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Lot Essay
This impressive canvas, known for years only through an engraving published by Jean-Baptiste Lebrun, is a characteristic painting by Gérard de Lairesse. Opulently staged, elegantly drawn and finely colored, Lairesse’s scene teems with life and energy and is painted with the smooth, polished finish and cool, clear coloring inspired by his study of contemporary masters of the French Baroque, notably Nicolas Poussin, Pierre Mignard and Charles Le Brun.
Considered by Alain Roy (loc. cit.) to be an important work within Lairesse's oeuvre, he dates it to circa 1667-70 by comparison with works such as the Golden Age (Potsdam, Sanssouci) and Apollo and the Muses (St. Petersburg, Hermitage). A drawing after the picture (pen and wash; 29.1 x 38 cm.) is in the Staatliche Museen, Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (inv. no/ 13118). This painting was also highly regarded by Lebrun as evidenced by the following erudite description of this painting written by Denis Coeckelberghs for the Lebrun catalogue:
‘The atmosphere is serene, imbued with the grace of the central figure, whose pearly complexions, like the nymph with cymbals behind her and the putto lying beside her, are bathed in bright light. While the light shimmers on the female nudes, it also skillfully brings out the figures in the background, giving rise to subtle interplays of light and shadow that allow the painter to play with the rendering of flowers, vases, dishes, lyres, cloth and stone tables, all pretexts for the right-hand lower section of the painting. In this work, Gerard de Lairesse, in full possession of his means, shows himself to be a particularly virtuoso artist’ (A. Roy, loc. cit., p. 217).
Beyond painting, Lairesse excelled in art theory, music, poetry, and theater. Born in Liège, he initially trained under his father, the painter Renier de Lairesse. He worked in Cologne and Aix-la-Chapelle for Maximilian Henry of Bavaria from 1660. Lairesse then settled in Utrecht until, at the encouragement of the art dealer Gerrit van Uylenburgh, he moved to Amsterdam. It was around this time that his portrait was painted by Rembrandt van Rijn (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 1975.1.140). Throughout his career, Lairesse demonstrated a particular fondness for classical subject matter which culminated in a series of seven paintings with subjects from the history of the Roman Republic painted for the civil council chamber of the Hof van Holland at the Binnenhof (fig. 1).
Considered by Alain Roy (loc. cit.) to be an important work within Lairesse's oeuvre, he dates it to circa 1667-70 by comparison with works such as the Golden Age (Potsdam, Sanssouci) and Apollo and the Muses (St. Petersburg, Hermitage). A drawing after the picture (pen and wash; 29.1 x 38 cm.) is in the Staatliche Museen, Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (inv. no/ 13118). This painting was also highly regarded by Lebrun as evidenced by the following erudite description of this painting written by Denis Coeckelberghs for the Lebrun catalogue:
‘The atmosphere is serene, imbued with the grace of the central figure, whose pearly complexions, like the nymph with cymbals behind her and the putto lying beside her, are bathed in bright light. While the light shimmers on the female nudes, it also skillfully brings out the figures in the background, giving rise to subtle interplays of light and shadow that allow the painter to play with the rendering of flowers, vases, dishes, lyres, cloth and stone tables, all pretexts for the right-hand lower section of the painting. In this work, Gerard de Lairesse, in full possession of his means, shows himself to be a particularly virtuoso artist’ (A. Roy, loc. cit., p. 217).
Beyond painting, Lairesse excelled in art theory, music, poetry, and theater. Born in Liège, he initially trained under his father, the painter Renier de Lairesse. He worked in Cologne and Aix-la-Chapelle for Maximilian Henry of Bavaria from 1660. Lairesse then settled in Utrecht until, at the encouragement of the art dealer Gerrit van Uylenburgh, he moved to Amsterdam. It was around this time that his portrait was painted by Rembrandt van Rijn (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 1975.1.140). Throughout his career, Lairesse demonstrated a particular fondness for classical subject matter which culminated in a series of seven paintings with subjects from the history of the Roman Republic painted for the civil council chamber of the Hof van Holland at the Binnenhof (fig. 1).