Jacques-Henri Sablet

Private collection, Europe, for over 50 years;

Anonymous sale, Paris, Sotheby's, 27 June 2013, lot 66, for €103,500;

There acquired by the present owner.

Undocumented until its sale in 2013, this charming and elegant work by Jacques-Henri Sablet was painted in 1791 during the artist’s stay in Rome. Enveloped in a warm golden light, the picture captures an idyllic scene set in a Roman park populated by two figures in refined local costume. Leaning on the pedestal of a classical sculpture, a young woman appears to be listening unobserved, captivated by the music played by a guitarist seated on a carved Corinthian capital. The sculpture she is leaning on is based on the celebrated Roman Faun with kid conserved in the Museo del Prado, Madrid, which was discovered in Rome in 1675.¹

Of Swiss origin, Jacques Sablet trained alongside his brother Jean-Francois (1745–1819) at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris under the tutelage of Joseph-Marie Vien (1716–1809), with whom he later travelled to Rome. It is during his period in Italy that he abandoned history painting in favour of genre scenes and informal portraits set in the Roman campagna, for which he became best known. Painted towards the end of his Roman stay, this work exemplifies Sablet’s mature style, characterised by an extreme delicacy of tones, fine light and freshness of atmosphere.

A work by the artist dated 1793, of comparable dimensions, subject and composition, was sold at Sotheby's New York, in 1999 for $376,500.²

¹ https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/faun-with-kid/d11c55e4-a20f-48c5-956d-57b9d54b9200

² Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, 28 January 1999, lot 343.