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Lot Essay
The composition is of particular interest, showing as it does the influence of Rubens and Van Dyck on Coques' art. The pose of the male rider and his horse, performing a levade, was employed by Rubens for the first time in his Equestrian Portrait of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (1625-7; formerly Earl of Jersey, Osterley Park; destroyed by fire 1949); he more than once returned to it again himself, but its popularity in the Netherlands grew through his studio in the so-called Riding School (c. 1615; formerly Kaiser-Friedrich Museum, Berlin). Van Dyck was evidently aware of the type, having presumably seen the Buckingham portrait in London, and employing it himself in his Equestrian portrait of Prince Francis Thomas of Savoy-Carignano (1634-5; Turin, Galleria Sabauda).
If it is not possible to know whether Coques had a prototype by Rubens or Van Dyck in mind when he developed the present composition, the source for the pose of the female rider's horse is similarly uncertain. It had been current in Rubens' studio since Van Dyck's boyhood, and the former had employed it himself in his Equestrian portrait of the Duke of Lerma (1603, Madrid, Prado). Van Dyck used it in his Equestrian portrait of Anton Giulio Brignole-Sale (1627; Genoa, Galleria di Palazzo Rosso), his Equestrian Portrait of King Charles I with M. de St Antoine (1633; Royal Collection, Buckingham Palace) and again in his Equestrian portrait of Francisco de Moncada, Marqués de Aytona (1633/4; Paris, Louvre).
Coques evidently recognised the visual drama of the levade pose, using it again on more than one occasion in his career, including the Equestrian portrait of Louis II de Bourbon, the Grand Condé, as a boy of 1643-7 in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Brunswick. The compositional similarities, and also the similarly exotic feathered headgear of the female sitter, suggest that this picture may be contemporaneous with the Equestrian portrait of an elegant couple with their blackamoor servant offered for sale, Sotheby's, London, 8 December 2005, lot 139.
If it is not possible to know whether Coques had a prototype by Rubens or Van Dyck in mind when he developed the present composition, the source for the pose of the female rider's horse is similarly uncertain. It had been current in Rubens' studio since Van Dyck's boyhood, and the former had employed it himself in his Equestrian portrait of the Duke of Lerma (1603, Madrid, Prado). Van Dyck used it in his Equestrian portrait of Anton Giulio Brignole-Sale (1627; Genoa, Galleria di Palazzo Rosso), his Equestrian Portrait of King Charles I with M. de St Antoine (1633; Royal Collection, Buckingham Palace) and again in his Equestrian portrait of Francisco de Moncada, Marqués de Aytona (1633/4; Paris, Louvre).
Coques evidently recognised the visual drama of the levade pose, using it again on more than one occasion in his career, including the Equestrian portrait of Louis II de Bourbon, the Grand Condé, as a boy of 1643-7 in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Brunswick. The compositional similarities, and also the similarly exotic feathered headgear of the female sitter, suggest that this picture may be contemporaneous with the Equestrian portrait of an elegant couple with their blackamoor servant offered for sale, Sotheby's, London, 8 December 2005, lot 139.