The Interior of the Royal Mint

Details

Gabriel-Jacques de Saint-Aubin* (1724-1780)
The Interior of the Royal Mint
black chalk
5 1/8 x 8½ in. (130 x 216 mm.)

Provenance

Sir Robert Abdy, Bt.
Dr. Francis Springell.
The Springell Collection; Sotheby's, London, 30 June 1986, lot 63 (£7,920).

Exhibited

London, Matthiesen Galleries, French Master Drawings of the 18th Century, 1950, no. 78.
London, P. & D. Colnaghi and Co. and elsewhere, Loan Exhibition of Drawings by Old Masters from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Francis Springell, 1959, no. 60.
Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, Old Master Drawings from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Francis Springell, 1965, no. 83.

Lot Essay

The attribution was confirmed by Suzanne Folds McCullagh who dates the drawing circa 1770. The Hotel de la Monnaie was one of the artist's favorite sketching places. Some of his most famous compositions, such as Le Cours du Chimiste Sage à la Monnaie were drawn here. The building designed by the architect Michel-Ange Gabriel was one of the most recent buildings in Saint Aubin's Paris.