LAURENT DE LA HYRE | An Allegory of Study

Galerie Claude van Loock, Bruxelles, 1977 ; 
Acquis auprès de cette galerie.

Grenoble, musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes, musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux, musée des Beaux-Arts, Laurent de la Hyre, 1606-1646. L'homme d'oeuvre, 1989, n°298, repr. ;
Rennes, 2012, n°37a (notice par Pierre Rosenberg) ;
Sceaux, 2013 (sans catalogue)

P. Rosenberg et J. Thuillier, Laurent de La Hyre 1606-1656, "Cahiers du dessin français", Paris, 1985, n°53, repr. ;
P. Rosenberg et J. Thuillier, Laurent de la Hyre, 1606-1646. L'homme d'oeuvre, Genève, 1988, p.320, n°298, repr.

Laid down on an old thin card backing. There is scattered foxing throughout and some surface dirt to the upper right corner. The combination of media remains fresh and vibrant throughout with the image strong. Sold unframed.
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This elegant sheet is a characteristic and finely preserved example of both the graphic style and subject matter that has come to define Laurent de la Hyre’s highly regarded graphic oeuvre. Executed in a combination of black chalk and a distinctive shade of blue-grey wash, the present work illustrates the many classicising elements that La Hyre so frequently employed, following his formative years at the Château de Fontainebleau and in the studio of Georges Lallemant. As noted by Pierre Rosenberg,¹ the subject, which portrays an Allegory of Study, has been carefully depicted by La Hyre in keeping with Cesare Ripa’s description of “Studio” from his Iconologia, a highly influential book first published in 1593, and regularly employed by artists as a rich source of inspiration throughout the 17th and 18th Centuries.

Ripa’s text has, in the present case, been followed particularly diligently by La Hyre who depicts a young man sitting in a contemplative pose, holding a book and pen, whilst reading by lamp light, a rooster by his side. Though, with the exception of the rooster, the image could quite easily be taken for a domestic scene, each element depicted in fact conveys a more symbolic meaning. While the open book and pen are symbolic of the great works that the young man will go on to write, the oil lamp alludes to Ripa’s wish that the student should waste more oil than wine in the pursuit of his studies. The addition of the rooster on the left hand side of the composition also, somewhat inevitably has an underlying meaning, which in this case is representative of the solicitude and vigilance that a student should demonstrate towards their studies.

This drawing, one of three Allegories by the artist in the Adrien collection (see Lot 23), has been grouped by Rosenberg within a series of allegorical paintings and drawings dated to the 1650s, with two particularly comparable sheets, depicting Allegories of Experience and History now housed in the collection of the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Besançon.<sup>2

1.</sup> Op. cit., p. 113

^2. Besançon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. nos. D. 1797 and D. 1796; Op. cit., p. 319, no. 296, reproduced and p. 320, no. 300, reproduced