Charles Le Brun

Louis-Antoine Prat (b.1944) and Véronique Prat (1944-2024), Paris (L. 3617);

Galerie Paul Prouté, Paris, Catalogue Prud'hon, 2000, no. 9;

Christie's, Paris 22 March 2017, lot 104.

J. Montagu, 'Les oeuvres de Jeunesse de Charles Le Brun: l'influence de Simon Vouet et d'autres', Simon Vouet. Actes de colloque international, Paris, 1992, p. 538, reproduced fig. 8;

B. Gady, L'ascension de Charles Le Brun. Liens sociaux et production artistique, Paris, 2010, p. 435, note 352.

The present drawing is a preparatory study for one of the Muses seen in the upper half of the elaborate frontispiece designed by Charles Le Brun for the thesis of Charles Girard du Tillay, which the latter dedicated to Pierre Séguier, Chancellor of France under Louis XIII and Louis XIV, and one of Le Brun’s earliest and most important patrons. Le Brun’s design was engraved by Gilles Rousselet in July 1641 and thence titled Séguier on Parnassus (fig. 1).¹

The full composition depicts Apollo offering his lyre, symbol of harmony and governance of the arts, to Séguier, who has taken Apollo’s place at the summit of Mount Parnassus. The scene thus presents Séguier as the supreme protector of culture in France, giving his political authority an almost divine status.

^1. Copies of the engraving can be found in several major institutional collections, including the Paris, Musée du Louvre (inv. no. 27446 LR/ Recto), Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum (inv. no. RP-P-1967-527).