NICOLAS TOURNIER (MONTBÉLIARD 1590-1639 TOULOUSE) - photo 1
NICOLAS TOURNIER (MONTBÉLIARD 1590-1639 TOULOUSE) - photo 2
NICOLAS TOURNIER (MONTBÉLIARD 1590-1639 TOULOUSE) - photo 3
NICOLAS TOURNIER (MONTBÉLIARD 1590-1639 TOULOUSE) - photo 4

NICOLAS TOURNIER (MONTBÉLIARD 1590-1639 TOULOUSE)

Lot 10
11.06.2025 00:00UTC +01:00
Classic
Sold
€ 47 880
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1437159
Lot 10 | NICOLAS TOURNIER (MONTBÉLIARD 1590-1639 TOULOUSE)
Estimate value
€ 70 000 – 100 000
NICOLAS TOURNIER (MONTBÉLIARD 1590-1639 TOULOUSE)
Jeune homme jouant du cornet à bouquin, avec une trompette et une partition de musique sur un entablement au premier plan
huile sur toile
132,7 x 97,2 cm (52 ¼ x 38 ¼ in.)




Provenance

Vente anonyme, Christie's, Londres, 5 juillet 1991, lot 69 (comme Nicolas Tournier) ;
Acquis au cours de celle-ci par l'actuel proprétaire.



Literature

L. Vertova, 'Per Giovenale Boetto pittore', Studi Piemontesi, mars 1998, XXVIII, fasc. 1, p. 39, sous la note 14 (comme Nicolas Tournier).
A. Hémery (dir.), Nicolas Tournier 1590-1639. Un peintre caravagesque, [cat. exp.], Toulouse, 2001, p. 174 (comme œuvre rejetée).



Further details

NICOLAS TOURNIER (1590-1639), A YOUNG MAN PLAYING A CORNET, A TRUMPET AND A MUSICAL SCORE ON A LEDGE IN THE FOREGROUND, OIL ON CANVAS

This arresting image of a young musician playing a cornet is characteristic of the secular paintings being produced in the Caravaggesque style, many of which circulated on the art market in Rome in the 1610s and ‘20s. A fashionably dressed young man is shown in three-quarter-length and starkly lit against a plain dark background. His costume is contemporary – voluminous striped sleeves tied at the shoulder to a doublet of a deep purple hue – and reappears in other works by the Caravaggisti, as indeed is the feathered cap the young man wears: compare, for example, the dupe at left in Bartolomeo Manfredi (1582-1622)’s The Fortune Teller painted c.1615-20 (Detroit Institute of Arts, inv. 79.30), who wears a similar feathered cap and clothes (though the doublet and sleeves are inverted). The young man connects with the viewer: he looks out at us and seems to pause from blowing into his cornet, as if having been interrupted during an informal concert or practice session. This split-second moment of an artist pausing during a performance is reminiscent of Cecco del Caravaggio (active c. 1610-1620) ’s Musician painted c.1615 (The Wellington Collection, Apsley House [English Heritage], London, inv. WM.1547-1948). Here too objects are strewn in the immediate foreground: a musical score lies open before the musician and a foreshortened trumpet is positioned nearby.

The French Caravaggesque painter Nicolas Tournier (1590-1639) was born in Montbéliard, Doubs, in eastern France. Little is known about his early career though he may have trained with his father and uncles, who were also painters. Like many French, Flemish and Dutch artists of his generation, he is documented in Rome between 1619 and 1626: he shared living quarters with Gérard Douffet (1594-1660) from 1619 and with 'Nicolò fiamengo' (probably Nicolas Régnier [1591-1667]) in 1620. Tournier’s Roman paintings are greatly influenced by those of Manfredi, who played a crucial role in shaping and disseminating the Caravaggesque style, particularly in the decade following Caravaggio (1571-1610)’s death. Manfredi ran a successful workshop in Rome, through which Tournier most likely transited, producing copies and variations of his compositions. In 1627 Tournier returned to France, settling in Toulouse from 1632.

We would like to thank Axel Hémery for having confirmed the attribution to the artist based on a photographic examination of the work.
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