THE PROPERTY OF A CORPORATION
Louise Moillon (1610-1696)

Details
Louise Moillon (1610-1696)

Peaches and Grapes in a blue and white Chinese Porcelain Bowl on a Ledge

signed and dated 'Louyse Moillon . 1634'

on panel

19¼ x 25¼in. (48.8 x 64.2cm.)
Provenance
(Probably) King Charles I, The Cabinet Room, Whitehall, by 1639 and by inheritance to Mrs. Hughes (see note below)
Anon. Sale, Sotheby's, 22 Feb. 1961, lot 76 (#5,700 to Leonard Koetser) with Leonard Koetser, London (Spring Exhibition of Fine Flemish, Dutch and Italian Old Masters, 1 May-1 June 1961, pp.34-5, no.16, illustrated in colour)
Prince Littler; (+) Christie's, 8 July 1977, lot 54 (#90,000)
with Richard Green, London (Exhibition of Old Master Paintings, 1977, p.30, no.13, illustrated in colour p.31 and on cover)
Anon. Sale, Sotheby's, 5 July 1989, lot 6
Literature
(Probably) O. Millar, Abraham van der Doort's Catalogue of the Collections of Charles I, The Walpole Society, XXXVII, 1960, p.160, no.3
M. Faré, La Nature Morte en France, 1962, II, pl.39
M. Faré, Le Grand Siècle de la Nature Morte en France. Le XVIIe Siècle, 1974, p.60, fig.2
C. Wright, The French Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 1985, p.233

Lot Essay

Sir Oliver Millar pointed out before Leonard Koetser's exhibition of 1961 that the present picture is probably one of the four by the artist owned by Charles I. Apparently, before the 1961 sale the painting had been owned by a Mrs. Hughes, who had inherited it from her grandfather. His parent, Richard Leeson, had married Benjamina Strahan, a descendant of Charles II through George Scott, Lord of Logie. The painting could have remained in the royal collection during the Commonwealth or have been one of those repurchased at the Restoration. It fits the description of a picture recorded by Abraham van der Doort, the Keeper of the Cabinet Room, in his inventory of the contents of the Cabinet Room in the Privy Gallery at Whitehall, completed by 1639: 'Item an other peece of grapes and peach - and vine leaves uppon a Stone table. done by A ffrenchwoeman in ffraunc Called . Lousea Mullon:', annotated 'baeht bij te king bij M persis mans' (Windsor MS, folio 156, see O. Millar, loc. cit.)

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