"Les Pécheurs," a tapestry, woven between 1744 and 1761, from the series Les anciennes Indes, after cartoons by Alexandre-François Desportes, based on paintings by Albert van der Eckhout and Frans Post commissioned by Prince Maurice of Nassau and given to Louis XIV in 1679 Imperial Tapestry Manufactory, St. Petersburg, period of Elizaveta Petrovna

N.Iu. Biriukova, "Western European Tapestries in the Hermitage." The Burlington Magazine vol. 107, no. 749 (August 1965): 415-16

Clarissa Bremer-David. "'Le Cheval Rayé': A French Tapestry Portraying Dutch Brazil." The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 22 (1994): 21-29

Tamara Korshunova, "Peterburgskie shpalery v Ermitazhe [Petersburg Tapestries in the Hermitage]," Nashe nasledie 69 (2004)

T.T. Korshunova, Russkie shpalery. Peterburgskaia shpalernaia manufactory [Russian Tapestries. The Petersburg Tapestry Manufactory]. Leningrad: Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1975, 18-19 and 252-253

N. Spilioti, "Imperatorskaia shpalernaia manufaktura [The Imperial Tapestry Manufactory]," Sokrovishcha iskusstva v Rossii 1903, no. 4-8, 239-240

V.K. Truktovskii. "Russkii gobelen v Moskovskoi Oruzheinoi Palate [Russian Tapestries in the Moscow Armoury Palace]." Starye gody 1907, July-September: 298-308

Reduced. Lined with velcro. Good colors of the whole palette. Later selvage. Some well-done restoration throughout the entire panel, including some patching and piecing in skirt of female figure and top of central fruit basket. Patch of reweaving in right elbow of standing figure and top of right fruit basket. Some other areas of reweaving including palm fronds and some areas in borders. Color in life is slightly cooler than in catalogue photograph.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

History of the Series

This magnificent tapestry originally formed part of a set of eight tapestries depicting the exotic nature and inhabitants of the Dutch colony in Brazil. Count John Maurice of Nassau-Siegen (d. 1679), the Dutch governor in Brazil between 1637 and 1644 and an official of the Dutch East Indies Company, was particularly interested in recording the 'wonders of the New World' and commissioned various artists, botanists and doctors to record the local flora, fauna and inhabitants. He invited Albert Eckhout (d. 1664) and Frans Post (d. 1680) to travel through Brazil between 1637 and 1644 on an expedition with him and collect sketches and make oil paintings of their views of the country. Eckhout focused on the figures and vegetation and Post on the landscapes. On his return to Europe in 1644, John Maurice asked the artists to prepare cartoons for a tapestry series from their sketches which they completed before 1652. He commissioned Maximiliaan van der Gucht (d. 1689) from Delft to weave a tapestry set for his cousin Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, and a second set for himself in 1667 (both now lost). He then presented to King Louis XIV of France thirty-four paintings and the eight cartoons for the series of 'Les Anciennes Indes' in 1679. An inventory of 1681 lists them as 'huit grand tableaux [...] représentant des figures d'hommes et de bêtes de grandeur naturelle, plusieurs plantes, fruits, oyseaux, animaux, poisons et paysages de Brésil'. Louis XIV was so impressed by the cartoons that he commissioned the Royal Gobelins workshops to produce tapestries to the designs in 1687 but not before he had Jean-Baptiste Belin de Fontenay (d. 1715), François Bonnemer (d. 1689), René-Antoine Houasse (d. 1710) and Jean Baptiste Monnoyer (d. 1699) retouch them.

Les Indes in Russia

Peter the Great had already taken the first steps to establishing the first tapestry manufactory in Russia when the need to negotiate a treaty against the Swedes brought him to France in 1717.  While there, he made a careful study of France's artistic manufactories, including a trip to the Gobelin workshop.  The duc d'Antin, who accompanied the Tsar to Gobelins, asked him to pick any of the tapestries he liked and Peter selected a series of The New Testament and a group of Les Petits Indes.  According to Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins, Period Louis XIV, 1662-1699, XXIX. - Les Indes (pp. 397-98), Peter selected a set of eight tapestries from the Jans and Lefebvre workshop. The series had met with great success and was officially woven at Gobelins eight times between 1687 and 1730; Peter chose a set of the Petits Indes adapted by François Desportes (d. 1743). Although the set was probably destroyed in the great fire which burnt the Winter Palace in 1837, it had a great influence on the development of tapestry weaving in Russia. Tamara Korshunova of the Hermitage Museum has written that the Imperial Tapestry Manufactory's records indicate that eighteen copies of individual panels from the series were made between 1732 and 1746.  Since the 1740s, a version of the entire series comprising eight tapestries has been hanging in the Assembly Hall of Monplaisir Palace at Peterhof. The borders of the Peterhof tapestries, like the offered lot, include lion masks in the corners and the Imperial monograms of Peter the Great or his daughter, the Empress Elizabeth. In Russia, Eeckhout's and Post's scenes of the Tupaya peoples of present-day Brazil were reinterpreted as allegories of the continents and the Russian version of Les Pécheurs that now hangs in the Monplaisir Palace is identified as A Blackamoor Shooting a Bow (Africa) in Russian inventories.  Several other editions of the tapestries actually have identificatory captions of the continent woven into the border.  At present, this is one of only three versions of Les Pécheurs/Africa known to be extant.  In addition to the tapestry currently hanging at Peterhof, there is another version with the date 1759 woven into the border that was in the collection of René Charlier at the turn of the last century (illustrated in Truktovskii, 1907, between pages 302 and 303).