Charles-Antoine Coypel

Claude-Adrien Helvétius (1715-1771);
Thence by descent to Comte d'Andlau, Château de Voré;
By whom sold, New York, Christie's,  27 January 2000, lot 47;
There purchased by the present collector.

Paris, Salon, 1746, no. 5^bis.

E. La Font de Saint-Yenne, Reflexions sur quelques causes de l'etat present de la peinture en France. Avec un examen des principaux Ouvrages exposés au Louvre le mois d'Août 1746, 1747, pp. 57-58;
Anonymous, Jugemens sur les principaux ouvrages exposés au Louvre..., 1751, p. 33;
E. Bellier de la Chavignerie and L. Auvray, Dictionnaire général des artistes de l'école française depuis l'origine des arts du dessin jusqu'a nos jours, Paris 1882, vol. I, p. 316;
A. Fontaine, Les doctrines d'art en France de Poussin à Diderot, Paris 1909, p. 257;
U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 8, Leipzig 1913, p. 27;
I. Jamieson, Charles-Antoine Coypel, premier peintre de Louis XV et auteur dramatique (1694-1752), sa vie et son oeuvre artistique et littéraire d'après des documents inédits, suivies d'une de ses comédies inédites, Paris 1930, pp. 25 and 36;
M. Bardon, "Les peintures à sujet antiques d'après des livrets de salons," in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, April 1963, pp. 223 and 239;
A. Pigler, Barockthemen.  Eine Auswahl von Verzeichnissen zur Ikonographie des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, 2nd expanded edition, Budapest 1974, vol. II, p. 313;
T. Lefrancois, Charles Coypel, Peintre du roi (1694-1752), Paris 1994, p. 341, nos. P. 243 and P. 242 respectively (both as lost);
P. Jeromack, "Auction Report:  Old Master sales, New York," in The Art Newspaper, March 2000, p.66.

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. Neither of the pictures in this pair seems to be lined. It is likely that the stretchers are period. The paint layers are both stable and the canvases are well stretched, with only very faintly raised cracking in both pictures. The condition of both paintings is remarkable. Although there may be a slight patina of age to the paint layers, the condition is certainly highly unusual in this case. Under ultraviolet light, there is a slightly milky cast to both pictures, but it does not seem that this is masking any restorations. It is doubtful that there are any restorations of any note. The works should be hung as is.
"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."

In this remarkable pair of paintings Charles-Antoine Coypel was able to give free rein to his enormous dramatic and painterly abilities.  The subject, two men with diametrically opposed views of the world, had enjoyed large general appeal since antiquity and had special resonance for the artist.  First presented at the Paris Salon of 1746, they went directly from Coypel to Claude-Adrien Helvétius and then remained in the family of his descendants until they appeared on the market in 2000, where they were acquired by the present collector.

The subjects of the paintings are the Greek philosophers Democritus of Abdera and Heraclitus of Ephesus.  Their views of life could not have been more different:  Democritus never stopped laughing at the follies of humankind while Heraclitus wept continuously over the condition of the world.  There are numerous representations of them in Greek and Roman art and literature, but the theme fell out of favor in post-classical art and was not revived until the late 15^th century.  By about 1600 Democritus and Heraclitus once again became a popular subject, particularly in the Netherlands, and the philosophers are depicted either in pairs or a single composition.  These two philosophers were an ideal subject for Coypel, who was renowned for his dramatic portrayal of emotions, and it allows him to portray the extremes of joy and sorry in a single pair of figures. 

Almost all earlier representations show one or both philosophers with a globe of the earth, sometimes actually embracing it.  Also they are usually distinguished from each other by their dress and facial type: Democritus portrayed as a more dashing figure, while Heraclitus more sober and serious. Coypel reduces the subject to its simplest form in order to heighten the emotion.  Both are old men with full beards and similar facial types, but Coypel makes the differences between them very clear.  Heraclitus has tears in his eyes and is hunched over and drawn within himself.  He seems smaller than Heraclitus and even wears a duller robe.  Heraclitus is more expansive and wears a red cloak, his eyes partially squeezed shut as he smiles at the scene before him.  Democritus points directly at the viewer as if calling attention to human folly while Heraclitus wrings his hands in sorrow.  

Both figures are shown bust-length, framed by tromp-l’oeil stone embrasures.  The poses and setting are suggestive of portraiture and Coypel uses the same device in the Portrait of Charlotte Philippine de Châtre de Cangé, Marquise de Lamure as well as the more flamboyant portraits of Madame and Mademoiselle Dupillé and Monsieur Dupillé.¹  By doing so he takes the figures out of the realm of the antique and moves them into that of the viewer, thus making them commentators on the events of the contemporary world.   

Detailed chalk drawings of both subjects have come down to us, showing the care the artist took in composing these paintings.²  The choice of subject matter may have been the result of a commission from Helvétius or Charles-Antoine’s independent invention, but in either case, the pair can also be seen as an homage  to the artist’s father, Antoine.  The latter’s Laughing Democritus, now in the Musée du Louvre, was one of his most famous pictures.  A replica of the painting remained in the family and was included in Charles-Antoine’s estate sale.    

A note on the provenance:
Cheerful Democritus and Sorrowful Heraclitus have a distinguished history and can be traced directly back to the Salon of 1746.  They were either commissioned by or acquired at the Salon by Claude-Adrien Helvétius, the son of a physician who had saved Antoine Coypel’s life.  Helvétius was a financier and intellectual who published an extremely controversial book on philosophy called De l’esprit, which he later retracted.  Having paintings of these two notorious Greek philosophers would clearly have appealed to him.  He was married to Anne-Catherine de Ligniville, who lead one of the most influential salons in Paris and was friends with Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.  She was also known for her menagerie, which included eighteen Angora cats, noted by Franklin in his correspondence.  Helvétius purchased the Château de Voré in 1749, and the paintings remained there with the descendants of his daughter, the Comtesse d’Andlau, until they were sold at auction in 2000. 

1.  See Lefrançois  (in Literature), P. 147, reproduced p. 267 and P. 155 and P.156, reproduced p. 275.
2.  Lefrançois, op. cit., p. 341.  Both are reproduced in the catalogue of the Voré sale, 27 January 2000 (see Provenance).