A bust of Minerva, armour, muskets, a drum, a standard, the baton of command of a Maréchal de France, a laurel wreath and the Orders of Saint-Louis and of the Saint-Esprit, all on a stone ledge

Details

Anne Vallayer-Coster (Paris 1744-1818)
A bust of Minerva, armour, muskets, a drum, a standard, the baton of command of a Maréchal de France, a laurel wreath and the Orders of Saint-Louis and of the Saint-Esprit, all on a stone ledge
signed and dated 'Mlle. Vallayer 1777' (lower left)
oil on canvas
44 7/8 x 62½ in. (114 x 158.7 cm.)

Provenance

Madame Vissitier, by whom lent to the 1777 Salon.
Vicomte G. Chabert; Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 5 June 1909, lot 12.
Acquired by Georges Sortais, Paris, in 1776, with its pendant Still life with porcelain vase, marine plants, shells, and various mineralogical specimens.
Anonymous sale; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 9 June 1923, lot 15.
Madame Potin; Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 22 April 1929, lot 25 (25,000 francs).
Marcel Midy.
Anonymous sale; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 7 March 1941, lot 15 (22,000 francs).
Anonymous sale; Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 15 December 1959, lot 30 (1,100,000 francs).
with Wildenstein, New York, until 1968, when acquired by
James Ling, Dallas, Texas.
LTV Steel Corporation, Dallas, Texas.
Mr. Rege Gold, DuBois, Pennsylvania.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 9 July 1993, lot 45, when acquired by the present owner (£119,100).

Literature

Lettres pittoresques à l'occasion des tableaux exposés au Salon en 1777, chez Gueffier, Paris, 1777, 7th letter (collection Deloynes, no. 190, pp. 35-6).
L. Bachaumont, Mémoires secrets pour servir à l'histoire de la République des Lettres en France depuis 1762 jusqu'à nos jours, London, 1777-1789.
E. Dacier, Catalogue de ventes et livrets de Salons illustrés par Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, Paris 1909-1921, IV, pp. 20-1, illustrated.
J. Seznec and Jean Adhémar, eds., Denis Diderot. Les Salons, Paris, 1967, IV, Salons de 1769, 1771, 1775, 1781, p. 201.
M. Faré, La Nature Morte en France. Son histoire et son évolution du XVIIe au XX siècle, Geneva, 1962, I, p. 222; II, pl. 426.
M. Roland Michel, Anne Vallayer Coster, Paris, 1970, pp. 187-8, no. 264.
M. and F. Faré, La Vie Silencieuse en France. La nature morte au XVIIIe siècle, Fribourg and Paris, 1976, pp. 223, 229, and pl. 356.
C. Grimm, Natures Mortes italiennes, espagnoles et francaises' 1996, p. 79, illustrated.
E. Kahng and M. Roland Michel, Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette, Dallas Museum of Art, 2002, p. 203, no. 44.

Exhibited

Paris, Salon, 1777, no. 101
Paris, Galerie Heim, Hommage à Chardin, 6 June-10 July 1959, no. 84 and pl. 38.
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Women Artists, 1550-1950, 21 December 1976-13 March 1977, no. 54 (catalogue by A. Sutherland Harris and L. Nochlin).

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 17.5% on the buyer's premium.

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Lot Essay

The present picture was sketched by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin in his copy of the livret of the 1777 Salon (see Roland Michel, op. cit., illustrated on p. 66). It was exhibited with a pendant, also sketched by Saint-Aubin, showing 'un vase de porcelaine de la Chine, avec plantes marines, coquillages & différents espèce de minéraux'. This remained with the present painting until the Pontin Sale of 1929. Known from an old photograph by Faré, op. cit., 1976, p. 228, pl. 352, that picture remained untraced until its sale at Sotheby's, Monaco, 21 June 1991, lot 151 (FF 1,900,000), when it was found to be dated 1776 (and presumably to have been reduced in width).

The pictures submitted by Vallayer-Coster to the Salon of 1777 were particularly well received by the critics, Bachaumont writing, 'Mlle Vallayer dont le pinceau sûr et fidèle s'est soumis tous les objets de la nature inanimée. Mais après ce triomphe, elle court à de plus considérables' (loc. cit), and the anonymous author of the Lettres pittoresques, noting that 'cette aimable artiste a embelli le Salon de très jolis tableaux' (loc. cit).

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