens the dramatic tension by depicting Andromache collapsing into the arms of her attendants as Pyrrhus emphatically instructs his soldier to take the child away. Although Coypel's use of vivid, dramatic gestures and expressions follows the example of his distinguished predecessors, Poussin and Lebrun, his decision to illustrate a scene from an actual play is rare in French history painting. In his famous speech before the Académie in 1749, entitled Discours sur le parallèle de l'éloquence et de la peinture, the artist gives an explanation of his intentions, 'Les acteurs que nous mettons sur la scène n'ont d'autre language que le geste et les mouvements opposés du visage. En parlant, il n'est point d'homme qui ne puisse aisément faire comprendre à quel point il est combattu par deux sentiments contraires mais ce serait le chef-d'oeuvre d'un muet que de faire pouvoir en pareil cas nous mettre au fait des mouvements opposés qui l'agitent.'
Andromache and Pyrrhus was painted in 1732 and therefore dates from Coypel's maturity. T. Lefrançois notes that Coypel was influenced by both Venetian and Flemish painting and that his use of bold juxtapositions of color, such as pale pink and almond green, can be traced to that influence.
The present painting was recorded in Mrs Brooks' posthumous sale in 1877, with a pendant described as Scène tirée de Zaïre, dated 1729 (see T. Lefrançois, op. cit., p. 265, P. 109 and p. 355, P. 258). Lefrançois has suggested that this pendant could be the Atalide and Roxane executed circa 1747-8 (now lost), which had been intended as a model for a series of tapestries called La Tenture de Dresde. Indeed in 1748, Coypel was commissioned by the French court to create 'une suite de tableaux de chevalet de sujets tirés des théatres tragiques' to serve as models to be given to the Gobelins factories. This series was duly executed and given as a gift to Marie Josèphe of Austria on the occasion of the marriage of her daughter to Louis XV's son. Coypel did not reuse the subject of Andromache but rather illustrated a scene from another Racine play, Bajazet, along with scenes from Alceste, Corneille's Rodogune and Molière's Psyché. It is possible that the present Andromache and Pyrrhus was originally conceived as part of an earlier series of tapestry designs after theatrical dramas.
The present painting illustrates a scene from Racine's tragedy Andromache. The tragic moment that Coypel depicts comes in Act III, Scene IV when Pyrrhus orders a soldier to take Astyanax, the two-year- old heir to the Trojan throne, away from his mother, Andromache, widow of the Trojan hero, Hector, who had been killed during the war with the Greeks. After the war, Andromache and Astyanax had been held prisoneer at the court of King Pyrrhus who had secretly fallen in love with Andromache. During the preceeding scenes, Pyrrhus had offered to marry Andromache and to raise Astyanax as their son; but the inconsolable widow would not betray her dead husband with a second union. Angry at Andromache's refusal, Pyrrhus decides to give the child to the Greeks to face certain death at their hands.
Coypel heightens the dramatic tension by depicting Andromache collapsing into the arms of her attendants as Pyrrhus emphatically instructs his soldier to take the child away. Although Coypel's use of vivid, dramatic gestures and expressions follows the example of his distinguished predecessors, Poussin and Lebrun, his decision to illustrate a scene from an actual play is rare in French history painting. In his famous speech before the Académie in 1749, entitled Discours sur le parallèle de l'éloquence et de la peinture, the artist gives an explanation of his intentions, 'Les acteurs que nous mettons sur la scène n'ont d'autre language que le geste et les mouvements opposés du visage. En parlant, il n'est point d'homme qui ne puisse aisément faire comprendre à quel point il est combattu par deux sentiments contraires mais ce serait le chef-d'oeuvre d'un muet que de faire pouvoir en pareil cas nous mettre au fait des mouvements opposés qui l'agitent.'
Andromache and Pyrrhus was painted in 1732 and therefore dates from Coypel's maturity. T. Lefrançois notes that Coypel was influenced by both Venetian and Flemish painting and that his use of bold juxtapositions of color, such as pale pink and almond green, can be traced to that influence.
The present painting was recorded in Mrs Brooks' posthumous sale in 1877, with a pendant described as Scène tirée de Zaïre, dated 1729 (see T. Lefrançois, op. cit., p. 265, P. 109 and p. 355, P. 258). Lefrançois has suggested that this pendant could be the Atalide and Roxane executed circa 1747-8 (now lost), which had been intended as a model for a series of tapestries called La Tenture de Dresde. Indeed in 1748, Coypel was commissioned by the French court to create 'une suite de tableaux de chevalet de sujets tirés des théatres tragiques' to serve as models to be given to the Gobelins factories. This series was duly executed and given as a gift to Marie Josèphe of Austria on the occasion of the marriage of her daughter to Louis XV's son. Coypel did not reuse the subject of Andromache but rather illustrated a scene from another Racine play, Bajazet, along with scenes from Alceste, Corneille's Rodogune and Molière's Psyché. It is possible that the present Andromache and Pyrrhus was originally conceived as part of an earlier series of tapestry designs after theatrical dramas.