Jean-Baptiste Hilaire

Private collection, Venice;
André Ciechanowiescki;
His sale, Paris, Beaussant Lefèvre, 28 June 2002, lots 91 and 92, where acquired by the present owner.

Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, French Oil Sketches from an English collection : Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Ninenteenth Centuries, 1973 – 1975, nos. 35-46;
Charlotte, Atlanta, Mint Museum of Art, French Oil Sketches and the Academic Tradition. Selections from a Private Collection on loan to the University Art Museum of the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 1994-1996, no. 61, 67, 68, 70;
New York, Dahesh Museum, French Oil Sketches and the Academic Tradition. Selections from a Private Collection on Loan to the University Art Museum of the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 1998-1999, nos. 61, 67, 68, 70.

A. Boppe, Les peintres du Bosphore au XVIII^e siècle, Paris 1989, p. 281, part of no. 8.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The paint layers are stable and the paintings are in a good original condition. There are some minor restorations visible to some of the figures and to the background, but the texture is well preserved and the colours are strong. Offered in gilt wood frames in good condition."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Hilaire was the pupil of Jean-Baptiste Leprince and it is doubtless from him that he acquired his penchant for exotica and, more specifically, the representation of Oriental subjects. By the time Hilaire joined his studio, Leprince had spent much of his career in Russia, both at the court of Peter III, and travelling as far afield as Siberia.

While the early provenance of these gouaches is not known, many of Hilaire's oriental costume studies such as these were commissioned by the Comte de Choiseul-Gouffier and engraved for his Voyage Pittoresque de la Grèce (Paris 1782-1809, 3 vols.), a rare copy of which will be sold in these Rooms, November 2008.