Fabius Maximus and the Lucanian Soldier

Details

NICOLAS COLOMBEL (SOTTEVILLE-LÈS-ROUEN 1646-1717 PARIS)
Fabius Maximus and the Lucanian Soldier
oil on canvas
31 ½ x 45 in. (80 x 114.2 cm.)
signed and dated '.N.colombel.p.1704' (lower right, on the pedestal)

Provenance

(Possibly) Anonymous sale; Hôtel Bullion, Paris, 18-19 November 1822, lot 57, as Christophe Colombel.
Anonymous sale; Hôtel Bullion, Paris, 10 March 1823, lot 21.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 22 October, 1948, lot 173 (314 gns.).
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 14 March 1985, lot 135, where acquired by the present owner.

Literature

Liste des tableaux et des ouvrages de sculpture, exposez dans la grande Gallerie du Louvre, Paris, 1704, p. 25.
P. Marcel, La peinture française au début du dix-huitième siècle, 1690-1720, Paris, 1906, p. 191.
A. Blunt, ‘Nicolas Columbel’, Revue de l’art, no. 9, 1970, pp. 28 and 31, no. 12, illustrated.
K. Chastagnol, Nicolas Colombel vers 1644-1717, Paris and Rouen, 2012, pp. 77, 102, 154-155 and 217, no. P. 28, illustrated.

Exhibited

Paris, Salon du Musée central des Arts, 1704.

Sale room notice

Please note the subject of this painting has now been correctly identified as ‘Fabius Maximus and the Lucanian Soldier’. Please note the additional provenance and literature for this lot:

Provenance:
(Possibly) Anonymous sale; Hôtel Bullion, Paris, 18-19 November 1822, lot 57, as Christophe Colombel.
Anonymous sale; Hôtel Bullion, Paris, 10 March 1823, lot 21.

Literature:
Liste des tableaux et des ouvrages de sculpture, exposez dans la grande Gallerie du Louvre, Paris, 1704, p. 25.
P. Marcel, La peinture française au début du dix-huitième siècle, 1690-1720, Paris, 1906, p. 191.
A. Blunt, ‘Nicolas Columbel’, Revue de l’art, no. 9, 1970, pp. 28 and 31, no. 12, illustrated.
K. Chastagnol, Nicolas Colombel vers 1644-1717, Paris and Rouen, 2012, pp. 77, 102, 154-155 and 217, no. P. 28, illustrated.

Exhibited:
Paris, Salon du Musée central des Arts, 1704.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Taylor Alessio Junior Specialist, Head of Part II

talessio@christies.com +1 212 636 2295

Lot Essay

After studying initially under Pierre de Sévé in Paris, Nicolas Colombel traveled to Rome, where he encountered the works of Raphael and Poussin, whose classicism continued to shape his art throughout his career. He was elected to the Accademia di San Luca in 1686, but by 1693 had returned to Paris where, with the support of Pierre Mignard, he was received into the Académie Royale the following year. Following his exhibitions at the Salons of 1699 and 1704, Colombel became a professor in 1705.

This canvas is characteristic of Colombel’s late style, in which he upheld the academic tradition of the Poussinistes against the rising influence of the Rubénistes. Yet Colombel’s distinctive artistic personality emerges clearly in the work’s technical refinement and in his sensitive juxtaposition of strong, saturated colors.

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