Sébastien Bourdon

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, April 19, 1967, lot 57, to Clifford Duits for £400;
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, by 1970, Howard A. Noble Fund, inv. no. 70.29.1.

P. Rosenberg, France in the Golden Age, Seventeenth-Century French Paintings in American Collections, New York 1982, pp. 230, 347, under "Bourdon," cat. no. 6, reproduced p. 347;
C. Wright, The French Painters of the 17th century, Boston 1985, p. 149;
J. Thuillier, Sébastien Bourdon 1616-1671, Paris 2000, p. 334, cat. no. 200, reproduced.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This interesting picture has been lined in the last fifty years but the paint layer appears to be quite dirty. The retouches have blanched in the sky, in the clouds in the center left and on the right side. Other restorations have presumably been applied here and there in the foreground but they are not clearly visible under ultraviolet light. It is more than likely that if the picture were to be cleaned and varnished, the restorations mentioned above, the vertical restoration in the landscape and in the sky on the far right would account for most of the retouches. The picture is essentially in good condition with good potential for improvement.
"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."

By the mid-1650s Bourdon was back in Paris where he focused much of his energy on classical landscape painting, drawing inspiration from both his sojourn to Rome (1636-38) and the work of Poussin.  These landscapes, of which the present composition is a lovely example, are characterized by an emphasis on geometries with clearly defined planes, and by a vibrant, saturated and, as is visible here, golden palette.