Lot Essay
An early study for the central roundel in the ceiling of the Salon de la Guerre at Versailles painted by Charles Le Brun in 1686, C. Constans, Les Peintures du Château de Versailles, Paris, 1995, II, p. 550, no. 3080. The Salon de la Guerre and the Salon de la Paix are located at either end of the Grande Galerie and complete the iconographical scheme of the latter.
The iconography of the ceiling as painted is, however, more precise than that of the present sheet: beside the allegory of France three figures are holding canvases depicting Louis XIV's victories. Around this central roundel in the ceiling are four lunettes with Bellona and personifications of France's enemies in the Franco-Dutch war.
Most of the drawings in the artist's studio were claimed by the King at Le Brun's death. Two hundred sheets related to the two ceilings are now at the Louvre, leaving only a few sheets related to the commission in private hands. A drawing, similar in handling to the present study, for a lunette of the Salon de la Paix, is in the Louis-Antoine Prat collection, P. Rosenberg, Masterful Studies, Three Centuries of French Drawings from the Prat Collection, exhib. cat., National Academy of Design, New York, 1990, no. 25, illustrated.
A number of the Louvre drawings were exhibited in 1986, L. Beauvais and J.-F. Méjanès, Le Brun à Versailles, Paris, 1986, pp. 59-62, nos. 76-80, illustrated.
The iconography of the ceiling as painted is, however, more precise than that of the present sheet: beside the allegory of France three figures are holding canvases depicting Louis XIV's victories. Around this central roundel in the ceiling are four lunettes with Bellona and personifications of France's enemies in the Franco-Dutch war.
Most of the drawings in the artist's studio were claimed by the King at Le Brun's death. Two hundred sheets related to the two ceilings are now at the Louvre, leaving only a few sheets related to the commission in private hands. A drawing, similar in handling to the present study, for a lunette of the Salon de la Paix, is in the Louis-Antoine Prat collection, P. Rosenberg, Masterful Studies, Three Centuries of French Drawings from the Prat Collection, exhib. cat., National Academy of Design, New York, 1990, no. 25, illustrated.
A number of the Louvre drawings were exhibited in 1986, L. Beauvais and J.-F. Méjanès, Le Brun à Versailles, Paris, 1986, pp. 59-62, nos. 76-80, illustrated.