François Le Moyne

Collection Augustin de Saint-Aubin;

His sale after-death, Paris, 4 April 1808, lot 5;

Possibly collection of counts d'Orsay and Hohenzollern;

Possibly their sale, Paris, 20 March 1810, lot 76.

Recently rediscovered, this sketch is a religious work whose subject was only known in a large horizontal composition drawn on paper, reproduced in Jean-Luc Bordeaux’s first book about Le Moyne, published in 1984 (J.-L. Bordeaux, François Le Moyne (1688–1737) and his generation, Cat. D. 31). This very fine drawing, which shows a later and more mature execution, is also reproduced in his new catalogue raisonné of Le Moyne’s oeuvre, published in December 2024 in Milan by Silvana Editoriale (J.-L. Bordeaux, François Le Moyne (1688–1737): catalogue raisonné, new findings and legacy, p. 81, Cat D. 46). There was also a mention of this subject by Le Moyne, with a description, in the Augustin de Saint-Aubin sale on 4 April 1808, no. 5, and later in a Comte d’Orsay and Comte Hohenzollern sale, 20 March 1810, no. 78 (J.-L. Bordeaux, op. cit. P. 43).

The catalogue of the Saint-Aubin sale (J.-L. Bordeaux, op. cit, Cat. D. 46) described the painting as follows: ‘Le Moine. Notre Seigneur guérissant les malades à la piscine, composition de douze figures ; de l’architecture et des masses d’arbres terminent le fond. Ce tableau dont les têtes sont expressives, joint a une couleur fraîche, une touche fine et spirituelle. Sur toile. Hauteur 30 pouces sur 20 pouces.’ (Le Moine. Our Lord healing the sick at the pool, composition of twelve figures; buildings and groups of trees close the background. This painting, whose heads are expressive, combines a fresh colour with a delicate and spiritual touch. On canvas. Height 30 pouces by 20 pouces.’

Until now, Jean-Luc Bordeaux had thought that the measurements might have been inverted and that the drawing and lost painting used the same composition. Now, we are able to see that the painted sketch is indeed vertical and that its measurements, 82 x 56 cm, are absolutely equivalent to the Saint-Aubin painting, i.e. 30 x 20 pouces (a pouce equates to 2.7 cm). As chance would have it, there is also a very fine red chalk study of a nude seated man with his hands pressed together just above his bent knees, looking towards the right, which seems to be a preparatory work for the paralysed man seated at Christ’s feet, on the left (J.-L. Bordeaux, op. cit., p. 124, Cat. D. 100). This red chalk drawing, discovered in 2008, bears an inscription at the bottom of the sheet ‘fr le Moyne’ which could well represent the actual and rare signature of our artist, offering this study as a gift to his patron, François Berger.

There are other comparable signatures on a relatively large number of drawings attributed to Le Moyne, but without the letters ‘fr’ preceding ‘le Moyne’, for example in the very fine landscape drawing now in the Fogg Art Museum (J.-L. Bordeaux, op. cit., D. 52). Jean-Luc Bordeaux once hypothesized that all the sheets marked ‘le Moyne’ could have been belonged to the hand of his protector Berger, who owned many portfolios of Le Moyne’s drawings by the time he died.

This fine sketch, with its free treatment of the drapery and faces of the main figures, as well as its rich, warm colouring, demonstrate that Le Moyne was still attached to the pseudo-Venetian style of his large composition for Josiah Destroying Idolatry and Punishing Solomon’s Priests (J.-L. Bordeaux, op. cit., pp. 235–236, Cat. P.4). This suggests that the sketch, painted for a large altarpiece, belongs to the period when he was producing many religious paintings, between 1717 and 1721.

We are grateful to Monsieur Jean-Luc Bordeaux for having written this notice.