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Lot Essay
One of the present pair of tableaux is found in the overtime payment records or travaux extraordinaires of 1776 for Charles Nicolas Dodin, described as Tableau, sujet Tesnier, 360 livres. The second plaque was likely painted during regular hours. It is interesting to compare the price paid Dodin for this plaque with that paid Micaud two years earlier for the pair offered as lot 80 in the present sale.
Nicolas Charles Dodin (1734-1803) is today recognized as the finest painter en miniature working at Vincennes and Sèvres in the 18th century. Hired in 1754 as a figure painter at a salary of 24 livres per month, he first worked in monochrome, faithfully copying the engravings by Aveline, de la Rue and Huquier of putti painted by François Boucher. Once confident of his technique, he quickly moved on to full color, and to the detailed scenes on which his reputation is based. His skill was recognized by the managers at the factory, and Dodin was called upon time and time again to decorate pieces destined for the most important collectors of the day including Louis XV, his two mistresses Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry, Louis XVI, his two brothers - Louis Stanislas Xavier, comte de Provence (later Louis XVIII) and Charles Philippe, comte d'Artois (later Charles X), and Catherine the Great, empress of all the Russias.
Porcelain painted after paintings by the Flemish painter David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690) were particularly popular at Sèvres between 1758 and 1764. Thus, the present pair of plaques are late in date for this body of work, possibly an indication that they were a special commission. These scenes were most often taken from engravings by Jacques Philippe Le Bas after the Teniers paintings, published as La quatrième fête flamande and Fête de village.
A Dodin specialty was the painting of tableaux, porcelain plaques conceived as paintings, intended to be hung on the wall. Over fifty have been identified, the earliest dated 1761. Although most were based on engravings, some were based directly on paintings or other sources. Dodin painted two from a set of nine tableaux based on tapestry cartoons by Jean Baptiste Oudry depicting scenes from a royal hunt, ordered by Louis XVI in 1779 and delivered to the king 3 January 1882 at a monumental cost of 24,000 livres. They currently hand in the dining room at Versailles.
The following year, Dodin executed his largest plaque, that depicting Renaud and Annide after the painting by Boucher. Signed at the bottom d'àpres F.Boucher Dodin en 1783 - an indication of the high regard in which the artist must have held this painting. One of his last works, it was mounted into a table presented in 1786 by Louis XVI to Albert, duke of Saxe-Teschen. Remounted into a secretary by the noted cabinet maker Bernard Molitor, it can be found today at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California.
For detailed discussion of Dodin's oeuvre, see Marie-Laure de Rochebrune, "A propos de quelques plaques de porcelain tender de Sèvres peintes par Charles Nicolas Dodin'', Bulletin de la Socièté de l'histoire de l'art français, année 1998-1999, June 2000, pp. 105-130 and ''Charles Nicolas Dodin, miniature painter at Vincennes-Sèvres'', The Magazine Antiques, October 2000, pp. 524-533
Nicolas Charles Dodin (1734-1803) is today recognized as the finest painter en miniature working at Vincennes and Sèvres in the 18th century. Hired in 1754 as a figure painter at a salary of 24 livres per month, he first worked in monochrome, faithfully copying the engravings by Aveline, de la Rue and Huquier of putti painted by François Boucher. Once confident of his technique, he quickly moved on to full color, and to the detailed scenes on which his reputation is based. His skill was recognized by the managers at the factory, and Dodin was called upon time and time again to decorate pieces destined for the most important collectors of the day including Louis XV, his two mistresses Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry, Louis XVI, his two brothers - Louis Stanislas Xavier, comte de Provence (later Louis XVIII) and Charles Philippe, comte d'Artois (later Charles X), and Catherine the Great, empress of all the Russias.
Porcelain painted after paintings by the Flemish painter David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690) were particularly popular at Sèvres between 1758 and 1764. Thus, the present pair of plaques are late in date for this body of work, possibly an indication that they were a special commission. These scenes were most often taken from engravings by Jacques Philippe Le Bas after the Teniers paintings, published as La quatrième fête flamande and Fête de village.
A Dodin specialty was the painting of tableaux, porcelain plaques conceived as paintings, intended to be hung on the wall. Over fifty have been identified, the earliest dated 1761. Although most were based on engravings, some were based directly on paintings or other sources. Dodin painted two from a set of nine tableaux based on tapestry cartoons by Jean Baptiste Oudry depicting scenes from a royal hunt, ordered by Louis XVI in 1779 and delivered to the king 3 January 1882 at a monumental cost of 24,000 livres. They currently hand in the dining room at Versailles.
The following year, Dodin executed his largest plaque, that depicting Renaud and Annide after the painting by Boucher. Signed at the bottom d'àpres F.Boucher Dodin en 1783 - an indication of the high regard in which the artist must have held this painting. One of his last works, it was mounted into a table presented in 1786 by Louis XVI to Albert, duke of Saxe-Teschen. Remounted into a secretary by the noted cabinet maker Bernard Molitor, it can be found today at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California.
For detailed discussion of Dodin's oeuvre, see Marie-Laure de Rochebrune, "A propos de quelques plaques de porcelain tender de Sèvres peintes par Charles Nicolas Dodin'', Bulletin de la Socièté de l'histoire de l'art français, année 1998-1999, June 2000, pp. 105-130 and ''Charles Nicolas Dodin, miniature painter at Vincennes-Sèvres'', The Magazine Antiques, October 2000, pp. 524-533