Anne Vallayer-Coster

Probably Paris, Salon, 1771, no. 146 ("Un Bas-Relief imité, jeux d'Enfans, Tableau de 2 pieds 2 pouces, sur un pied 6 pouces.").

Probably D. Diderot, in Explication des Peintures, Sculptures et Gravures de Messieurs de L'Académie Royale, 1771, p. 198, no. 146 ("il fait illusion");
Probably M. Roland Michel, Anne Vallayer-Coster 1744-1818, Paris 1970, p. 178, cat. no. 240 (as missing since 1771).

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 painting has an old glue lining which still stabilizes the paint layer although the cracking is quite raised, yet not unattractively so. The paint layer is visibly dirty and a degree of cleaning would improve the picture noticeably. A visual appraisal of the painting suggests that the condition is very lively and fresh. Under ultraviolet light there are a few fairly broad retouches visible in the upper right which are discolored. If the picture were to be cleaned, these would be removed along with a few other retouches which have slightly blanched in the relief itself, but which do not appear to attend to anything more than a crack or two. Despite the fact that a few restorations would be required in the upper right and possibly elsewhere, we are very comfortable and happy with the 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."

This painting is probably identifiable with the one exhibited in the Salon of 1771 described as "Un Bas-Relief imité, jeux d'Enfans" and untraced since that exhibition.  The measurements at that time were given as "2 pieds 2 pouces sur 1 pied 6 pouces" which, converted to modern measurements, are almost identical to those of the present work.  Dated 1770, this work is the earliest known example of a trompe l'oeil painting in Vallayer-Coster's oeuvre and an important rediscovery.¹

Anne Vallayer² was accepted as a full member of the Académie royale de peinture et sculpture on July 28, 1770 at the age of only twenty-six.  Her reception into the Académie garnered considerable attention including an announcement of the event in the Mercure de France of September 1770 which stated that she had been received as a full member on the basis of "paintings in the genre of flowers, bas-reliefs, animals [that] were the best recommendation of her talent."  In addition, a poem was written in her honor by M. Guichard, an excerpt from which also provides us with information on the types of pictures she presented to the Académie:  "Tu peins deux arts que tu chéris/Et la musique et la peinture/...Bas-Relief, vase, fruits, légumes et lapin/Sous tes magiques doigts tout a son trait certain" (You paint two arts that you cherish/Music and painting/...Bas-relief, vase, fruit, legumes and rabbit/Under your magic fingers have their very features).³  Of the group of nine or ten canvases presented to the Academie⁴, two were retained as morceaux de réception⁵ and it is likely that all were exhibited in her debut at the Salon of 1771 where her work was universally admired by the critics.  It is, therefore, highly probable that the present trompe l'oeil was among the group of works the young Anne Vallayer presented to the Académie in the summer of 1770.

Denis Diderot, in his review of the 1771 Salon, wrote admiringly: "Il est certain que si tous les récipiendaires se présentaient comme Mademoiselle Vallayer e s'y soutenaient avec autant d'égalité, le Sallon serait autrement meublé" (It is certain that if all new members made a showing like Mademoiselle Vallayer's, and sustained the same high level of quality there, the Salon would look very different!).⁶

 

1.  Other trompe l'oeil paintings by Vallayer-Coster are dated 1772, 1773, 1774, 1776 and 1777 (see E. Kahng and M.R. Michel, Anne Vallayer-Coster, Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette, exhibition catalogue, Dallas 2002, cat. nos. 19, 20, 27, 40, 42 and 47).
2.  On April 21, 1781, Anne Vallayer married Jean-Pierre-Silvestre Coster, a lawyer in the Parlement and receveur général du tabac.
3.  See E. Kahng and M.R. Michel, op.cit., p. 17.
4.  Ibid., p. 71, footnote 14; the number is given by Jean-Georges Wille, an artist who was present at Vallayer's presentation before the Académie, in his diary entry of July 28, 1770. 
5.  This pair, The Attributes of Music, dated 1770, and The Attributes of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, dated 1769, are in the collection of the Musée du Louvre, Paris.
6. E. Kahng and M.R. Michel, op.cit., p. 17 and p. 34, footnote 41.