HORACE LE BLANC | A group of figures assembled behind a balustrade

Comte Rey de Villette (vers 1870-?), Boulogne-sur-Seine (L. 2200a, au verso du doublage) ; 
Sa vente (« Graf R. de V... »), Berlin, Hollstein & Puppel, 4-6 mai 1931, n°893, repr. pl. XXX (comme Jacques Callot) ;
Jean Meulemeester, Bruxelles, mars 1979 ; 
Acquis par échange en 1979.

Rennes, 2012, n°35 (notice par Sylvain Lavessière) ;
Sceaux, 2013 (sans catalogue)

P. Rosenberg, "Horace Le Blanc à Venise", dans Der unbetechliche Blick. Lo Sguardo incorruttibile. Festchrift zu Ehren von Wolfgang Wolters..., Trèves, 2005, p.56 et note 8, fig.I

Laid down. Tiny hole at the upper left corner of the sheet and a small area of abrasion. Another small hole located near the lower left corner. Small area of abrasion near the lower margin on the right section of the sheet. Overall medium is fairly strong. Sold unframed.
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Horace Le Blanc was born in Lyon circa 1580 and, like many of his French contemporaries, travelled to Rome as part of his artistic training.  He is recorded as being there as early as 1600 when he is cited as a witness at one of the first trials relating to Caravaggio’s infamous brawls. In 1607 he was accepted as a member of the Academy of St. Luke and he later travelled to Venice where he worked alongside Palma il Giovane, who was particularly influential in his artistic development. By 1610, Le Blanc was back in his hometown of Lyon, but in 1624 he received the commission to decorate the gallery at the Château de Grosbois, on the outskirts of Paris, for Charles de Valois (1573-1650) the Duke of Angoulême.  The decorative scheme, which no longer survives, is veiled in mystery and the subjects of the paintings are not documented, so we must rely on various early accounts to piece together how the commission was envisaged. 

Sylvain Laveissière, in his Rennes exhibition catalogue entry, cites various written accounts, including that of Félibien, who places Horace Le Blanc at Grosbois, and Antoine Nicolas Dezallier d’Argenville, who critiqued the project, a century after its completion, commenting negatively on the layout of the scheme and some of the military themes depicted.   Laveissière also quotes Pierre Jean Mariette’s report of the decoration at Grosbois, which describes paintings representing battle scenes throughout, and a ceiling covered with subjects relating to war.  Mariette also, however, mentions that ‘Au-dessus de la porte est peinte une ouverture formée d’une balustrade derrière laquelle est le roy Louis XIII accompagné du duc d’Angoulême et de toute la cour.’¹ Taken at face value, this description could well apply to the scene depicted in the Adrien drawing.

Three other drawings by Le Blanc associated with the project at Grosbois, all squared for transfer, are in Darmstadt, Paris and Montpellier.²  Both the Darmstadt drawing and the Paris sheet represent officers in military scenes and the composition in Montpellier, drawn in a lunette, illustrates a group of people said to represent Louis XIII and his court with the Duke of Angoulême (the same subject described in Mariette’s account).  Stylistically, the Adrien drawing is more rapidly executed in terms of the application of pen and ink, and contrasts with the more finished nature of the other, squared compositions, which may indicate that the Adrien drawing was conceived in the earlier stages of the project.  Laveissière speculates on the figures represented in the Adrien drawing, proffering suggestions as to which of them might be Louis XIII and the Duke of Angoulême, and also commenting on the other interesting figures that are situated around the table.

The decorative scheme at Grosbois was clearly an ambitious project and was a highly important commission for Horace Le Blanc.  The survival of this fascinating drawing gives us a rare insight into the grand design envisaged by Charles de Valois, Duke of Angoulême.

 

^1. Rennes 2012, op. cit., p. 107, under cat. no. 35

^2. Rennes 2012, op. cit., under cat. no. 35, figs, 1,2 & 3