CARLE VAN LOO | A nymph at her bath

Thélusson collection;

Their sale, Paris, 1 December 1777, lot 40, for 1,900 Livres;

Probably, Paris, B... sale [Masso et Benoit?], 10-14 April 1786, lot 35;

With Galerie Heim, 1978;

Private collection, Uzès, France;

Anonymous sale, Paris, Artcurial, 8 November 2011, lot 34.

Probably, L.G. Baillet de Saint-Julien, Lettres sur la peinture à un amateur, Geneva 1750, p. 9;

Probably Remerciement à M. B.. auteur des lettres sur la peinture.., 1751, pp. 5-6;

Probably M.-F. Dandré-Bardo, Vie de Carle Vanloo, Paris 1765, p. 64;

Art et Curiosité, July-August 1978, p. 51, reproduced;

M.-C. Sahut, Carle Vanloo. Premier peintre du roi (Nice, 1705-Paris 1765), exh. cat., Nice 1977, p. 102, cat. no. 265 (under lost paintings). 

Carle Van Loo was the most famous member of a celebrated artistic dynasty. In fact, by the mid-18th century, he was arguably the leading painter of his generation in Paris, highly acclaimed for his tremendous skill in depicting a wide range of subjects: portraits, mythological, genre and history paintings, as well as religious works. During his adolescent years, he won the first prize for drawing at the Académie Royale in 1723, and was awarded the Prix de Rome the following year. Van Loo went on to receive various royal commissions, including the decoration of the king’s private chambers at Fontainebleau and Versailles, and was appointed Premier Peintre to Louis XV in 1762.

Gabriel Saint-Aubin, another well-regarded painter in Paris during the 18th century, described the present picture as follows in the 1777 Thélusson sale catalogue: 'A Nymph at her Bath. A painting made precious by its lightness of touch, silvery colouring and free draughtsmanship, even without the name of painter.'