PIERRE PATEL L`ANCIEN (CHAUNY 1604-1676 PARIS) - photo 1
PIERRE PATEL L`ANCIEN (CHAUNY 1604-1676 PARIS) - photo 2
PIERRE PATEL L`ANCIEN (CHAUNY 1604-1676 PARIS) - photo 3

PIERRE PATEL L`ANCIEN (CHAUNY 1604-1676 PARIS)

Lot 32
15.06.2023 15:00UTC +01:00
Classic
Sold
€ 403 200
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationFrance, Paris
Archive
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Archive
ID 975027
Lot 32 | PIERRE PATEL L'ANCIEN (CHAUNY 1604-1676 PARIS)
Estimate value
€ 400 000 – 600 000
PIERRE PATEL L'ANCIEN (CHAUNY 1604-1676 PARIS)

Paysage idéal avec monuments antiques animé de personnages

huile sur toile

68 x 81 cm. (26 3/4 x 31 7/8 in.)





Provenance

Collection de Monsieur Daniel Métivier, château de la Hartempied, Sablé-sur-Sarthe, Pays de Loire, dès la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle ; puis resté chez ses descendants.

Acquis auprès de ces derniers au milieu des années 1970 par un collectionneur de Versailles.



Post lot text

PIERRE PATEL THE ELDER, LANDSCAPE WITH ANTIQUE RUINS AND FIGURES, OIL ON CANVAS

This hitherto unpublished work by Pierre Patel l'Ancien (1604-1676) is an important rediscovery. The composition is typical of the artist, one of the most gifted landscape painters of the Grand Siècle, combining the poetry of everyday gestures – cowherds and shepherds grazing their flocks, washerwomen drying clothes, peasants working to shore-up the buildings out of the viewer's field of vision – with the aesthetic canons of classical landscape painting.

As in the work of Claude Lorrain (1600-1682), Patel applies a strict linear perspective in this painting, with the vanishing lines converging in the background (N. Coural, Les Patel. Pierre Patel (1605-1676) et ses fils. Le paysage de ruines à Paris au XVIIe siècle, Paris, 2001, p.189). At the same time he integrates the scene into a composition prefiguring the architectural whims of Hubert Robert (1733-1808), where classical ruins and tumbledown cottages mingle with the elements of the so-called "classical" landscape: an idealised setting where order, measure and rationality take precedence over topographical realism. This ideal scene incorporates details of great refinement, such as the speckled porphyry columns to the right or the bas-reliefs of the ancient temple.

Stylistically, this painting belongs to circa 1650, the height of the painter's career; shortly after he, Simon Vouet (1590-1649) and Eustache Le Sueur (1616-1655) had decorated the famous Cabinet de l'Amour in the Hôtel Lambert in Paris in 1646-1647 at the request of Nicolas Lambert de Thorigny (1610-1692). The two works Patel produced for this commission Paysage avec ruines antiques and Paysage avec un voyageur, are now in the Louvre, Paris (inv. nos. INV 7128 and INV 7129).

The present painting can be compared with another work by the painter from the same period, Landscape with the Rest on the Flight into Egypt (London, National Gallery, inv. no. NG 6513) painted in 1652, whose general composition is reminiscent of our painting in terms of plan and architectural motifs, although the London painting includes denser staffage and a greater contrast in areas of light and shade.

Other than its appearance on the art market in the mid-1970s, the only trace of the present painting seems to have been a charcoal and white chalk drawing, which depicts an almost identical composition. Dated around 1650-1655, this latter is now held by the Institut Néerlandais, Paris (inv. no. 1973-7. 45). In her catalogue raisonné of 2001, Natalie Coural states that "the completeness of the compositional elements, the precision and clarity of the bas-relief indications, and the use of a mise au carreau" of this drawing, suggest that it was probably a preparatory study for a painted work that was then considered to be lost (N. Coural, 2001, idem). A comparison of the painting and drawing reveals some minor differences, notably, the tree to the left of the composition is more prominent in the graphic work, which also has a slightly divergent arrangement of the staffage.

We are grateful to Natalie Coural for suggesting a date of circa 1650 for this painting on the basis of a first-hand examination of the work.
Artist:Pierre Patel (1605 - 1676)
Applied technique:Oil on canvas
Art style:Old Masters
Place of origin:Western Europe, France, Europe
Auction house category:Paintings
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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