L'OISEAU PRISONNIER: A SHEPHERDESS BEING OFFERED A BIRD CAGE BY A YOUTH; AND LE DUO: A COUPLE MAKING MUSIC BY A TREE

Details

ATTRIBUTED TO LOUIS-JOSEPH LE LORRAIN (PARIS 1715-1759 ST PETERSBURG)
L'OISEAU PRISONNIER: A SHEPHERDESS BEING OFFERED A BIRD CAGE BY A YOUTH; AND LE DUO: A COUPLE MAKING MUSIC BY A TREE
oil on paper laid down on canvas
6 7/8 x 12½ in. (17.5 x 31.8 cm.)
in French Régence carved giltwood frames
a pair (2)

Provenance

Pierre Decourcelle; his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 29-30 May 1911, lots 27 and 28, as 'Jean-Baptiste Huet'.
Mrs. Orme Wilson, New York; Parke Bernet, New York, 25-26 March 1949, lots 354 and 355, as 'Jean-Baptiste Huet' ($1,200 each).
René Fribourg; (+) Sotheby's London, 26 June 1963, lot 99, as 'Jean-Baptiste Huet' (£3,000 to the Hon. Mrs A.E. Pleydell Bouverie).

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Born in 1856 into a family of novelists and art collectors, as well as being a well-known writer and journalist, Pierre Decourcelle was a prodigious collector of drawings, paintings and other works of art. His legendary 1911 sale in Paris included paintings by, among others, Chardin, Constable, Gainsborough, Fragonard, Tiepolo, Robert and Guardi, as well as nine drawings by Boucher, nine by Fragonard, eleven by Robert and two by Watteau. This interest in both media is synthesised in the present pair of delightful oil sketches on paper. Traditionally attributed to Jean-Baptiste Huet, tentative attributions for this pair have recently been made, on the basis of stylistic comparison, to Jean-Baptiste Pierre and, perhaps most convincingly, to Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain.

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