ATTRIBUTED TO HENRI-HORACE ROLAND DE LA PORTE | A STILL LIFE WITH A BOUILLETTE LAMP, A SHEET OF MUSIC, A VIOLIN OR A CITTERN, AND A WHITE SATIN CLOTH ON A STONE LEDGE

Mrs. Marshall Field III, New York;

By whose Estate sold (Property from the Estate of Mrs. Marshall Field III), New York, Christie's, 6 October 1994, lot 171;

There acquired for $12,650.

Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute Department of Fine Arts, French Painting: 1100-1900, 18 October - 2 December 1951.

An accomplished still-life painter and a pupil of Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Henri-Horace Roland de la Porte was accepted into the Académie Royale in 1761. The simple arrangement of objects and the muted, almost monochrome palette of this canvas are characteristic of the artist's later work, in which his approach to still life became more intimate and immediate.¹ The artist has perfectly captured the way the soft light, which filters in from the left, gleams off the base of the bouillette lamp and shimmers softly off the surface of the crisp white satin cloth that covers most of the rest of the composition. The very top of an instrument, possibly a violin or a cittern (a stringed instrument similar to a guitar), peeks out from under the cloth in the center of the composition, while the only other items represented are the pages of sheet music which are propped up on an unseen music stand. The music book, entitled Recueil [d'A]riettes [de...] Auteurs [avec accompa]gnement de Cistre, and the music for the duet "De Florime" are typical of the types of sheet music that were published in Paris and elsewhere in the 1760s and '70s; and although the cittern was a slightly antiquated instrument by this time, music was still published for it into the late 18th century. In 1771, for example, a very similar collection entitled Premier Recueil d'ariettes, menuets et allemandes arranges pour le cistre ou guittare allemande..., was published in Lille. 

When this work was last sold in 1994 it was described as a fragment. While it does appear that the canvas was trimmed when it was relined, it is difficult to determine how much, if any, of the composition was lost during this process. The simplicity and starkness of this painting recall Chardin, and indeed, the two artists shared an interest in naturalism and in the celebration of rustic and unadorned objects. 

An alternate attribution to Thomas-Germain Duvivier (1735-1814) has also been suggested.

1. See for comparison, M. Fare & F. Fare, La Vie Silencieuse en France. La Nature Morte au XVIIIe Siècle, 1976, p. 192 and p. 193, figs. 287-288.