Lot Essay
The son and pupil of the painter François de Troy, Jean-François entered the Académie Royale in 1708, quickly establishing a reputation as one of the leading fashionable painters to the Parisian élite. Though frequently painting ‘tableaux de mode’ (modern genre paintings), de Troy specialised as a history painter, of which his Danaë is an especially seductive and vibrant example.
The artist had painted a version of the subject a few years before this picture in circa 1712-1714, which was later sold as part of the Pierre Crozat collection in Paris in 1751 as a pendant to The Judgement of Paris (Sotheby’s, New York, 8 June 2007, lot 260), and now only known from an engraving. The present picture demonstrates a more careful and considered composition however, utilising the canvas’ upright format to convey a more dynamic depiction of the shadowy curtains and furniture contrasted with the bright light emanating from Zeus, disguised as the glittering shower of gold, descending on the reclining princess. The picture was probably intended as the pendant to a now lost painting of Jupiter and Semele, recorded in an engraving by Claude Duflos, which similarly shows the naked Semele, partially covered by a richly embroidered cloth, reclining on a bed. As scenes of Jupiter’s amorous exploits, both subjects afforded the painter opportunity for depicting a seductive female nude in a sensuously furnished and draped bedroom interior.
The pose of de Troy’s Danaë is echoed in his 1727 Lot and his Daughters, now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Orléans and appears, with various modifications, throughout many of the history paintings for which he became so renowned during his lifetime.
The artist had painted a version of the subject a few years before this picture in circa 1712-1714, which was later sold as part of the Pierre Crozat collection in Paris in 1751 as a pendant to The Judgement of Paris (Sotheby’s, New York, 8 June 2007, lot 260), and now only known from an engraving. The present picture demonstrates a more careful and considered composition however, utilising the canvas’ upright format to convey a more dynamic depiction of the shadowy curtains and furniture contrasted with the bright light emanating from Zeus, disguised as the glittering shower of gold, descending on the reclining princess. The picture was probably intended as the pendant to a now lost painting of Jupiter and Semele, recorded in an engraving by Claude Duflos, which similarly shows the naked Semele, partially covered by a richly embroidered cloth, reclining on a bed. As scenes of Jupiter’s amorous exploits, both subjects afforded the painter opportunity for depicting a seductive female nude in a sensuously furnished and draped bedroom interior.
The pose of de Troy’s Danaë is echoed in his 1727 Lot and his Daughters, now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Orléans and appears, with various modifications, throughout many of the history paintings for which he became so renowned during his lifetime.