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Lot Essay
A study for one of the satyrs in a corner of the ceiling of the Chambre de Diane and Endymion in the Htel de Lauzun on the Ile Saint-Louis behind Notre-Dame, Paris. The house was built between 1656 and 1657 for Charles Gruyn des Bordes, an army supplier, and was decorated at no shortage of expense by Dorigny, Vouet's son in law. Soon after it was sold to the Duc de Lauzun, husband of the Grande Mademoiselle, King Louis XIV's cousin and the richest lady in the kingdom. It remained in his possession for only three years. After passing through various hands, it was bought in 1842 by the bibliophile Jrme Pichon, who rented a flat to Charles Baudelaire and Thophile Gautier. .
Recent work by Barbara Brejon de Lavergne has established that this uniquely well preserved decoration of the four rooms of the hotel was one of Dorigny's masterpieces, B. Brejon de Lavergne, 'Contributio la connaisance des dcors peints Paris et en Ile-de-France au XVIIe sicle: le cas de Michel Dorigny', in Bulletin de la Socit de l'Histoire de l'Art franais, 1982, pp. 69-84. Among the drawings kept in the Cholmondeley album at the Louvre are few studies for the ceiling of the Chambre de Diane and Endymion such as a drawing in black chalk of three putti, or another of two doves, B. Brejon de Lavergne, Simon Vouet, Inventaire general des dessins de l'ecole franais, Paris, 1987, n/f 228 and 229, illustrated. A compositional drawing in pen and ink for the central compartment is in the Muse d'Orleans, B. Brejon de Lavergne, op. cit, p. 24, illustrated. The ceiling, although composed of several decorative compartments, is painted as a continuous piece, an innovation imported from Italy around 1640. This scheme emphasizes the importance of the present sheet, which shows the artist's interest in illusionistic effects. A drawing of the head of the satyr, formerly given to Charles Le Brun, was sold at Sotheby's London, 27 April 1977, lot 13, not illustrated.
Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d'Argenville, who owned the drawing described it as follows in his Abrg de la vie des plus fameux peintres, 1762: 'Dans la maison du Prsident Lambert, l'appartement au deuxime tage appell les Bains, reprsente dans les angles de son plafond les divinits de la mer et des eaux...'. The drawing was sketched by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, in his copy of the Dezallier's sale catalogue of 1779, now in the Dutuit collection at the Petit Palais, Paris. Revealingly, the error of attribution by the amateur, who gave the sheet to Eustache Le Sueur, underlines the evolution of Dorigny's style from the art of Vouet to a more classical style closer to that of LeSueur.
Recent work by Barbara Brejon de Lavergne has established that this uniquely well preserved decoration of the four rooms of the hotel was one of Dorigny's masterpieces, B. Brejon de Lavergne, 'Contributio la connaisance des dcors peints Paris et en Ile-de-France au XVII
Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d'Argenville, who owned the drawing described it as follows in his Abrg de la vie des plus fameux peintres, 1762: 'Dans la maison du Prsident Lambert, l'appartement au deuxime tage appell les Bains, reprsente dans les angles de son plafond les divinits de la mer et des eaux...'. The drawing was sketched by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, in his copy of the Dezallier's sale catalogue of 1779, now in the Dutuit collection at the Petit Palais, Paris. Revealingly, the error of attribution by the amateur, who gave the sheet to Eustache Le Sueur, underlines the evolution of Dorigny's style from the art of Vouet to a more classical style closer to that of LeSueur.