A satyr holding up a drapery

Details

AFTER MICHEL DORIGNY (SAINT-QUENTIN 1617-1665 PARIS)
A satyr holding up a drapery
with inscription ‘Etude pour les Bains de l’Hotel de Lambert [crossed out]’ and ‘Le Sueur’ (on the mount)
black and red chalk, pastel, on light brown paper
12 1⁄2 x 11 in. (32 x 20 cm)

Provenance

Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d’Argenville (1680-1765), Paris (L. 2951, with his number ‘No. 2707’ and inscription ‘Le Sueur’); Paris, 18 January 1779, lot 349 (as Eustache Le Sueur).
George Usslaub (1845-1929), Marseille (L. 1221); Paris, 12-13 November 1929, part of lots 314 or 315.
Anonymous sale; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 21 October 1983, lot 10 (as Charles de la Fosse).
Louis-Antoine Prat, Paris, acquired in 1983; Christie’s, New York, 30 January 1998, lot 181.

Literature

P. Rosenberg, ‘The Present Status of 17th Century French Drawings’, in W. Strauss and T. Felker, Drawings Defined, New York, 1987, p. 357, fig. 4.
J. Labbé and L. Bicart-Sée, La collection de dessins d'Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d'Argenville, Paris, 1996, no. 2707 (as Michel Dorigny).

Exhibited

New York, National Academy of Design, Forth Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, Masterful Studies. Three Centuries of French Drawings from the Prat Collection, 1990-1991, no. 11 (as ‘Michel Dorigny’).

Conditions of sale

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Elizabeth Seigel Vice President, Specialist, Head of Private and Iconic Collections

eseigel@christies.com +1 212 484 4812

Lot Essay

This study of a satyr is made after a painted decoration by Michel Dorigny flanking the central medallion on the ceiling in the alcove room of the Hôtel de Lauzun on Paris's Île Saint-Louis. The satyr seen in the drawing is seen near the Sleep of Endymion, watched over by Diana (R. Boulhares and M. Scoléranski, L’Hôtel de Lauzun, Vottem, 2015, p. 142, ill.). Dorigny's decoration dates from the same time as the construction of the hôtel particulier, between 1657 and 1658 (B. Brejon de Lavergnée, ‘Contribution à la connaissance des décors peints à Paris et en Île-de-France au XVIIe siècle. Le Cas de Michel Dorigny’, Bulletin de la Société d’Histoire de l’Art français, Paris, 1982, pp. 69-84).

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