Jean-Baptiste Le Paon, called Louis Le Paon

Sale, Monaco, Sotheby's, 17 June 1989, lot 634 (as French School, circa 1800).

New York, Wildenstein & Co.,The Winds of Revolution, 14 November 1989 - 19 January 1990, cat. no. 79 (as ascribed to Francesco Casanova).

The Winds of Revolution, exhibition catalogue, New York 1989, cat. no. 79, also cited in introductory essay, p. 9; p. 44, under no. 34; reproduced p. 81 (as ascribed to Francesco Casanova).

The glue relining is firm and stable. the overall condition is very good with nice retention of the paint surface, good detail and coloration. examination under ultraviolet light shows just a few minor retouches (one on tiger's raised paw) and inpainting of craquelure. Painting can be hung as is with no need for further work. In an elaborately carved and gilt wood frame.
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This painting is a preparatory study for a larger work by Le Paon, signed and dated 1784, today in the collection of the Museum of the Polish Army, Warsaw (inv. no. MWP 24630, oil on canvas, 130 by 163 cm.).¹  The composition commemorates one of the fantastic adventures of Charles Henri Nicolas Othon, Prince of Nassau-Siegen (1745-1809), a swashbuckling figure who earned fame as an explorer, knight errant and soldier of fortune.  The episode depicted by Le Paon occurred along the coast of Argentina.  Nassau and Henri de Fulque, Chevalier d’Oraison (1739-1819) were traveling on board the frigate La Boudeuse, one of the vessels that took part in the circumnavigation of the globe under the command of Louis Antoine, Comte de Bougainville between 1766 and 1769.  The two aristocrats and some of their fellow voyagers had gone ashore and were riding along the beach when they were attacked by a jaguar.

A variant composition, less finished and with the figural elements done on a smaller scale, was in a private collection in 1969 where it was ascribed to Francesco Giuseppe Casanova.²

 

1.  See exhibition catalogue, Compiègne, Musée national du Palais de Compiègne, L'Aigle Blanc: Stanislas Auguste, dernier roi de Pologne, collectionneur et mécène au siècle des Lumières, 2001, no. 20 (entry by R. Matuszewski), reproduced.
2.  See C.-G. Marcus, “Francesco Casanova, peintre européen,” in Art et Curiosité, No. 26, January-February 1969, p. 18, reproduced p. 13, fig. VI.