Claude Vignon

Probably one of a set of six paintings by Vignon given to the church of Notre Dame du Confalon in Lyon by Étienne Cochardet, before 1637.

P. Pacht Bassani, Claude Vignon. 1593-1670, Paris 1992, pp. 275-6, cat. no. 155 (as lost).

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden, who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is unlined and on its original stretcher (without wedges). Although superficially dirty, dusty and marked in places with drips of water etc., the underlying canvas and the paint itself is remarkably undamaged. There are one or two old knocks: near the saint’s armpit, below that near the base edge in his drapery and in the top right corner, which have been filled with daubs of dark heavy old repaint, and there are no tears apart from a brief piece of canvas at the base edge centre left below the knock mentioned above. The drip at centre left was mercifully not long lasting and paint has not flaked although it is blanched, probably reversibly. Otherwise the old varnish remains largely untouched, apart from some areas which have recent been cleared slightly for instance in the Saint’s head and back, with little tests in the book and the edge of the drapery, which look strong and good. Offered unframed.
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This beautifully preserved painting by Claude Vignon is an exciting rediscovery. The composition was previously only known through an old copy in the Lorrain Museum, Nancy (see Literature). A comparable painting depicting Saint Anthony, of almost identical dimensions, is in the church of Saint Bruno des Chartreux, Lyon.¹ Saint Anthony is portrayed in a similar half-length pose, though in reverse, bent over a book and crucifix. The Saint Anthony was one of a set of six anchorites by Vignon, given to the church of Notre Dame du Confalon in Lyon, by Étienne Cochardet, sometime before 1637. It is not known when the Saint Anthony was transferred to the Church of Saint Bruno but it was presumably at this point that the set was broken up and the present Saint Jerome separated from the rest of the series.

We are grateful to Madame Paola Pacht-Bassani for confirming the attribution to Vignon and for dating this to the 1630's following first hand inspection of the work.

1. P. Pacht Bassani, under Literature, p. 275, cat. no. 154.