Joseph-Marie Vien

LOT 135 VIEN, JOSEPH-MARIE CARAVANE DU SULTAN À LA MECQUE: MASCARADE TURQUE FAITE À ROME PAR MESSIEURS LES PENSIONNAIRES DE L'ACADÉMIE DE FRANCE ET LEURS AMIS AU CARNAVAL DE L'ANNÉE 1748. [PARIS, C.1749] Folio (368 x 255mm.), etched and engraved title and 31 etched plates (numbered 1–30 and one unnumbered), contemporary French red morocco gilt , arms of Louis-François-Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu et de Fronsac on covers (Olivier 407, fer 15), within gilt border of Richelieu’’s repeated motif of two crossed batons intertwined with an ornamental “R”, repeated with coronet within arabesques at the corners, spine gilt in compartments with same motif, some marginal dampstaining and foxing, binding rebacked retaining most of original spine, corners repaired

Joseph-Marie Vien (Montpellier 1716-1809 Paris) A reclining male nude oil on canvas 38½ x 51 7/8 in. (97.7 x 131.7 cm.) Private collection, Vichy. Anonymous sale; Maître Guy Laurent, Vichy, 12 May 2001, lot 108 (127,000 ff). Anonymous sale; Christie's, Paris, 24 June 2004, lot 111 (EURO 23,500). T. Gaehtgens and J. Lugand, Joseph-Marie Vien, Peintre du Roi, 1716-1809, Paris, 1988, p. 133, cat. no. 19a. This beautiful académie was executed by the young Vien during his apprenticeship in Rome, where he travelled in 1743 upon receiving the Prix de Rome. It is comparable in handling to the slightly smaller male académie by Vien that was owned by his fellow painter François Xavier Fabre and bequeathed by him to the Musée Fabre, Montpellier. Gaehtgens dates the present lot to c. 1745-1750.

