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Lot Essay
This Penitence of Saint Peter belongs to a small group of large-scale, half-length saints painted by Nicolas Tournier during his Roman years. The aged apostle clasps his hands in prayer and raises his tear-filled eyes heavenward, while the cock crows above him at upper right. On the stone ledge before him lie the keys of heaven, bound with a red ribbon. The subject—Peter's bitter repentance for having denied Christ three times before the cock crowed (Matthew 26:69-75)—was a favored theme among the Caravaggisti for its psychological charge and dramatic potential. The handling is characteristic of Tournier at his most assured: a rigorously simplified composition, the sculptural quality of the saint's clasped hands and weathered face, and the broken, almost geometric structure of the drapery folds.
Born in Montbéliard in 1590, Tournier is documented in Rome from 1619 to 1626 through the parish stati d'anime, sharing lodgings in the vicolo between via Condotti and via della Croce with the Liégeois painter Gérard Douffet (1594-1660) in 1619, and the following year with a 'Nicolò fiamengo' generally identified as Nicolas Régnier (1591-1667) (see J. Bousquet, 'Valentin et ses compagnons. Réflexions sur les caravagesques français à partir des archives paroissiales romaines', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, XCII, 1978, VI, pp. 101-114). As Gianni Papi has observed, Tournier’s relatively mature age when first documented in Rome (he was twenty-nine in 1619) leaves open the possibility that he had already been resident in the city for several years, perhaps from the early second decade (G. Papi, op. cit., 2003, p. 105).
The painting was first published as by Tournier by Gianni Papi in 2003, who knew it through a photograph supplied by the Compagnia di Belle Arti, Milan (the attribution had already been proposed by Arnauld Brejon de Lavergnée; G. Papi, op. cit., 2003, p. 107, fig. 47, and note 14). Papi grouped the present canvas with a Saint Andrew (formerly with Maurizio Nobile, Paris; fig. 1) as examples in which Tournier's sensitivity to Riberesque prototypes is most apparent—a tendency he sees as central to this group of later works, distinct from the artist's more strictly Manfredian production (G. Papi, op. cit., 2013, p. 44). Papi raised the possibility that the Saint Andrew may originally have formed part of a series of apostles, drawing comparison with Jusepe de Ribera's celebrated ‘Apostolado Cussida’ (ibid., p. 54, note 7).
We are grateful to Axel Hémery and Tommaso Borgogelli for independently endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs (written communications, 21 March and 10 April 2026, respectively). Dr. Hémery has further confirmed that the painting will be included in his forthcoming monograph on the artist.
Born in Montbéliard in 1590, Tournier is documented in Rome from 1619 to 1626 through the parish stati d'anime, sharing lodgings in the vicolo between via Condotti and via della Croce with the Liégeois painter Gérard Douffet (1594-1660) in 1619, and the following year with a 'Nicolò fiamengo' generally identified as Nicolas Régnier (1591-1667) (see J. Bousquet, 'Valentin et ses compagnons. Réflexions sur les caravagesques français à partir des archives paroissiales romaines', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, XCII, 1978, VI, pp. 101-114). As Gianni Papi has observed, Tournier’s relatively mature age when first documented in Rome (he was twenty-nine in 1619) leaves open the possibility that he had already been resident in the city for several years, perhaps from the early second decade (G. Papi, op. cit., 2003, p. 105).
The painting was first published as by Tournier by Gianni Papi in 2003, who knew it through a photograph supplied by the Compagnia di Belle Arti, Milan (the attribution had already been proposed by Arnauld Brejon de Lavergnée; G. Papi, op. cit., 2003, p. 107, fig. 47, and note 14). Papi grouped the present canvas with a Saint Andrew (formerly with Maurizio Nobile, Paris; fig. 1) as examples in which Tournier's sensitivity to Riberesque prototypes is most apparent—a tendency he sees as central to this group of later works, distinct from the artist's more strictly Manfredian production (G. Papi, op. cit., 2013, p. 44). Papi raised the possibility that the Saint Andrew may originally have formed part of a series of apostles, drawing comparison with Jusepe de Ribera's celebrated ‘Apostolado Cussida’ (ibid., p. 54, note 7).
We are grateful to Axel Hémery and Tommaso Borgogelli for independently endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs (written communications, 21 March and 10 April 2026, respectively). Dr. Hémery has further confirmed that the painting will be included in his forthcoming monograph on the artist.