Lot 50
  • 50

Alexandre-François Desportes

Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Alexandre-François Desportes
  • A pointer poised in front of a pheasant and a partridge, set in an extensive river landscape; A pointer beside a peasant and foliage, set in a landscape
  • a pair, both oil on canvas
  • Each: 43 1/2 x 57 5/8 inches

Provenance

Anonymous sale (The Property of a Gentleman), London, Christie's, 29 June 1973, lot 42;
With Partridge Fine Arts, London;
Their sale, New York, Christie's 17 May 2006, lot 168;
There acquired by the present collector.

Literature

G. de Lastic and P. Jacky, Desportes, Saint-Rémy-en-l'Eau 2010, pp. 198-199, cat. nos. P 722 bis and P 723 bis.

Condition

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. Both pictures of this pair are in unusually good condition. They have been restored and look very presentable. They have good glue linings. The stretchers are old. The paint layers are well varnished. There is no noticeable abrasion. The retouching is very minimal. The condition is extremely good given the scale and period of the paintings.
"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."

Catalogue Note

The official painter of animals and hunting scenes to both Louis XIV and Louis XV, Desportes was a master of both realism and elegance.  His paintings of animals, often dogs, poised in the midst of a hunt allowed him to show off not only his skill in depicting animals, but also the still life elements of the compositions.  In the latter of the present paintings, he carefully renders the foliage in the foreground, paying as much attention to the pointed leaves of the thistle as to the muscles of the dog's hind legs and the colorful feathers of the pheasant. 

These large and impressive works are based on compositions first painted by Desportes in 1719 (currently in the Abbaye de Chaalis, Ermenonville)1 and repeated again, with some differences, in 1727.2  Desportes had a productive and skillfull workshop, and it has been suggested that some parts of these paintings were completed by his studio. 

1. See G. de Lastic and P. Jacky (under Literature), cat. nos. P 622 and P 623. 
2. Op. cit., cat. nos. P 722 and P 723.