Antoine-François Callet Paris 1741 - 1823

Commissioned by the comte d'Artois, in 1778, directly from the artist for the boudoir of the Château de Bagatelle;
Probably sold along with the château and its contents in 1796;
De Serenville sale, Paris, Paillet, 22-24 January 1812, lot 70;
Reputedly Eugénie, Empress of the French (1826-1920);
Count Claes Bonde (1878-1965);
Acquired at his death by his niece, Brita von Post, née Baroness Palmstierna (1905-1984);
Acquired from the above for the present owner, circa 1972.

A. de Champeaux, L'Art décoratif dans le vieux Paris, 1898, p. 305;
M. Constans, 'Le Château du Comte d'Artois', Bagatelle dans ses jardins, 1997, p. 63.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. These paintings have old linings but quite recent stretchers. The general condition is fairly clear to the naked eye, with rather fragile old canvases that are coming away from the old linings in places, particularly in the upper left corner of the girl garlanding a cupid where there has been a diagonal fold in the canvas and various little creases. There have also been various small accidental knocks, for instance in the cupid's mouth, in the foreground of the pendant, and also some wear - for instance the shadowy side of the cupid on a pedestal is thin, and has an old retouched knock. The cleaning is fairly recent with rather vague and perfunctory retouching. However some parts are well preserved especially the head and upper part of the girl with the garland, and elsewhere much of the fine light toned paint surface has survived some rather haphazard treatment and remains comparatively well preserved. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

These two pictures form part of a group of six works commissioned from Antoine-François Callet by the comte d'Artois in 1778 (Fig. 1) for the Château de Bagatelle (designed by the architect Belanger). Callet received payment for the series on 9 May 1779, as attested to by a document found in Callet's memoirs, today conserved at the Archives Nationales in Paris:¹

Au sieur Callet, peintre du Roy, six tableaux pour le boudoir de Bagatelle... 3.600 livres.

The six paintings hung in the boudoir, which adjoined the Salon à l'italienne (Fig. 2). On the other side of the salon was a bathroom of the same dimensions which was decorated by six genre scenes by Hubert Robert, today located in New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Other than the two present works, Callet's series of six works included an Offering to Venus, an Offering to Flora, and two works now untraced but which are believed to be an Offering to Hymen and a Sermon to Hymen, identified as such on the basis of 19th century engravings which have recently been associated with this series.

During the Revolution the Château de Bagatelle was emptied of its furniture but these large works by Callet, as well as those by Hubert Robert, were left behind. However, they somehow escaped damage as confirmed by a note dated 28 August 1795 stipulating that the paintings "n'éprouvent aucune dégradation".²  When the château was sold in 1796, the contents were dispersed and the paintings are then untraced until 1812, when they appear in the De Serenville sale on 22 January, rue Neuve Saint-Augustin:

M. Calais (sic)- quatre tableaux qui ont décoré la maison de Bagatelle. Ils offrent différents sujets gracieux exécutés avec le goût et les talens (sic) qui distinguent cet artiste. Offrande à Venus, Serment à l'Amour, Hommage à Flore et une Bacchante dans l'ivresse auprès de la statue de Pan. Ces quatre morceaux sont restés réunis pour en former l'ornement d'un salon ou tout autre place étant de même dimension.

The Offering to Venus reappears in a sale of the property of Paul Delaroff on 23-24 April 1914 at Galerie Georges-Petit, Paris, as lot 70 where attributed to Jean-Jacques-François Lebarbier (Fig. 3).³  Even though the painting was cut (probably during the 19th century) its relationship to the present paintings, notably to the former, is quite obvious, especially in both the execution of the drapery, the hairstyle 'à la grecque' and, more generally, in the neoclassical style which ultimately derives from the work of  Joseph-Marie Vien; the entire series is comparable with Vien's decorative scheme of 1774 for Madame Du Barry's Pavilion de Louveciennes.⁴

We are grateful to Brigitte Gallini for her assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.

 

1  Inv. no. A.N.R 1 315, "Apanage d'Arthois".
2  Inv. no. A.N. F17 1046, fol. 5.
3  The painting was re-attributed to Callet by Brigitte Gallini in the 1990s.
4  Now split between the Musée du Louvre and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Chambéry.