Old masters:
the heavyweights

The Jacques Leegenhoek Gallery will be presenting a series of four seasons by David Teniers the Younger from a british private collection.

The belgian gallery Costermans & Pelgrims de Bigard will be presenting a small oil-on-panel by Marcellus Coffermans. The 16th century Flemish painter modernized the subject of “Christ descending into limbo” by borrowing monster-imagery from Hieronymus Bosch… the naked figures of the damned, the celestial glows and the infernal architecture in the background.

The Sarti Gallery will be offering an important set of italian paintings from the 14th to the 18th century, including a fascinating “Saint Jerome in the desert” by the Foligno painter, Bartolomeo di Tommaso (circa 1437). A red wax stamp attests to its past in the major collection of the German painter and draftsman Johann Anton Ramboux who was, during the first half of the 19th century, one of the most active protagonists in the rediscovery of 14th and 15th century italian art, particularly sienese art.

Among the 18th century paintings: at the Didier Aaron gallery, a charming “Portrait of a young girl” by Wertmüller, an illustrious figure among swedish artists in 18th century France.

The artist was the author of the emblematic painting “Portrait of Queen Marie-Antoinette and her children”, sent to Sweden in 1785, now hanging at the National museum in Stockholm, which earned him the jealousy of French artists, outraged that a royal portrait of this importance was entrusted to a foreigner! Wertmüller also executed several other bust portraits of the Queen.

This young girl, full of spirit, is also reminiscent of the portraits painted by Elisabeth Vigée le Brun, also a famous portraitist of Queen Marie-Antoinette and her children.

F. Baulme will be presenting a never-before-seen painting by Pietro Antonio Rotari, whose production remains poorly documented outside of his Saint-Petersburg period. Indeed our painting predates those he produced as official painter for the Russian court as of 1755. He bequeathed the works of his studio to the empress Catherine II who sent them to the Peterhof castle where they have remained until today.

Enrico Frascione will be offering a still-life by Bernardo Strozzi, an italian baroque painter from the Genoese school. From the 16th to the 18th century, Roman, Neapolitan, Genoese and milanese artists eagerly adopted the still-life genre to create dazzling masterpieces of finesse and naturalism, often rich in hidden meanings.

The Laocoon Apolloni gallery will be offering a drawing by Vivant Denon, artist, diplomat and director of the Louvre Museum at the beginning of the 19th century.

As part of their long love story, Vivant Denon produced several portraits of Countess Isabella Teotochi Albrizzi from life, or from works by other artists who had already portrayed her. This is the case with this drawing, executed using as a model the portrait that Vivant Denon himself commissioned from Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, exhibited today at the metropolitan museum in New York.

The portrait was so appreciated that it helped to define a true canon of female beauty during that period. Vivant Denon himself summarized the reasons for its exceptionality as follows: “it meets, in the same face, Greek finesse, italian passion and French friendliness”.

The Terrades Gallery will be presenting an oil-on-canvas by Pierre Subleyras, renowned for his great historical scenes, who also demonstrated an interest in portraiture, genre scenes and figure studies throughout his career.

These interests are amply manifest in his famous painting “The painter’s Studio” at the Vienna academy which shows on the right wall a series of paintings of half length figures.

The canvas presented by the Terrades gallery is part of a series of portraits of unnamed people and is exceptional both by the narrative content and by its dimensions, the female subjects being much rarer.