RAYMOND LAFAGE | The judgement of Solomon

Acquis à Bordeaux, galerie Guy Imberti, août 1975

Rennes, 2012, n°49 (notice par Jean Penent) ;
Sceaux, 2013 (sans catalogue)

Laid down. Very small light brown spots throughout. Larger but light stains in margins, top left and bottom right. Some slight rubbing of surface in places, but media still good, fresh and strong. Sold unframed.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Given that Lafage died at the age of only twenty eight, it is perhaps fortunate that his artistic training began extremely early.  Working initially under the guidance of his father, Jean Lafage, Raymond participated in commissions in Montauban, before entering the studio, in Toulouse, of Jean Pierre Rivalz.  The young Lafage's presence in the Rivalz studio seems to have had a profound influence on the early career of the master's son, Antoine Rivalz (see lot 44).  Lafage travelled also to Rome and Antwerp, and died in Lyon. In his account of Lafage's career, the great connoisseur Pierre Jean Mariette wrote that the artist had found it necessary 'pour avoir plus de travail, de faire des desseins très fins sur velin, le travail à la plume et les ombres lavées d'encre de la Chine.'¹  Pierre Crozat also owned a number of these drawings ('plusieurs sujets de l'Histoire Sainte, parmi lesquels il s'en trouve quelques-uns qui sont terminés avec grand soin à l'encre de la Chine, sur du velin^'2).  As Jean Penant noted in the Rennes exhibition catalogue, these fine drawings on vellum may often have been repetitions of other, larger compositions, made as refined finished works, for sale, and indeed another, larger drawing, by or after Lafage, with much the same composition as this, was on the Paris art market.³

As one might expect from an artist who travelled so widely, Lafage's style reflects various influences, and the present composition is clearly inspired to a considerable extent by the fresco of the same subject in the Vatican Logge, then still thought to be by Raphael, and widely known through a 1649 engraving by Nicolas Chaperon (fig. 1).<sup>4

1.</sup>  P.J. Mariette, 'Abecedario de Mariette et autres notes inédites de cet amateur dur les arts et les artistes,' ed. P. de Chennevières & A. de Montaiglon, Archives de l'Art français, 6 vols., Paris 1851-1860, vol. III, p. 36

^2.  P.J. Mariette, Description sommaire des desseins...du cabinet de feu M. Crozat, Paris 1741, no. 1027

^3.  Sale, Paris, Piasa, 10 December 2004, lot 118 (as Attributed to Antoine Bouzonnet Stella)

^4.  The impression of this print from the Musée Paul-Dupuy, Toulouse, is reproduced in the Rennes exhibition catalogue entry for the drawing