François Lemoyne

Sale, Paris, Piasa, 22 March 2006, lot 84;

With Stephen Ongpin Fine Art, London;

From whom acquired, 2008.

The majority of Lemoyne’s extant drawings relate to his painted commissions and this outstandingly beautiful sheet is no exception; a preparatory study for the figure of Truth from the artist’s last great masterpiece, painted just prior to his untimely death, Time Saving Truth from Falsehood and Envy, now in the Wallace Collection, London (fig. 1).¹

Throughout his short career Le Moyne used three basic techniques when working on his drawings. His methods are concisely documented by Jean-Luc Bordeaux, in his 1984 monograph on the artist, as red chalk drawings on beige paper, black chalk studies heightened with white chalk on blue or grey paper and finally trois crayons and/or pastels. His preferred medium and the majority of his body of work is, however, executed in black chalk, particularly his figure studies; he worked far less frequently in red chalk. What is interesting here, in this splendid drawing, is that Lemoyne has predominantly employed red chalk, using black sparingly to denote parts of the hair, to shade certain parts of her figure and to render the subsidiary studies of legs. The result is aesthetically pleasing; the red chalk contributing to the sensuality and softness of her form. It may also have been a considered choice, in the preliminary design, in order to differentiate the study of Truth from the other figures in this ambitious composition; one might deduce that black chalk was reserved for the study of the figure of Time, judging from the sketches of the legs, rendered here, in black chalk; their muscularity and placement suggestive that they are studies for his position in the painting. 

François Le Moyne, pupil of Louis Galloche (1670-1761), won the coveted Prix de Rome in 1711 but was not offered the traditional trip to Rome due to the economic climate in France at the time. Le Moyne only travelled to Italy in the early 1720s and stayed for a few short months, accompanied by his patron and advisor Monsieur François Berger. He was, however, greatly influenced by Italian artists such as Correggio and Pietro da Cortona and his admiration for the Sienese painter Federico Barocci is evident through the studies he made of his drawings.² Elected professor of the Académie de Peinture in 1733, his pupils included Natoire and Boucher. Le Moyne was held in high regard during his lifetime and produced magnificent ceiling decorations at Versailles. His drawings were collected by the most discerning connoisseurs of the century, including Crozat, Mariette, Gersaint, Lempereur and Count Tessin.

The grand and magnificent painting of Time Saving Truth from Falsehood and Envy was commissioned by Le Moyne’s chief and aforementioned patron, the financier, François Berger. Painted in 1737, at the very end of his career, it carries with it, perhaps unintentionally, a certain poignancy due to the fact it was completed a day before the artist’s suicide. The Comte de Caylus, Le Moyne’s biographer, praised this splendid painting, noting that the sad circumstances surrounding his death are not reflected in this beautiful canvas, ‘la veille même de sa mort, il (Le Moyne) acheva un tableau commencé depuis longtemps qui représente le Temps…., je n’ai point oublié la complaisance avec laquelle il me le montra apres avoir donné devant moi les derniers coups á la terrasse. Assurément il me paraît aucune aliénation d’esprit dans cet ouvrage; il est même un de ses plus beaux morceaux de cabinet.’³

The dramatic composition depicts the figure of Truth being carried by her father, Time, who, grasping his scythe, suppresses the masked figure of Falsehood, as Envy cowers and recoils in the background. The painting was later engraved, in reverse, by Laurent Cars. Jean-Luc Bordeaux, when discussing the oil, observes that the group formed by Time and Truth can be traced as far back as Bernini, through the work of Pietro da Cortona, but strongly believes that it is Guido Reni’s influence on Le Moyne that is the most apparent in this composition.⁴

This grand preparatory study appears to be the only known drawing that directly relates to the Wallace painting. There is a sheet in the Louvre’s collection depicting two head studies of a bearded man, on blue paper, which may connect to the head of Time, but the link is not definitive.⁵  The present sheet is, therefore, an incredibly important work by Le Moyne, for a canvas on which the artist added the final brushstrokes a mere day before his unfortunate demise.

 1. J-L, Bordeaux. François Le Moyne and his Generation 1688-1737, Neuilly-sur-Seine 1984, p. 125, no. 97, reproduced fig. 91

2. Ibid., p. 139

3.  Ibid., p. 125

4. Ibid.

5. François Le Moyne, Two Head Studies, Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. 30570