Alexandre-François Desportes

Possibly commissioned in 1724 by the Duc d'Antin, Château de Petit-Bourg, Évry-sur-Seine;
Heim, Paris, 1962;
With Partridge Fine Art, London;
From whom acquired by the present owner.

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 painting has been restored fairly recently and given the scale of the picture, cleaning is not necessarily recommended. The lining is twenty to thirty years old and it is likely that retouches were applied at this time. Under ultraviolet light these retouches are visible throughout the picture yet not in any concentration other than possibly in the sky in the upper left. The animals and game have received their fair share of the retouching, but the extent of this retouching is not unusual for a large picture from this period on canvas. The only slightly discolored retouching is situated between the balustrades in the upper center of the picture where some of the retouches have failed to match the local color. Overall, however, the condition is very respectable.
"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."

Desportes was the first great French painter to specialize in hunting and animal subjects, and together with his successor Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755), became the most important and influential exponent of the genre of his day. His realistic and carefully observed style owes more to the great Flemish tradition of Snyders in which he trained than to the lighter rococo style favored by Oudry. He was an exact observer and made numerous studies of animals from life, as witnessed by his son Claude-François (himself an animal painter) in his Mémoires and evidenced by the large number of studies sold by his family to Louis XVI in 1784.

The present painting is is an example which dates from Desportes' maturity. At this stage in his career Desportes had already worked at the court of Poland and had been given major commissions for most of the French royal and princely residences including Chantilly, Anet, la Muette and the Hôtel de Bouillon. He had also returned from his sojourn in England where he had found great success. During this time, Desportes was enjoying mostly noble patronage and had seen his pension doubled by the King.

This is possibly the painting described as "Chien grondant contre un chat qui tend sa patte vers un tas de gibber" which was commissioned in 1724 by the Duc d'Antin, son of Monsieur and Madame de Montespan and Superintendant des Bâtiments, for the decoration of his Château de Petit-Bourg.