André Bouys

Probably M. Cailleux, 1930.

Paris, Salon de Paris, 1737 with its pendant under the title "Deux Servantes revenant du Marche";

Paris, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Grand Palais, Exposition du Salon de 1737, May - June 1930, no. 16 (with its pendant, no. 17).

M. and F. Faré,  La Vie Silencieuse en France: La Nature Morte au XVIII^e Siècle, Fribourg 1976, pp. 47-8, 410, note 48;

H. W. Janson, Catalogues of the Paris Salon 1673 to 1881, New York & London 1977, vol. MDCCXXXVII, p. 21.

The picture is more muted in tone and less acidic in colour than the catalogue illustration would suggest. The canvas has been lined. The paint surface is in fair overall condition. There is surface dirt and a slightly blanching varnish overall and some scattered flaking at the corners and in the background above the cabbage. He paint is also thin in the darker pigments of the table lip and there are old discoloured flecks of scattered retouching in the background visible under a raking light. Examination under ultraviolet confirms the presence of the varnish and reveals some further retouching to the background as well as scattered retouching to the figures and objects. However retouching seems to be cosmetic and not to structural damage. In country house condition. Offered in a modern black wood frame with a silver inlay.
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Born in in 1656, Buoys trained under his near contemporary François de Troy (1645-1730) in Paris where he established his reputation as one of the foremost portraitists of his generation. His membership to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1688 was secured on the basis of two portraits of his contemporaries, the artist Charles de la Fosse (1640-1716) and the sculptor Etienne le Hongre (1628-1690), both of which are now housed in the Musée de Versailles (Inv. Nos. MV3582 & MV. MV3636). Although he likely diversified with still lifes during this period, it was not until the age of seventy six that he started specialising in single figure genre scenes incorporating still life elements.¹ Focusing on these almost exclusively in the last years of his life, he exhibited one portrait and five genre scenes at the Salon of 1737:² this picture, until now thought lost and it’s pendant sold Monaco, Christie’s, 14 June 1996, lot 21 for 257,400FF (approx. £25,000), listed together as Deux Servantes revenant du Marché; two Collations in private collections, and a picture entitled, Une Servante récurant de la Vaisselle d’Argentin the Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Paris.

We are grateful to Fred G. Meijer of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs.

1. See discussion in M Faré & F. Faré, La Vie Silencieuse en France: La Nature Morte au XVIII^e Siècle, Fribourg 1976, pp. 43-48;
2. H. W. Janson, Catalogues of the Paris Salon 1673 to 1881, New York & London 1977, vol. MDCCXXXVII, p. 21