A trompe l'oeil bas-relief of a female faun with putti in a landscape

Details

ANNE VALLAYER-COSTER (PARIS 1744-1818)
A trompe l'oeil bas-relief of a female faun with putti in a landscape
signed 'M^lle Vallayer' (lower left) and dated '177[3]' (lower right)
oil on canvas
6 3⁄8 x 11 ½ in. (16.2 x 29.2 cm.)

Provenance

M. Bécherel, his sale; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 26 November 1883, lot 48.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, Monaco, 5 December 1991, lot 171A.
Karl Lagerfeld (1933-2019), Neuilly-sur-Seine, his sale; Christie's, New York, 23 May 2000, lot 65, where acquired by the present owner.

Literature

M. Roland-Michel, Anne Vallayer-Coster 1744-1818, Paris, 1970, p. 178, no. 242.
M. Roland-Michel, 'Mode ou imitiation: sculpture et peinture en trompe-l'oeil au XVIIIe siècle', Actes du colloque Clodion et la Sculpture française de la fin du XVIIIw siècle, Paris, 1993, p. 365, note 30.
E. Kang and M. Roland-Michel, Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie Antoinette, exhibition catalogue, Dallas, 2002, pp. 18, 199-200, no. 20, pl. 8.

Exhibited

Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; Dallas, Dallas Museum of Art; New York, The Frick Collection, Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie Antoinette, 30 June-22 September 2002; 13 October 2002-5 January 2003; 21 January-23 March 2003, no. 20.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

Marianne Roland-Michel suggested that this charming trompe l’oeil of a bas-relief, along with a second version painted the following year, is based on a terracotta sculpture by Claude Michel, known as Clodion (1970, loc. cit.). The sculpture was part of Anne Vallayer-Coster’s collection until her death and was sold in her estate sale in 1824 (see Paillet, Paris, 21 June 1824, lot 75). One of the two versions of the composition remained in the artist’s possession, which is typically believed to be the slightly later 1774 painting. Eik Kang and Roland-Michel note in their 2002 catalogue that it is ultimately impossible to determine which one of the two paintings remained in the artist's collection (loc. cit.).

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