François Desportes

Vente anonyme, Lyon, Me Aguttes, 10 décembre 2011, lot n°138 ;
Acquis à cette vente

The painting appears in good condition. The picture was carefully re-lined a few years ago and the painting has kept its thick rich impasto with a new stretcher. Inspection under UV light: Small accidents: a hole filled in, on the right next to the signature, about half of a square inch in size. Old scratch repaired in the cloud to the left of the stag's head (three inches long and roughly a quarter of an inch width). A few very minor old spots of repaints in the trees but nothing major.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Nous remercions Pierre Jacky de nous avoir confirmé l'authenticité de ce tableau d'après un examen de visu.

A Marly, Versailles ou Meudon, François Desportes règne en maître sur la peinture de chasse dans les premières années du XVIIIe siècle. Il a les faveurs du roi et de son entourage et les commandes sont nombreuses avant que la concurrence de Jean-Baptiste Oudry ne lui fasse perdre les commandes royales.
Ses toiles s’intègrent pour la plupart dans des grands décors et - insérées dans des boiseries - elles ne constituent le plus souvent pas des tableaux dit "de chevalets". Les dimensions des toiles les plus grandes sont parfois modifiées par l’artiste lui-même pour s’adapter aux changements imposés par un architecte ou un commanditaire capricieux. Nombreuses sont les chasses au cerf peintes par l’artiste et si notre tableau fut un temps considéré comme ayant été réalisé pour l’antichambre du château de Meudon nous ne pouvons en aucun cas l’affirmer aujourd’hui [1].
Ne pouvant aujourd’hui retrouver en toute certitude la commande originelle de notre tableau, il convient de simplement conclure qu’il s’agit d’une œuvre de première qualité dans le corpus de l’artiste et qu’il ne serait pas surprenant d’y reconnaitre un jour une grande commande, peut-être royale.

[1]. Si une chasse au cerf a bien été peinte pour le décor du château du Grand Dauphin à Meudon, celle-ci a pu être identifiée avec le tableau aujourd’hui conservé au musée des Beaux-Arts de Besançon. Voir P. Jacky, op.cit., vol. II, n° P 397.

We are grateful to Pierre Jacky for confirming this painting to be a work by François Desportes, after first-hand inspection.

François Desportes reigned across Marly, Versailles and Meudon as the hunting painter master during the early years of the 18th century. The king and his entourage granted him privileges and gave him numerous commissions before competition from Jean-Baptiste Oudry arrived and caused his loss of royal assignments.

His canvases were mostly set within grand interiors and inset into the woodwork. They were often not referred to as “easel” paintings. The dimensions of his larger canvases were sometimes modified by the artist himself to adapt to changes made by the architect or the capricious client. The artist painted many stag hunts and our painting was once thought to have been realized for the anterooms inside Meudon Chateau. However, it cannot currently be confirmed [1].

Unable to find today with certainty the original commission of our painting, we should simply conclude that this is a work of high quality in the artist’s corpus. Perhaps in the future one will not be surprised to discover it was an important assignment, perhaps royal.

[1]. If a stag hunt was painted to decorate the Grand Dauphin’s chateau in Meudon, it could be identified as the painting in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts of Besançon. Consult P. Jacky, op.cit., Vol. II, N° P 397.