The Dealer's Eye | London
The Dealer's Eye | London
Property from Robilant Fine Art, London, Milan & St. Moritz
NICOLAS HENRI JEAURAT DE BERTRY | STILL LIFE WITH SHELLS, A NATURALIST MANUAL, A PRESERVED SNAKE, AND MINERALS RESTING ON A TABLE, ABOVE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND A MUSICAL SCORE, WITH FIRE TONGS ALONGSIDE; AND STILL LIFE WITH AN INLAID WRITING DESK, CHAIR, CLASSICAL FEMALE BUST, PAPERS, INKWELL, MUSICAL MANUSCRIPT AND FIRE TONGS
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Property from Robilant Fine Art, London, Milan & St. Moritz
NICOLAS HENRI JEAURAT DE BERTRY
Paris 1728 - 1796 Vermenton
STILL LIFE WITH SHELLS, A NATURALIST MANUAL, A PRESERVED SNAKE, AND MINERALS RESTING ON A TABLE, ABOVE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND A MUSICAL SCORE, WITH FIRE TONGS ALONGSIDE;
AND STILL LIFE WITH AN INLAID WRITING DESK, CHAIR, CLASSICAL FEMALE BUST, PAPERS, INKWELL, MUSICAL MANUSCRIPT AND FIRE TONGS
the former signed and dated on the music: Jeurat de Bertry / pxit In 1775.;
the latter signed and dated on the paper in the basket: Jeaurat de Bertry / pxit1777.
a pair, both oil on canvas
unframed: each 89.5 x 117.5 cm.; 35 1/4 x 46 1/4 in.
framed: each 112 x 139 cm.; 44 x 54 3/4 in.
(2)
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Anonymous sale, Paris, Piasa, 26 June 2009, lot 76.
M. and F. Faré, Vie silencieuse en France, La nature morte en France au XVIIIe siècle, Fribourg 1976, p. 200, reproduced figs 304 and 305.
“We often talk about layering objects in more complex still life compositions, praising artists who allow for a true sense of depth as items sit in front and behind each other on a table. Here de Bertry has taken it a step further by widening our view to see the objects hiding below the table, piled on one another in the most natural, normal way. It feels very modern and alive.”
Calvine Harvey
Inspired by the work of Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Nicolas Henri Jeaurat de Bertry specialised in still life paintings. The present works are characteristic examples, displaying ‘objets du curiosité’ as if in the interior of a gentleman collector’s home, though the artist also painted compositions that include cooking utensils and animal still lifes. However staged the arrangement of objects, these paintings capture a moment of Jeaurat’s age, perhaps reflecting a combined interest in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s theories on nature and man's relation to it, advances in science and industry, and the more traditional pursuits of an ‘amateur’, in music and the arts. Both paintings are prominently and proudly signed and dated – particularly in the former, where the inscription is brightly illuminated almost in the centre of the design. They were executed at least 20 years after the artist, who was trained by his uncle, Étienne Jeaurat, was elected to the Paris Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. In 1761 Jeaurat was named painter to Marie Leczinska, and moved his residence from Paris to Versailles, where he remained until the queen’s death in 1768.