Old Masters

Old Masters

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 44. Sold Without Reserve | JEAN-JOSEPH-XAVIER BIDAULD |  VIEW OF THE RAVINE AT SAN COSIMATO.

Property from a Distinguished Private Collection, Sold Without Reserve

Sold Without Reserve | JEAN-JOSEPH-XAVIER BIDAULD | VIEW OF THE RAVINE AT SAN COSIMATO

Lot Closed

June 11, 02:55 PM GMT

Estimate

40,000 - 60,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property from a Distinguished Private Collection, Sold Without Reserve

JEAN-JOSEPH-XAVIER BIDAULD

Carpentras 1758 - 1846 Montmorency

VIEW OF THE RAVINE AT SAN COSIMATO


signed and dated lower left: Jph Bidauld / 1788

inscribed on the verso: a St Cosimato

oil on unlined canvas, unframed

canvas: 12¾ by 9½in.; 32.4 by 24.1 cm.

Jules Burat (1807-1885), Paris;

His (deceased) sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 28-29 April 1885, lot 10;1

Private Collection, France;

With Artemis Fine Arts, Ltd., New York;

From whom acquired by Robert M. Edsel, Dallas, Texas;

By whom sold, New York, Sotheby's, 27 January 2011, lot 132;

There acquired for $80,500.

Painted while Bidauld was in Italy, View of the Ravine at San Cosimato was once a part of the well-known collection of Jules Burat (1807-1885). A gentleman amateur, Monsieur Burat amassed a collection that spanned three centuries of French art. He owned works by Simon Vouet, had particularly strong holdings of the French 18th century, and even owned works by David and Gros. By focusing his interests on artists who had fallen from contemporary critical favor, Burat was able to assemble a group of pictures that included the works of Le Moyne, Lancret, Pater, Nattier and Chardin, among others. A philanthropist, Burat often loaned paintings to local charity shows and other organizations and was thus a well-known figure in the Parisan art world of the mid-nineteenth century.2 The present work was one of four paintings by Bidauld that Burat owned at the time of his death. 


The crisp, clear light and idyllic, unpopulated hillsides of the present canvas are indicative of Bidauld's oeuvre. The artist continued to paint scenes of the Italian countryside throughout his career, even after his return to France, using his numerous and exhaustive preparatory sketches—done en plein air—as guides for later compositions.   

This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist by Stephane Rouvet. 


1. An annotated copy of the sale catalogue at the Frick Collection in New York, lists the purchaser as "Rubin" and quotes a hammer price of 130 FF.

2. For more information on Jules Burat and his collection, see Paul Mantz's introduction to the 1885 sales catalogue.