Philippe de Champaigne

Collection Germain-Louis Chauvelin, Minister of State, Commandeur of the King's Orders, former Garde des Sceaux;

His sale, Paris, 21 June 1762, lot 23 (as Philippe de Champaigne, sold with its pendant The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence);

Possibly Collection Monsieur Robert de Saint-Victor, former advisor at the Parlement and president of the Count Chamber in Rouen;

Possibly his sale after death, Paris, Galerie Lebrun, 26 November 1822, lot 58 (sold for 1,803 francs);

Collection Monsieur Armenault, former Chief of division at the Finances Minister;

His sale after death, M^es Taveau and Paillet, 6 November 1826, lot 26 (with its pendant, lot 25);

Anonymous sale, M^e Bonnefons de Lavialle, Paris, 28-29 November 1831, lot 23 (as Philippe de Champaigne, sold with its pendant The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence) ;

Sale Collection de M. D.L., M^e Pichon, Caen, 10 octobre 1837, lot 38 (as Philippe de Champaigne, with its pendant The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, lot 37);

Possibly Collection of the Duke of Hamilton;

Possibly his sale (The Property of his Grace the Duke of Hamilton, K.T.), Christie's, London, 8-10 July 1882, lot 1117 (as Philippe de Champaigne, without its pendant);

Anonymous sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 3 December 1985, lot 19;

Anonymous sale, Ader-Picard-Tajan, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 16 June 1987, lot 22 (as Philippe de Champaigne);

Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, New York, 31 January 2019, lot 276 (as Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne).

D. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great-Britain, London 1854-1857, tome II, p. 300;

R. Beresford, 'Book Reviews: Supplément au catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre de Philippe de Champaigne', in Burlington Magazine, CXXXV, October 1934, p. 703;

B. Dorival, Philippe de Champaigne 1602-1674. La vie, l'œuvre, et le catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre, Paris 1976, vol. II, p. 224, cat. no. 757;

B. Dorival, Supplément au Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre de Philippe de Champaigne, Paris 1992, p. 84, cat. no. 83, fig. 83 (as by Philippe de Champaigne and studio, and maybe Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne).

Believed by Bernard Dorival to have been lost when he published his 1976 catalogue raisonné of Philippe de Champaigne, the painting reappeared in the 1980s on the Paris art market, enabling the author to publish it in his 1992 supplement. Interestingly, he considered that the workshop was involved in its execution, prompting him to date the work to about 1667.

Although Richard Beresford contested the attribution to Champaigne in his review of Dorival’s book, the development of knowledge about the artist in recent years, and especially the many exhibitions devoted to him as well as to his workshop, have led specialists to revise this position, at first favouring Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne, in 2019 (when it was not possible to examine the work de visu), then settling on Philippe de Champaigne himself, following a de visu examination in 2025.

The work shares common traits with other early paintings by Philippe de Champaigne, for example those produced for the Carmelites in Rue Saint-Jacques (Christ and the Canaean Woman and The Entry of Christ into Jerusalem; Paris, Church of the Val-de-Grâce, Musée du Service de Santé des Armées, inv. DAPA-OM 899 and 900).

Additionally, the painting has historically been associated with a Martyrdom of St Lawrence (now thought to be the example in the National Gallery of Washington, inv. 1998.68.1; ill. 1), at least at the time of the Chauvelin sale in 1762, and probably also in subsequent sales, until the sale of the Duke of Hamilton’s collection, in which only the St Stephen appeared (see Dorival, 1976, op.cit., p. 224).

Ill. 1 Jean Baptiste de Champaigne, The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence © Washington, National Gallery of Art, Chester Dale Fund