Nicolas Lancret

With Wildenstein, Paris, 1924;
Manduit collection, 1963 (according to a label on the reverse);
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 6 July 1966, lot 25.

Geneva, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, 1963, no. 13 (according to a label on the reverse).

G. Wildenstein, Lancret, Paris 1924, p. 112, cat. no. 619, fig. 148. 

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York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work is originally made from three pieces of canvas. One join runs about 4 inches from the left edge and the other runs about 6 inches from the bottom edge. The lining is nicely stabilizing the paint layer. The work is clean and varnished. The retouches are well applied and are visible under ultraviolet light along the two original joins and in the chin of the mother. The remainder of the picture shows almost no retouches and is in very good condition.
"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."

This impressive group portrait by Nicolas Lancret was likely painted during the last years of the artist's life, circa 1740-41.  While Lancret is well known for his smaller-scale fêtes galantes, often featuring charming figural groups set into a dense landscape, in his later works the artist brought his figures further forward in the picture plane, as seen here.  The sitters in this portrait have traditionally been identified as the Saint-Martin family, but Wildenstein notes that there is a distinct resemblance to Lancret's portraits of M. and Mme. Gaignat.¹ 

Mary Tavener Holmes, who examined the picture firsthand, compared it to Lancret's painting of A Lady in a Garden taking coffee with some children, probably painted in 1742 and currently in the National Gallery, London (inv. no. NG6422, fig. 1).  Both paintings feature larger-scale figures in a formal portrait setting, though the subjects are interacting with each other in an informal, unposed manner, particularly in the National Gallery picture, where a child has even left her doll on the ground. 

We are grateful to Mary Tavener Holmes for her assistance with the cataloguing of this lot. 

1. Current location unknown, formerly in the Ancel collection, Paris.  See G. Wildenstein, under Literature, p. 108, cat. nos. 570 and 571, figs. 149 and 150.