The Holy Family, in a feigned oval

Details

Noël Hallé (Paris 1711-1781)
The Holy Family, in a feigned oval
oil on canvas
24 x 19½ in. (61 x 49.5 cm.)

Provenance

Acquired by René Küss in 1955 from a Paris dealer, as Fragonard.

Literature

N. Willk-Brocard, Une Dynastie Les Hallé, Paris, 1995, p. 386, no. 56, illustrated p. 123.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

An autograph version of Hallé's Holy Family in the Hermitage (no. 5466), Willk-Brocard (loc.cit.) notes how this picture is 'très librement esquissée' and how it 'séduit par son coloris clair, par sa grâce, sa douceur, et l'attachement des parents qui ont les yeux rivés sur l'Enfant'. She goes on to point out that the youthful model used for the Virgin is certainly the artist's wife, Geneviève Lorry, whom he had married in 1751, when she was 18 years old, and dates the picture to circa 1753-5.

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