Lot Essay
This and the following lot are preparatory studies for the two mounted cavaliers in the Tancred and Clorinda of 1722, now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Besançon (fig. 1).
This picture was commissioned by one of the artist's most loyal friends and patrons, François Berger, Controleur général du Dauphiné. François Berger was a friend of the duc d'Antin, Directeur général des Bâtiments du Roi and, at the time, the most influential figure in the Arts. Guiffrey describes Berger as 'la voix du duc d'Antin et [qu]'il était regardé comme un oracle,' J. Guiffrey, Le duc d'Antin et Louis XV, Paris, 1869, p. 8. His patronage was vital to the young artist who, having won the Prix de Rome in 1721, had not been able to travel to Italy for lack of public funds to pay for his scholarship. In 1723, a year after the completion of Tancred and Clorinda, Berger made this trip possible, when together they travelled around Italy for seven months.
The artist received the commission in a most unusual way. According to the painter Nonnotte, 'the conditions were as new as they were flattering to the artist. These conditions were to give to M. Le Moyne for each month he would be working on the picture a sum of money, which would allow him to support himself in all of his expenses, giving him liberty to take as much time as he would regard it necessary and finally, on completion, a sum which would be in proportion to the merit of the work. Exalted by such generous terms, M. Le Moyne did spare neither time nor pain....On receiving the picture, M. Berger thought of decorating a whole cabinet with the artist's work', J. Gauthier, Donat Nonnotte: Vie de peintre François Le Moyne in Réunion des Sociétés des Beaux Arts des Départements, 1902, XXVI, p 510-40.
Le Moyne's preparatory drawings for this composition were much sought after by his contemporaries. A group of eleven studies appeared in an anonymous sale on 11 December 1758, which were acquired by Charles-Nicolas de Silvestre. J.D. Lempereur, to whom the present drawing and the two following lots belonged, had gathered 41 drawings by the artist, one of which, in the Louvre, is of similar quality to the present sheet and is a study for the standing man holding back Clorinda's horse in the painting. Another drawing bearing his collector's mark and sold at Christie's, London, 7 July 1992, lot 229, illustrated, is a study for the horseman in profile following Tancred. Two other drawings for this composition are known: one at the Galerie Cailleux in the late 1950s (J.-L. Bordeaux, François Le Moyne and his Generation, Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1984, no. D47), and another in the Polakovits Collection, now in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, exhibited at Princeton, Eighteenth-Century French Life Drawing, exhib. cat., 1977, no. 26, illustrated.
François Le Moyne was appointed Premier Peintre du Roi in 1736, a year before his suicide. The contents of his studio were then transferred to the Cabinet du Roi, now the département des Arts Graphiques at the Louvre, according to the tradition set by King Louis XIV on the death of Charles Le Brun. The Louvre remains the largest repository of drawings by the artist. However, only one drawing for the present composition, a first idea for the wounded soldier in the foreground, went into the royal collection at that time. Most of the preparatory studies for the picture had already been dispersed during the artist's lifetime.
The minute attention the artist paid to each pose inspired Comte de Caylus to pay this tribute to the artist: 'La belle distribution des groupes et la diversité des mouvements qu'il a sut donner au grand nombre de figures qu'exige un sujet de bataille, tel que celui-ci firent beaucoup d'honneur à son génie (The elegant distribution of groups together with the diversity of movement so skillfully given to the large number of figures which battle scenes require, has been achieved in such a way that it reflects with great honour on his genius), J.L. Bordeaux, op. cit., p. 33
This picture was commissioned by one of the artist's most loyal friends and patrons, François Berger, Controleur général du Dauphiné. François Berger was a friend of the duc d'Antin, Directeur général des Bâtiments du Roi and, at the time, the most influential figure in the Arts. Guiffrey describes Berger as 'la voix du duc d'Antin et [qu]'il était regardé comme un oracle,' J. Guiffrey, Le duc d'Antin et Louis XV, Paris, 1869, p. 8. His patronage was vital to the young artist who, having won the Prix de Rome in 1721, had not been able to travel to Italy for lack of public funds to pay for his scholarship. In 1723, a year after the completion of Tancred and Clorinda, Berger made this trip possible, when together they travelled around Italy for seven months.
The artist received the commission in a most unusual way. According to the painter Nonnotte, 'the conditions were as new as they were flattering to the artist. These conditions were to give to M. Le Moyne for each month he would be working on the picture a sum of money, which would allow him to support himself in all of his expenses, giving him liberty to take as much time as he would regard it necessary and finally, on completion, a sum which would be in proportion to the merit of the work. Exalted by such generous terms, M. Le Moyne did spare neither time nor pain....On receiving the picture, M. Berger thought of decorating a whole cabinet with the artist's work', J. Gauthier, Donat Nonnotte: Vie de peintre François Le Moyne in Réunion des Sociétés des Beaux Arts des Départements, 1902, XXVI, p 510-40.
Le Moyne's preparatory drawings for this composition were much sought after by his contemporaries. A group of eleven studies appeared in an anonymous sale on 11 December 1758, which were acquired by Charles-Nicolas de Silvestre. J.D. Lempereur, to whom the present drawing and the two following lots belonged, had gathered 41 drawings by the artist, one of which, in the Louvre, is of similar quality to the present sheet and is a study for the standing man holding back Clorinda's horse in the painting. Another drawing bearing his collector's mark and sold at Christie's, London, 7 July 1992, lot 229, illustrated, is a study for the horseman in profile following Tancred. Two other drawings for this composition are known: one at the Galerie Cailleux in the late 1950s (J.-L. Bordeaux, François Le Moyne and his Generation, Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1984, no. D47), and another in the Polakovits Collection, now in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, exhibited at Princeton, Eighteenth-Century French Life Drawing, exhib. cat., 1977, no. 26, illustrated.
François Le Moyne was appointed Premier Peintre du Roi in 1736, a year before his suicide. The contents of his studio were then transferred to the Cabinet du Roi, now the département des Arts Graphiques at the Louvre, according to the tradition set by King Louis XIV on the death of Charles Le Brun. The Louvre remains the largest repository of drawings by the artist. However, only one drawing for the present composition, a first idea for the wounded soldier in the foreground, went into the royal collection at that time. Most of the preparatory studies for the picture had already been dispersed during the artist's lifetime.
The minute attention the artist paid to each pose inspired Comte de Caylus to pay this tribute to the artist: 'La belle distribution des groupes et la diversité des mouvements qu'il a sut donner au grand nombre de figures qu'exige un sujet de bataille, tel que celui-ci firent beaucoup d'honneur à son génie (The elegant distribution of groups together with the diversity of movement so skillfully given to the large number of figures which battle scenes require, has been achieved in such a way that it reflects with great honour on his genius), J.L. Bordeaux, op. cit., p. 33