Etienne Aubry

Anonymous sale, Paris, Tajan, 30 June 2000, lot 56.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. Both canvases are lined and the paint is stable and flat. The interior with Mother and daughter has pronounced pale shrinkage cracking over much of the surface and work to reduce this has been carried out. There is some abrasion to delicate scumbles and glazes otherwise the painting is in good original condition. The Kitchen interior is in a similar condition but has more pronounced shrinkage cracking of the bituminous paint layer, particularly to the shadow on the left and the fireplace. Both have the remains of an earlier discoloured varnish as well as areas of paint in good condition. The paintings have been recently restored so there is little tonal improvement to be achieved. Offered in carved gilt wood frames, in good condition."
"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."

Aubry met an untimely death at the age of 36, but during his life he enjoyed a high level of success and attracted praise from critics such as Denis Diderot. He trained as a portrait painter with Jacques Antoine de Silvestre (1719-1809) and Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809) but it is for the charm of his genre scenes such as these for which he is now most highly regarded. In 1775, the same year he was received into the Académie, he began to exhibit intimate family scenes such as the present canvases. The informality and simplicity of these sentimental interiors, treated with a subdued and subtle palette, together with their unusual delicacy of feeling, is truly alluring. Although they have their roots in the style of Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, they are closest in style to the works of Jean-Baptiste Greuze, to whom the works of Aubry have often been misattributed in the past. The present works should be compared to his Paternal Love in the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham (see P. Conisbee, Painting in Eighteenth Century France, Oxford 1981, p. 166, reproduced fig. 144).