LOT 207 JOSEPH-MARIE VIEN MONTPELLIER 1716 - 1809 PARIS A YOUNG WOMAN WATERING A POT OF FLOWERS, "LA JEUNEATHÉNIENNE" 120,000—180,000 USD measurements measurements note 28 1/4 by 24 3/8 in.; 72.4 by 61.5 cm. Description signed and dated center right: Vien, 1762 oval, oil on canvas PROVENANCE Commissioned by the Abbot of Breteuil;sale X..., 5 May 1900 sold for 325 francs (see Mireur, loc.cit. );Private Collection, France. EXHIBITED Salon, Paris, 1763, no. 30 (as "Une Femme qui arrofe un pot deFleurs") LITERATURE AND REFERENCES Livret du Salon de 1763 , no. 30, (see Collection deslivrets des anciennes expositions depuis 1673 jusqu'en 1800 ,ed. J. Guiffrey, Paris, 1869 – 1871, vol. XXII, p. 15, no.30);D. Diderot, Salons, ed. J. Adhémar et J. Seznec, Oxford1957-67, (1975), vol. I, pp. 165, 166, 210, 211;C-J. Mathon de la Cour, Lettres à Madame **sur les peintures lessculptures et les gravures, exposées dans le Sallon duLouvre en 1763 , Paris, 1763, p. 20;Mercure de France , October 1763, I, p. 191;H. Coziac, "Vien, sa vie et son oeuvre", in Revue de France ,Paris, 1865, p. 180ss;J. Locquin, La Peinture d'histoire en France de 1747 à 1785 ,Étude sur l'évolution des idées artistiques dans laseconde moitié du XVIII siècle , Paris 1912, reprinted 1978,pp.195 and 248;H. Mireur, Dictionnaire des Ventes d'Art faites en France et àl'étranger pendant les XVIIIme et XIXme siècles , Paris 1912,pp. 369;E. M. Bukdahl, Diderot, critique d'art , Copenhagen 1980,vol. I, p.77;T.W. Gaehtgens, J. Lugand, Joseph -Marie Vien. Peintre du Roi(1716-1809), Paris 1988, p. 174, cat. no. 191 (Oeuvre disparue),and p. 156, under no. 120. CATALOGUE NOTE This charming depiction of a young woman watering a pot offlowers had disappeared after its sale in 1900 and has onlyrecently come to light. Painted in 1762, it was exhibited thefollowing year at the Salon where it received a rapturousreception, most notably from the notoriously severe critic DenisDiderot who described it in the following glowing terms: Celui qui j'aime entre tous est la jeune innocente qui arroseson pot de fleurs. On ne la regarde pas longtemps sans devenirsensible. Ce n'est pas son amant, c'est son père ou sa mère qu'onvoudrait être. Sa tête est si noble ! Elle est si simple et siingénue ! Ah ! qui est-ce qui oserait lui tendre un piège?1He continued to describe it as "le tableau... le plus charmant".Another critic, Mathon de la Cour, found it equally compelling andalso described it as his favourite painting which, given itscompany that year (see below) is quite an accolade :Il y a un tableau de M. Vien, représentant une femme qui arrose desfleurs; c'est celui qui m'a fait le plus deplaisir.2 The composition was previously known only through a small ovalpreparatory oil sketch (see fig. 1), formerly in the collection ofVien's descendants and acquired by the Musée des Beaux-Arts inBéziers in 1963.3 That sketch has been dated byGaehtgens to circa 1755 on the basis of a comparison with otherworks from that date, in particular the Prêtesse brodant pourl'ornement d'un temple (also Béziers, Musée des Beaux-Arts)which is a preparatory sketch for the painting exhibited at theSalon in 1755.4 If Gaehtgens' dating of the sketch iscorrect then it must have remained in the Vien workshop until 1762when the artist revisited it. Either that, or Gaehtgens' dating iswrong and it was executed circa 1762, which is equallyplausible. Vien began his career in the studio of Charles-Joseph Natoire in1740 and, after winning the Prix de Rome in 1743, went to study atthe Académie de France in Rome until 1750. History and religiouspainting dominated these years but after 1750, with his return toFrance, Vien adopted a growing interest in the Baroque and, inparticular, the work of early 17th century Bolognesepainters such as Guido Reni, whose interest in nature and theantique he shared. Encouraged by the existing taste in the 1760sfor charming, undemanding antique subjects, for a few years Vienproduced a number of works, many of them à la grecque , thatseem to reject the formal classicising works of his past andinstead project a poetic expressiveness, a delicacy and asimplicity which mirror the work of such artists as Jean-BaptisteGreuze. During this time, Vien frequented many private salons, notablythat of the famed Mme. Geoffrin who on a weekly basis received thegreat connoisseurs and collectors of the day, including the Comtede Caylus and the Duc d'Orléans. It was presumably in one suchsalon shortly after 1760 that the Abbé de Breteuil encountered Vienand commissioned the present work. It was exhibited at the Salon of1763 alongside seven other works à la grecque , all but oneof the same dimensions, and all of which had been bought orcommissioned by famous amateurs; in addition to the presentJeune Athénienne were Les Quatre Saisons , whichbelonged to Mme. Geoffrin herself, M. de Julienne's LaGlycère , and the Duc d'Orléans' La Jeune Circassienne aubain ; the eighth work was La Marchande d'Amours , perhapsthe artist's most celebrated work which, by 1788, was in thecollection of the Duc de Brissac.5 1. See Gaehtgens, op. cit ., p. 174. The one I love aboveall others is the innocent young who is watering the pot offlowers. We do not watch her for a long time without becomingsensitive. It is not her lover that we want to be-- it is herfather or mother that we would like to be. Her head is so noble!She is so simple and so sweet! Ah! Who would dare to trapher?2. Ibid .3. Ibid. , pp. 156-7, no. 120, reproduced fig. 120. There isa painting of M. de Vien representing a girl watering flowers; itis the one that gives me the most pleasure4. Ibid ., p. 156, nos. 116 & 117, the sketch reproducedfig. 117.5. Ibid ., pp. 170-174, cat. nos. 191, 181-4, 180, 189 &187 respectively.

JOSEPH-MARIE VIEN MONTPELLIER 1716 - 1809 PARIS measurements note 73.5 by 62 cm.; 29 by 24 1/2 in. DESCRIPTION oil on canvas CATALOGUE NOTE The composition derives from the fresco by Mattia Preti in Sant'Andrea della Valle in Rome (see J. Spike, Mattia Preti, Florence 1999, p. 260-1, cat. no. 197.3, reproduced p. 264).

Joseph-Marie Vien (Montpellier 1716-1809 Paris) The Muse of Music signed and dated 'Vien 1758' (lower left, on the musical score) oil on canvas 53 x 67¾ in. (44.5 x 172.1 cm.), shaped top and bottom, made up in to a rectangle Provenance E. Disant; sale, Reims, 26 May 1870, lot 264 (including the sketch). Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 10 January 1990, lot 128.