Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée

Windsor, Loan Exhibition, 1881as "Cleo" (according to an old label on the verso of History).

Possibly M. Sandoz, Les Lagrenée: Louis (Jean, François) Lagrenée 1725 - 1805, vol. I.  Paris 1983, p. 124, p. 196, cat. no. 133 as La Poésie Héroique et La Poésie Pastorale (état [inventory]), p. 363, no. 102 as "for M. Aved, peintre du Roy".

Copper plates have both been cradled. there is excellent retention of the paint surface with lovely detail and coloration. under ultraviolet, Poetry has some very small scattered retouches to red drapery and one in sky; History has some small retouches to green drapery at far right and foreground, a few small retouches to right side of hair and in upper background. In carved and gilt wood frames.
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The re-emergence of these exquisite little coppers is an important addition to Lagrenée's oeuvre.  Signed and dated 1765, they appear to be the earliest incarnation of compositions the artist would reuse and revise many times in his career, most famously for a set of four large oval canvasses he executed in 1774 for M. de la Borde for his residence, the Château de la Ferté.  Since de la Borde's death and the consequent sale, only one from the series, titled La Philosophie, which is most similar in subject matter to Allegory of Architecture, has been traced (now in a private collection).  Another little painting, titled Poésie inspirée par Pegase, but of slightly larger dimensions than the present copper, was sold in Mme. Lagrenée's deceased sale, November 12, 1814, lot 29.

Although it is difficult to judge exactly the subject matter of these coppers, they may be identifiable with a pair of paintings, La Poésie Héroique and La Poésie Pastorale that Lagrenée painted as a gift for his colleague, Jacques André Joseph Aved (1702 - 1766).  Those paintings, known to us only from Lagrenée's personal inventory, are untraced.