JEAN-BAPTISTE LEPRINCE | The Doctor’s Visit

Oil on canvas; signed bottom left: Le Prince

- Collection of duc Renaud César Louis de Choiseul-Praslin (1735-1791) ; 
- His sale, Paris, 18-25 February 1793, lot 170, with its pendant, « La proposition de mariage » (sold at auction 861 pounds à Gendrier) ; 
- Collection Aimé Gabriel d'Artigues (1773-1848), director of the Saint-Louis glassworks ;
- His daughter Anne Gabrielle d'Artigues (1833-1889), who in 1853 married Comte Charles-Édouard de Ribes (1824-1896), mayor of Belle-Église (Oise) ; 
- Their son, comte Charles-Aimé-Auguste de Ribes (1858-1917) ; 
- His son, le comte Jean-Édouard de Ribes (1893-1982) ; 
- His son, le comte Édouard-Auguste-Édouard de Ribes (1923-2013) ; 
- To current owners

- Paris, Salon of 1771, n°72 (as belonging to the collection of duc de Praslin)

- La Muse errante au Sallon, Paris, 1771, p. 24
- La Lettre de M. Raphael le jeune [...] sur les Peintures, Sculptures & Gravures qui sont exposées cette année au Louvre, Paris, 1771, p. 15
- L'Ombre de Raphael, Paris, 1771, p. 39-40
- Le Mercure de France, octobre 1771, t. I, p. 186

Translated from the French condition report made by Isabelle Leegenhoek. The painting is on canvas, and is on a key stretcher; it has been relined (old relining). The tension of the canvas is fine. The painted surface is covered with a yellow varnish layer, slightly dirty and homogeneous. We can notice a bump on the drapery of the seated woman (it might be an attempt to remove a small area of varnish ?). The painted surface is very fine and is applied over a clear primer visible in the outlines of the figures. Under UV light, we can notice the retouchings, mainly on the edges (upper edge, right angle, lower left angle) and punctually on two small accidents on the green drapery. The ears and eyes of the dog seem to be retouched quite substantially, but the original paint seems to be present under these (perhaps too) excessive retouches. There are a few light retouchings around the face of the doctor, and the seated woman presents a small horizontal abrasion on the lower part of her face. Concluding, the painting is in a very good state of presentation and conservation. Please note that Sotheby’s does not guarantee the condition of the frame.
"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."

RELATED WORK
Engraving by Anne François David (1741-1824) from 1776, titled The Urine Doctor (fig. 1)

Born into a family of sculptors and ornamental gilders, in the early 1750s Jean-Baptiste Leprince was trained in the studio of François Boucher, and in his early career he was content to imitate his master’s style and themes.

He probably travelled to Italy, but it was principally his long stay in Russia that determined the development of his career as a painter. He arrived there in 1757, and profited not only from the commissions he received but from the opportunity to travel into the various provinces of the empire, from Lapland to Siberia. He retained a quantity of drawings and studies from these trips, providing him with an inexhaustible repertory of motifs and subjects that he used throughout the rest of his career.

He returned to France in 1762, and was admitted into the Académie Royale in 1765. Thus began a prolific career as a genre and landscape painter. He exhibited regularly at the Salon du Louvre, and built up a solid clientele thanks to the exoticism of his Russian subjects.

In The Doctor’s Visit, Leprince revives an iconography that was particularly popular in the Holland during the Golden Age. At the behest of a mother concerned about her daughter’s altered health, a physician is examining the young woman’s urine, with the aim of discovering the cause of her puzzling illness. Standing in front of the window, he holds a flask containing the young woman’s bodily fluids up to the light and observes it with a circumspect eye. The mother, seated next to her daughter’s bed, turns towards him, her face expressing her anxiety as she waits for the diagnosis – which the physician will not be able to determine. For the young girl’s ailment has an altogether  different cause, as Leprince gives us to understand. The source of her troubles is an unobtrusive presence in the shadows behind the heavy curtains of the baldachin: a young man, who has surreptitiously crept close to the bed, holds her right hand and kisses it avidly, to the young girl’s barely concealed pleasure. As the author of La Muse Errante au Salon neatly put it, we are thus apprised of ‘her disorder and her real doctor’.

As was often the case with Leprince after his return to France, the painting gives pride of place to picturesque elements drawn from the Russian world. His long stay in the region is recalled in the clothing (the dresses worn by the mother and the servant girl, the little page’s outfit, the more fanciful robes of the doctor) as well as in objects such as the magnificent samovar that closes the composition on the right. The artist never tired of exploiting this crucial influence, to the satisfaction of a clientele who appreciated his technique as much as the exoticism of his subjects, as is recorded in 1773 by a critic on the Mercure de France, writing about the painting in the following lot: ‘All the compositions of this ingenious artist tend to feature some unaffected or playful situation, rendered with a touch that is both refined and spiritual. His carefully studied draperies, brilliant colours and charming effects mean that his paintings will be sought out by all connoisseurs, especially by those who like to see the piquancy of sweet little French faces in the picturesque costumes of Russian women.’

The 1776 engraving by Anne François David after Leprince’s painting is dedicated to the Duc de Praslin, ‘Knight of the King’s order, Lieutenant General of his armies, and governor of High and Low Brittany’. Renaud César Louis de Choiseul, second Duc de Praslin (1735-1791), was famous in his time for the important collection of master paintings that he had amassed, building on his father’s collection. This was sold shortly after his death. Lot no. 170 of this sale, which was held between 18 and 25 February 1793 (fig. 2), consisted of two paintings by Jean-Baptiste Leprince: The ‘urine doctor’, which can be identified with the present painting, and a ‘marriage proposal’ which will be discussed in relation to the following lot.