Lot Essay
A study related to the background figure of La Chasse à l'Ours, one of a series of eight pictures known as Les Chasses en Pays Etrangers commissioned between 1735 and 1739 by the young King Louis XV to decorate the walls of La Petite Galerie, one of the main rooms of the King's new private apartments, opened only to his most intimate friends, and a refuge from the official life at court. The gallery was designed as a room of moderate dimensions with a low ceiling and dormer windows opening onto the Cour de Marbre. The walls were panelled with elaborate wood carving now attributed to Jacques Verbercht, designed to frame the shaped canvases. The appearance of the gallery must have been one of great luxury and originality. Because of the low ceiling, 2.72 meters, the pictures were hung 60 centimeters from the floor, placing most of the compositions below eye level. The effect was one of striking immediacy which gave the visitor the impression of witnessing the hunt from the same viewpoint as that of the rider in the midst of Hallali. The present drawing shows a rider appearing in the composition near the horizon line, and would have been one of the details immediately noticeable to the visitor, which explains the attention paid by van Loo to that relatively small figure.
The King was a keen hunter. The series of paintings reflected this interest, yet rather than commission artists who specialized in that genre, such as Desportes or Oudry, the King called upon the talents of history painters, some celebrated like de Troy, but others much younger and inexperienced, such as Boucher and van Loo. For Boucher La Chasse au Tigre was his second royal commission and for van Loo who had just been received into the Academy on 30 July 1735, La Chasse à l'Ours, which he completed in March 1736, was his first. Both Boucher and Carle van Loo were so successful with their respective Chasses that each was commissioned in 1738 to to reproduce another picture, Boucher La Chasse au Crocodile and van Loo La Chasse de l'Autruche. A common source of inspiration for all the artists who took part in the cycle were the prints by Antonio Tempesta, most of which depict riders on rearing horses similar to the one in the present drawing. This explains the oriental touch of the costume while the fur alludes to the cold climate in which the bears live.
The King was a keen hunter. The series of paintings reflected this interest, yet rather than commission artists who specialized in that genre, such as Desportes or Oudry, the King called upon the talents of history painters, some celebrated like de Troy, but others much younger and inexperienced, such as Boucher and van Loo. For Boucher La Chasse au Tigre was his second royal commission and for van Loo who had just been received into the Academy on 30 July 1735, La Chasse à l'Ours, which he completed in March 1736, was his first. Both Boucher and Carle van Loo were so successful with their respective Chasses that each was commissioned in 1738 to to reproduce another picture, Boucher La Chasse au Crocodile and van Loo La Chasse de l'Autruche. A common source of inspiration for all the artists who took part in the cycle were the prints by Antonio Tempesta, most of which depict riders on rearing horses similar to the one in the present drawing. This explains the oriental touch of the costume while the fur alludes to the cold climate in which the bears live.