The Pierre Subleyras subscription
Editions Arthéna is preparing to publish a monograph dedicated to the painter Pierre Subleyras (1699-1749), by Nicolas Lesur, Art Historian.
This book will be released on November 15th, 2023 and pre-orders are open until November 11th, 2023.
This is a highly anticipated book since the memorable exhibition in 1987 at the Luxembourg Museum, which revealed to the public the work of the greatest painter of Rome in the 18th century.
Pierre Subleyras (1699-1749)
By Nicolas Lesur, Art Historian
Preface by Pierre Rosenberg of the French Academy, Honorary President-Director of the Louvre Museum
560 pages, 889 illustrations
ISBN : 978-2-903239-72-5
Publication date: 15 November 2023
Subscription price: €109
Offer valid until November 11, 2023, for individuals and institutions only Public sale price after this date: 139 €.
Public sale price after this date: 139 €.
About the Author
Nicolas Lesur graduated from HEC and the University of Paris-IV Sorbonne in history and art history.
He wrote the first monograph dedicated to Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre (1714-1789).
His research focuses on history painters and French academic institutions of the 18th century.
Pierre Subleyras (1699-1749)
Jeune homme drapé tenant une épée
Paris, musée du Louvre, département des Arts graphiques.
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre)/ Michel Urtado.
About Pierre Subleyras
(1699 – 1749)
Admirable portraitist, composing like no other to express religious sentiment, subtle draftsman and refined colorist, Pierre Subleyras was the greatest painter in Rome in the 18th century.
A native of Languedoc, he was trained in his father’s studio in Uzès, then in Toulouse by Antoine Rivalz. He arrived in Paris in 1726 where he won the Grand Prix of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture the following year.
This success earned him a scholarship to the French Academy in Rome where, for seven years, he completed his visual education in the company of the main representatives of the boiling generation of 1700. Protected by Princess Pamphili and by the French ambassador, the Duke of Saint-Aignan, he developed a language recognizable among all.
Upon leaving the Mancini Palace, he married the most famous miniaturist of his time, Maria Felice Tibaldi, and settled in Rome where he “entered the arena with a completely new style”. The exhibition of the immense Repast at Simon’s House, painted for the Regular Canons of the Lateran in 1737, earned him recognition throughout Rome.
Three years later, he again stood out among his Roman colleagues by painting the portrait of the new Pope Benedict XIV. The sovereign pontiff entrusted him with the prestigious commission of an altarpiece for Saint Peter’s, Saint Basil’s Mass. His success immediately earned him a transcription into mosaic.
Pierre Subleyras (1699-1749)
Saint Benoît ressuscitant un enfant
Rome, église Sainte-Françoise-Romaine
© DeAgostini Picture Library/ Scala Florence.
His brilliant career, crowned with success, was interrupted by illness at the height of a glory that promised to extend. His calm and solemn art is served by ochre reds, slate blues, and amber yellows, by deep whites and luminous blacks that belong only to him.
Pierre Subleyras (1699-1749)
Portrait assis du pape Benoît XIV
Chantilly, musée Condé.
© RMN-Grand Palais (domaine de Chantilly)
/ René-Gabriel Ojéda.