Minerva wearing a Helmet

Details

JEAN-BAPTISTE-MARIE PIERRE (1713-1789)
Minerva wearing a Helmet
signed 'Pierre' (lower centre, with pen and brown ink)
black chalk and pastel on blue paper
12 x 8 7⁄8 in. (30.5 x 22.7 cm.)

Provenance

Louis Meier, London.
Ralph Holland (1917-2012), Newcastle, by whom acquired from the above in circa 1955, then by descent; sale, Sotheby’s, London, 5 July 2013, lot 319.
Acquired at the above sale.

Literature

N. Lesur, O. Aaron, Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre 1714-1789: Premier peintre du roi, Paris, 2009, p. 459, no. D.437 (as location unknown).
N. Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, London, 2006, online version, J. 591.134, ill.

Exhibited

Newcastle upon Tyne, Hatton Gallery, Old Master Drawings, From the XVIth to the XIXth century, 1960, no. 57.
Newcastle upon Tyne, Hatton Gallery, Old Master Drawings, 1964, no. 81.
Newcastle upon Tyne, Hatton Gallery, Italian and Other Drawings 1500-1800, 1974, no. 112.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Leo Webster Specialist

lwebster@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2013

Lot Essay

This drawing is one of a small group of pastels on blue paper executed by Pierre, devoted to expressive heads of young women inspired by Rosalba Carriera or of bearded old men. It may also be compared to the Head of an Old Man in Profile to the Right (Vienna, Graphische Sammlung Albertina, inv. 12.251; N. Lesur, O. Aaron, Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre (1714–1789): Premier peintre du roi, Paris, 2009, no. D.182), with which it shares a remarkable subtlety of execution: the same technique and the same blue paper.

This helmeted woman also recalls the Allegory of Strength, at the Council Cabinet of the Château de Fontainebleau in France (without inventory number; ibid., no. P.158), as well as the figure of Athena appearing in two scenes from the story of Odysseus (coll. part., Torino and Konstmuseum, Göteborg; ibid., nos. P.87 and P.88).

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