Hippolyte-Jean Flandrin

The artist (and sold, his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 15-17, 1865, lot 10)
Boudillon (acquired from the above sale according to annotations in Marthe Flandrin's catalogue)

Paris, École Impériale des Beaux-Arts, Exposition des oeuvres d’Hippolyte Flandrin, 1865, no. 3 (within no. 86, the group of eighteen studies of the nave's murals)

Paris, Exposition Universelle, 1867, no. 2 

Bruno Horaist, "Hippolyte Flandrin à Saint-Germain-des-Près," Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art Français, année 1979, Paris, 1981, p. 266, no. 64 (recorded as lost)

Surface may be dirty and work may benefit from a clean. Under UV: No inpainting apparent.
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.

Flandrin’s art was shaped by early study under Ingres, an appreciation of the Italian Quattrocento, and, perhaps most profound of all, his devout Catholicism— which led him to believe his art to be a service to God.  From 1839, Flandrin had decorated several sanctuaries (including Saint-Severin in Paris, Saint-Paul in Nîmes, and Saint-Martin in Lyon) and soon after his completion of the decoration of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul in Paris (1849-53), he was asked to work on the nave of Saint-Germain-des-Près.  The artist had already completed the choir (1842-46) and the Chapel of the Apostles (1847), but the Gothic nave posed particular challenges, because it did not have large or expansive walls; this inspired him to ingeniously divide his program into an upper and lower section contained within the space’s many columns. 

As was his practice, Flandrin used a multitude of drawings and painted sketches while working on the large decorations.  While many of these studies are held by museums, the present group is a remarkable assemblage, each first sold in the artist’s studio sale of 1865 and lost for well over a century.  The present studies are for both the upper and lower tiers of the nave of Saint-Germain-des-Près.  On each side of the windows of the upper tier, Flandrin painted figures from the Old Testament, the majority presented in pairs, with their symbolic attributes such as Daniel’s lions (lot 67), while Samuel (lot 65) and Samson (lot 70) were painted alone given the narrowing wall.   Flandrin’s decoration for the lower section of the nave’s walls accommodates the curved archways, each space divided into two  Old and New Testament scenes; this choice was likely part of the Church tradition of finding prefigurations of the life of Christ in the older stories (Joanna R. Barnes, French oil sketches and the academic tradition: selections from a private collection on loan to the University Art Museum of the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, exh. cat., Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina, and travelling, 1994-95, p. 149).  Isaac au moment d’être sacrifié par son père  has the La Mort de Jésus-Christ sur le Calvaire (lot 63) as its pendant, and the figures of Jesus Christ, Mary, Saint John, and Mary Magdalene are relatively devoid of anecdotal details, giving the images extra potency.  In particular, the figure of Christ and his profound expression, evident both in this oil study and drawings for the completed work, had dramatic impact on viewers, with some speculating that his face was the artist’s own (Jacques Foucart, Hippolyte, Auguste et Paul Flandrin, Une fraternité picturale au XIX^e siècle, exh. cat., Musée du Luxembourg, Paris; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, 1984, p. 145).  Baalam prophétise qu'un astre s'élèvera du milieu d'Israël (lot 64),  in which the Old Testament oracle spoke of the bright star as symbol the coming Redeemer, is evocatively paired with the L’Adoration des Mages. The vibrant colors and stylized form is a testament to Flandrin’s faith and brilliant aesthetic program, his last great project, and one that he did not live to see finished.  The artist’s brother Paul and some of his pupils completed the decorations after the artist’s death in 1864.