Phillippe Jacques de Loutherbourg, R.A. (Strasbourg 1740-1812 London)

A view of a castle with a herdsman, his sheep, goats and a donkey

Details

Phillippe Jacques de Loutherbourg, R.A. (Strasbourg 1740-1812 London)
A view of a castle with a herdsman, his sheep, goats and a donkey
signed and dated ' P·I·Loutherbourg·1764·' (lower left)
oil on canvas
22 5/8 x 25 ¼ in. (55 x 64.2 cm.)

Provenance

Anonymous sale [R.M. Napier-Kerr]; Christie's, London, 22 November 1926, no. 27 (28 gns. to Visman).
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 8 December 1965, lot 67 (£650).
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 22 February 1967, lot 82 (£ 380 to the following),
with Leger Galleries, London, where acquired in February 1971 by the father of the present owner.

Literature

G. de Batz, "Masterpieces and the Artist", The Connoisseur, CXLIX (1962), p. 274, no. 3, p. 273, ill. no. 3.
E. Bukdahl, Diderot critique d’art. I. Théorie et pratique dans les Salons de Diderot, Copenhagen, 1982, M130.
O. Lefeuvre, Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg 1740-1812, Paris, 2012, p. 193, no. 26, unknown location.

Exhibited

(Possibly) Paris, Paris de Salon, 1765, no. 140 (according to labels on the reverse).
Baltimore, John Hopkins University, Landscape Painting from Patinir to Hubert Robert, 1941, no. 66.
London, Kenwood, Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg, 1740-1812, 1973, no. 4.

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Lot Essay

Both the brilliant, crisp colours as well as the compositional ideas - such as the herd in the foreground with an undulating landscape in the middleground - recall 17th century Dutch landscapes which Loutherbourg often looks back to. The medieval castle, with the squared tower flanked by lancets with broken arches and a high pointed roof, is a distinct French component in the picture. Loutherbourg paints here the medieval castle for the first time, it will then become a successful and recurrent element, especially in his paintings of 1767.

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