Laurent Hubert

The attribution of this drawing was made by Alastair Laing at the time of the Redford sale.  Hubert was a sculptor and member of the Académie de Saint-Luc who exhibited clay and wax models and small bronzes at the Salons of 1752, 1753 and 1756.  Two signed drawings by him are known and a number of others were exhibited under the name of Miessonnier at the Seiferheld Gallery, New York, in 1963.¹  The present work compares very well with several of the exhibited drawings, in particular the designs for a candlestick (cat. 13) and a surtout de table (cat. 17), and also a recto and verso study of Venus and Cupid.  For further information on the artist, see M. L. Myers, French Architectural and Ornament Drawings of the Eighteenth Century, exhibition catalogue, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art ,1991, nos. 47 and 48.

1. See Juste Aurèle Meissonnier and Others, catalogue by D. Fitz-Gerald, May 1963