Studio of Georges de La Tour

Paris, art market, 1937;
With Colnaghi, London, 1951;
Anonymous sale, Paris, Galerie Charpentier, December 5-6, 1957, lot 172;
Anonymous sale, Paris, Galerie Charpentier, June 8-9, 1959, lot 178;
Paris, Private Collection;
With Blondeau, Bréton, Pradère (as Attributed to Etienne de La Tour), Paris, from whom acquired by the present owner.

Tokyo, Musée de l'art Occidental, Georges de la Tour, 7 March - 29 May 2005, nos. 29, 30;
London, Robilant and Voena, Dutch and Flemish Caravaggesque Paintings from the Koelliker Collection, 28 November - 19 December 2007, nos. 12a and 12b (as Etienne de La Tour?).

F.G. Pariset, Georges de La Tour, Paris 1948, pp. 267-8, reproduced plate 40;
P. Rosenberg, J. Thuiller et al., Georges de La Tour, exhibition catalogue, Paris 1972, pp. 257-9, under nos. 56, 57, and 58;
F. Solesme, Georges de La Tour, Lausanne 1973, pp. 155-156;
J. Thuillier, L'Opera Completa di Georges de La Tour, Milan 1973, pp. 96-97, under nos. 58-9;
P. Rosenberg, F. Macé de l'Epinay, Georges de La Tour. Vie et Oeuvre, Friburg 1973, pp. 174-177, under nos. 53-54;
B. Nicolson and C. Wright, Georges de La Tour, London 1974, pp. 199-200, nos. 65c and 66a;
J. Thuilier, Georges de La Tour, Paris 1993, pp. 294-295, under cat. nos. 73 and 74;
M. Mojana, Georges de La Tour, Paris 1992, nos. 40.6, 41.3;
C. Wright, The Masters of Candlelight. An Anthologie of Great Masters Including Georges de La Tour, Godfried Schalken, Joseph Wright of Derby, Landshut 1995, nos. 40(1), 41(3), p. 128;
J. Thuilier, Georges de La Tour, Paris 1997, no. 74;
J.P. Cuzin, Georges de La Tour, exhibition catalogue, Paris 1997, pp. 262-267, under nos. 59 and 60, reproduced figs. 85 and 89;
J.P. Cuzin, in Georges de La Tour, exhibition catalogue, Tokyo 2005, pp. 114-15, nos. 29 and 30;
P. Rosenberg (ed.), Poussin, Watteau, Chardin, David..., exhibition catalogue, Paris/ Munich/ Bonn 2005, p. 372, under no. 78;
A. Orlando, in French, Dutch and Flemish Caravaggesque Paintings from the Koelliker Collection, London 2007, pp. 42-45, nos. 12a and 12b, reproduced in colour (as Etienne de La Tour?).

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This pair of paintings seems to be in unusually good condition. The canvases are not lined, which is unusual in pictures of many periods, particularly the seventeenth century. The tacking edges have been reinforced to allow for proper stretching. The stretchers are contemporary. The paint layers have been cleaned and varnished. The paint layers are stable, and a visual appraisal of both pictures suggests that they are unabraded and with no noticeable restorations or damages. Under ultraviolet light, information to the contrary is unavailable and we are unable to detect any restorations. One would often expect there be restorations beneath this opaque varnish, however in the case of these two pictures it seems that actually they are indeed in very good condition. Although the surface of both pictures is quite visibly cracked, because they are not lined, the paint layers are not unstable and we recommend that they be hung as is.
"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."

The identity of de La Tour's prototypes for these compositions is still today the subject of debate. In the 1997 exhibition in Paris, and then again in 2005, Jean-Pierre Cuzin and Pierre Rosenberg (see Literature) concluded that the version of a Girl blowing on a brazier in a German private collection (and exhibited as no. 59) was de La Tour's original of that composition, a hypothesis lent support by the discovery of a signature after the picture was cleaned. Of the other, Boy with a pipe blowing on a firebrand, Cuzin and Rosenberg considered an example mentioned in 1813 in the collection of Don Sebastian Martinez in Cadiz, signed in full with the artist's first name, to possibly be a fully autograph version. Of the versions that are currently known, however, they propose the version in the Fuji Art Museum, Tokyo (and exhibited as no. 60 in 1997) to be the most likely autograph candidate. Although Nicolson (1974) had considered it a mere studio variant, in his 1992 catalogue Thuillier included the Tokyo canvas amongst the original works of Georges, but proposed the idea that it was finished by Etienne de La Tour (1621-1692), the artist's son, an idea shared tentatively by Cuzin and Rosenberg.

That Etienne worked with his father in the 1640s and up to his death seems beyond doubt and indeed the present pair were exhibited with a tentative attribution to Etienne in the 2007 exhibition (see Exhibited). Cuzin (2005) considers the two present works to have been executed within Georges de La Tour's workshop and praises their high level of quality. Unlike the presumed originals, the Toyko and German pictures (which have very different provenances), the present pair seem to be the only extant versions originally conceived as pendants and they were probably executed in the studio very soon after the prototypes (the Tokyo picture is dated 1646 on the reverse and the German picture is dated by Cuzin to 1646-8). Given that these are the final years of Georges' life it seems likely that Etienne, approaching thirty, would have by then assumed a leading role in the workshop and his participation in the execution of this pair should not be ruled out.

The iconography, of a young boy or girl lit from below by an artificial light source such as a brazier or candle, was extremely popular amongst artists in post-Caravaggio Europe. The prototype for such iconography is perhaps in El Greco's well-known painting from the 1570s of a Boy Lighting a candle with a burning firebrand, known in many versions but the best of which is probably in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples.¹ The theme was taken up by numerous Italian, French and Netherlandish imitators and followers of Caravaggio, such as Gerrit van Honthorst, Jan Lievens and Matthias Stomer and, of course, Georges de La Tour. This latter was by far the most important Caravaggesque painter in France; he experimented wildly with the effects of artificial light developing a very personal and idiosyncratic style. However, his huge success in this field led to the production of numerous imitations of his work, from particularly fine studio examples like these to the not so fine, so that a proper analysis of his work has been somewhat troublesome.

1. See J. Alvarez Lopera, El Greco. Estudio y Catálogo, vol. II, tome I, Madrid 2007, p. 106-7, cat. no. 39, reproduced p. 296, fig. 56.