An Ancient Air

Details

Gaston de Latouche (French, 1854-1913)
An Ancient Air
signed 'Gaston La Touche/G. L.' (lower right)
oil on panel
45 x 30 in. (114 x 77 cm.)

Provenance

Mme Alexandre Andre, Paris.
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington.
Schweitzer Gallery, New York (as L'Air de Flute).
Acquired from the above by Robert Isaacson.
Anon. sale, Christie's, New York, 6 May 1999, lot 10.

Literature

Peintres d'aujourd'hui, Gaston de Latouche, no. 9, 1910, (illustrated).
H. Frantz, Gaston de Latouche, Paris, 1914, p. 20.
The Studio, Vol. XLIII, no.182, May 1908, p. 268 (illustrated).

Exhibited

Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 11-13 July, 1908, no. 196.
Paris, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, 1914, no. 688 (as L'Air Antique).

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium

Lot Essay

Roy Brindley and Selina Evans will include this painting in their forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné currently being prepared.

Is he remembering his chase of Syrinx, who so cleverly evaded his clutches at the very moment he grasped her, turning herself into reeds from which he fashioned his flute? Pan sits alone in this elegant Salon piping an 'Old Tune' and yearns for days gone by - he, who was of the retinue of Bacchus still lusts for the frenzied orgies peopled by Maenads, Satyrs and Bacchante. The monkey symbolises this lust by imitating his Master and turning the pages for him.
Latouche echoes the theme by placing the tondo painting, possibly by Tiepolo, on the wall above depicting an allegory of Venus escaping the embrace of Time.

More from 19TH CENTURY EUROPEAN ART

View All

View All