Jean-Jacques Lagrenée

Acquired in Paris in the early part of the 20^th Century;

Thence by descent until 2008;

Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, New York, 24 January 2008, lot 93.

Salon de Paris, 1781, no. 34 (described as Les fils de Tarquin, admirant la vertu de Lucrèce... Ce Tableau a 6 pieds de large, sur 4 de haut).

Explication des Peintures, Sculptures, Gravures, de Messieurs de L'Académie Royale, Paris 1781, pp. 10-11, no. 34;

J. Locquin, La peinture d'histoire en France de 1747 à 1785, Paris 1912, pp. 252 and 255;

L. Hautecœur, Histoire de l'art, Paris 1959, p. 56;

E. Bénézit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, Paris 1976, ed., vol. 6, p. 383;

M. Sandoz, Les Lagrenée. II. - Jean-Jacques Lagrenée 1739-1821, Paris 1988, pp. 226-27, no. 135 (as location unknown).

This painting by Jean-Jacques Lagrenée is a recent rediscovery. Exhibited at the Salon of 1781, it has come down to us in a magnificent condition. This is an exceptional example of a neo-classical work by an artist of the generation preceding that of Jacques Louis David.

Displayed at the 1781 Salon and known in the literature concerning Jean-Jacques Lagrenée, the painting Sextus Tarquinius admiring the virtue of Lucretia was rediscovered in 2008 in a Sotheby’s sale in New York (see Provenance).

Exceptional for its large size and excellent condition, the painting illustrates an episode which has rarely been painted yet played an important part in Rome’s legendary history, leading to the fall of the Roman Kingdom and the beginning of the Republic. Livy, in his History of Rome, relates that during the siege of the city of Ardea, Sextus Tarquinius and his brothers, the sons of Tarquinius Superbus – the last king of Rome, who ruled from 534 BCE to 509 BCE – went to Rome, along with their cousin, Tarquinius Collatinus, to check on their wives’ behaviour. Lucretia, wife of Collatinus, who was celebrated for her beauty and virtue, was the only one found calmly spinning wool and watching over her house, while the other wives were amusing themselves with many companions. Lagrenée describes the astonishment of the king’s son when he witnesses Lucretia’s virtue. The jealous Sextus rapes Lucretia, who commits suicide after calling upon her father and husband to avenge her. This vengeance resulted in the banishment of the Tarquinius family and the Roman uprising which led to the establishment of the Roman Republic.

In the view of Marc Sandoz, the scale of this painting suggests it was a commission, but unfortunately there is nothing to confirm this (Marc Sandoz, Les Lagrenée, II. - Jean-Jacques Lagrenée (le jeune), 1739-1821, Paris, 1988, p. 226).

This type of subject is typical of works presented at the Salon during the last third of the eighteenth century. Indeed, from the 1775 Salon onwards, an increasing number of history subjects were shown, with a preference for episodes from Roman history. However, Jean-Jacques occupies his own distinctive place in this painting revival. From the same generation as Gabriel-François Doyen (1726-1806), Nicolas Guy Brenet (1728-1792) and Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié (1735-1784), Lagrenée was known as an innovative painter and a sought-after decorative artist. He was one of the main ceiling painters of his time, alongside Jean-Simon Berthélemy (1743-1811), Louis Jean-Jacques Durameau (1733-1796) and Antoine-François Callet (1741-1823).

Jean-Jacques was taught to paint by his brother Louis. After receiving the second Grand Prix de Rome in 1760, he decided in 1762 to follow his brother, who had been appointed Director of the St Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts. He then spent the years from 1763 to 1769 in Italy. In 1768, Marigny granted him the privilege of being admitted for one year as a pensionnaire at the Académie de France in Rome. During his time in Italy, he developed an enthusiasm for antiquity and took a greater interest in archaeological discoveries than in the Italian masters. He painted dozens of works inspired by Homer, Ovid’s poetry and the stories of Psyche and Telemachus. He also took up aquatint and in the late eighteenth century his engravings in the lavis manner seem to have had an important role in propagating the taste for friezes with classical decoration on a plain background. He was approved by the Académie royale in 1769 and regularly exhibited at the Salon between 1771 and 1804. In 1775, he became a full member of the Académie and was appointed deputy professor the following year; in 1781 he became titular professor. This institutional role, combined with his taste for frieze compositions and classical motifs as well as his interest in the traditional iconography of antiquity, played a surely under-estimated part in the revival of history painting and undoubtedly influenced the Neoclassical painters. As his career progressed, the vocabulary of forms that he used became simplified and pared down, giving his frieze decorations a monumental appearance. He was one of the precursors of the Adam and Empire styles, giving rise to his appointment as Artistic Director at the Sèvres manufactory (1785-1800).

This Sextus Tarquinius admiring the virtue of Lucretia is evidence of Lagrenée’s fondness for antiquity. The two groups of figures in the foreground are placed as though on a stage, in an architectural space with simplified Doric decoration, recently restored: at the time of its previous auction in New York in 2008, this landscape was still largely obscured by later architectural elements (ill. 1). The architecture frames a view of the countryside in the manner of Raphaël’s art. This carefully constructed setting reinforces the precision of the mise en scène, in which the theatrical poses of the protagonists admirably reflect their emotions. The quality and bright colour of the draperies is equally remarkable.