Nicolas Colombel

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has an old stretcher and a recent firm lining. There is another old lining canvas behind, in an antique slightly frayed open weave and apparently more or less unattached, evidently taken from a painting with diagonal corner bars and wider edge bars, but this is presumably decorative as the strong recent underlying lining holds the painting securely. The edges are slightly visible in the frame, and very slightly aslant so that the left of the top edge and right of the base edge are a little wider. Some remnants of the original tacking edge can be seen along the top with older retouching in the darker areas above the foliage and more recent retouching at the very top edge of the sky. The side edges have rather uneven but generally narrow bands of retouching, and along the base there are various probably old creases and little knocks filled and retouched over a lightly wider border. The figures are in very beautiful condition, as is the classical landscape behind on the left and the foliage in general. There are unusually few retouched damages for a painting of this size, mainly small: two fairly small retouched fillings in the hip of the grace on the right and one narrow diagonal scratch slanting down the right side of the head to the shoulder, two small retouched fillings in the chest of the grace on the left, some minor small retouchings on Venus herself and in her drapery and the strand of hair on her far shoulder, a diagonal in the blue of the upper sky, a short diagonal in the lower sky near the horizon, a vertical through the foliage of the tree overhanging the water, also at the edge and base of the tree trunk by the river god with another mixed vertical below him. There are also various minor strengthening touches, for instance along the stretcher bar line at the top in the foliage to the left, over several small scratches, often diagonal, in the sky, the water and the lower right foreground, occasionally in the landscape mainly on the right and in the foreground near the feet of the graces and around the doves. The retouchings from this recent restoration and relining are quite minimal and accurate, and the landscape and figures have been largely preserved in very beautiful condition. The only area where some wear can be seen is in the sky, as is so often the case expecially in the blues or near a horizon. The lower sky in particular has been more worn than elsewhere and the upper blue sky has largely survived well. The clouds in the top right corner are quite thin with a little patchy old retouching, and the lower sky has quite widespread old retouching with small touches of more recent strengthening along the horizontal streaks of (stratus?) clouds. Coming in from the right edge in the lower sky older denser repaint can be seen, on and off between the branches and across the lower sky. The present restoration has quite wisely accepted this rather patchy area but overall it is a single exception in an otherwise remarkably intact painting. The figures have retained their exceptionally pure, evenly glazed finish, and the calm tone of the light over the Poussinesque architecture behind is beautifully preserved as is the surrounding foliage. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"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."

This highly classical painting was almost certainly painted in Paris in around 1700 and is dedicated to the theme of Love. Venus, the Goddess of Love and Fertility, is accompanied by her son Cupid and both figures are depicted in a triumphal chariot drawn by a pair of doves, whose fidelity made them one of the Goddess's many traditional attributes. Standing before Venus are her handmaidens, the Three Graces (Aglaia, Euphrosyne and Thalia), who are arranged in the traditional Renaissance grouping, the lateral figures facing outwards and the central figure with her back to the viewer. One of the Graces reaches out with a wreath of myrtle (an evergreen shrub sacred to Venus, symbolising everlasting love and conjugal fidelity) to crown Cupid, who holds before him a sharp-pointed arrow drawn from his quiver. In the right middle ground the River God Alpheus reclines with his arm around the maiden Arethusa, whilst swans (whose beauty closely associated them with Venus) float in the waters beyond, with an idealized, classical city visible on the far shore.

The painting is entirely characteristic of Nicolas Colombel and is painted in a highly classicizing style, which reveals the artist's clear debt to the work of his fellow countryman Nicolas Poussin. After studying in Paris under Pierre de Seve (1623-1695), Colombel travelled to Rome, probably before 1680, where he was strongly influenced by the work of Raphael and Poussin, the latter of whose drawings and paintings he is known to have copied. In 1686 Colombel is recorded as a member of the Painter's Accademia di San Luca in Rome, and although it is not known how long he remained there, he had returned to Paris by 1693, for the following year he was named a member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, becoming associate professor in 1701 and professor four years later.

On account of the paucity of dated and securely documented works a clear chronology for the artist's oeuvre is difficult to establish. The style, overall mise-en-scène, and choice of subject matter of the present work however can be compared closely to the artist's painting of Bacchus and Ariadne, listed by Blunt as in a private collection, Paris, which is signed and dated 1699.¹  Furthermore, the distinctive treatment of the landscape, the figure types and handling of light have clear parallels with the artist's painting of Atalanta and Hippomenes, sold in these Rooms, 6 December 2006, lot 41 (for £512,000), which can almost certainly be identified with the artist's treatment of the subject exhibited at the Paris Salon in the same year, 1699.  On this basis, therefore, it seems plausible to suggest a tentative dating for the present work to around this date; a time during which the artist was working in Paris and continued to adhere to the style of the artist whose work he so admired, and to whom ironically many of his own paintings would subsequently be misattributed - Nicolas Poussin.

We are grateful to Karen Chastagnol for endorsing the attribution to Nicolas Colombel. She will include the painting in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist.

1. See A. Blunt, "Nicolas Colombel", in Revue de L'Art, 1970, vol. IX, p.33, reproduced fig. 17.