Carle Vanloo

Leonard and Eleanor Sonnenberg, Ryefield Manor, Lattingtown, New York, purchased in Paris in 1985.

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 work has not been recently restored. The gilding in the spandrels in the four corners may not be original. There are broad discolored retouches from the center of the left edge to the center of the bottom edge. There are also some similarly discolored retouches in the sleeve of the figure's gown in the lower right and a few spots in her neck. Enormous improvements would be realized if the work were cleaned and reframed, since the condition and quality of the work itself seem to be very good.
"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."

Carle Vanloo was the most famous member of an artistic dynasty.  He was acclaimed in his own time for his tremendous skill in depicting a wide range of subjects and styles, producing portraits, mythological, genre and history subjects, as well as religious works. While still in his teens, he won first prize for drawing at the Académie Royale in 1723 and was awarded  the Prix de Rome the following year.  Vanloo received numerous royal commissions, including the decoration of the king’s private chambers at Fontainebleau and Versailles, and was appointed Premier Peintre to Louis XV in 1762.  In addition to his work at the court, his paintings were in demand from other members of the aristocracy and members of Parisian society.

This Allegory of Painting is an autograph replica of a work he painted for the marquis de Marigny, brother of Madame de Pompadour.  That painting, which was last seen in an auction in Paris in 1972, was painted on an oval canvas and signed on the back of the chair at the right side.¹  A pendant depicting an Allegory of Sculpture (now lost) was also painted for Marigny and both pendants were exhibited in the Salon of 1755.  That Vanloo would have produced a replica is not surprising given the popularity of this type of allegorical subject at the time and the enormous demand for works by him at the height of his artistic fame.  Vanloo also made a version in pastel of the Allegory of Painting,² and a tapestry after the composition was produced at the Gobelins Manufactory by Pierre-Francois Cozette in 1763 (now in the collection of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore).  A version, now thought to be from his studio, is in the collection of the Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris.

A replica of Allegory of Painting, which is known to have been in the collection of the comtesse de la Bedoyère circa 1930, may be identifiable with the present painting.³

 

1.  Sold, Paris, Palais Galleria, 2 June 1972, lot 110.
2.  Sold, Paris, Christie’s, 27 March 2003, lot 97.
3.  Documentation in the archives of the Musée Jacquemart-André; see M.-C. Sahut, Carle Vanloo, Premier peintre du roi, exhibition catalogue, Nice 1977, p. 77, under cat. no. 155.