This December in Paris, Sotheby's is honored to be offering La Collection Ribes, a magnificent single-owner sale featuring a selection of fine and decorative art from the storied collection of Count and Countess de Ribes. Of particular importance are two paintings by female artists that are amongst the highlights of the sale.
Juno borrowing the belt of Venus by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun is a rare and important history painting by the artist, commissioned in 1781 by Charles Philippe de France, Comte d’Artois. Signed and dated and in exceptional state, the painting was exhibited at the Salon in 1783 and has descended within the de Ribes family for over two centuries.
Marguerite Gérard’s L’élève intéressante is a beautifully detailed interior featuring a young woman holding a framed print of The Fountain of Love by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Painted when she was just twenty-six, the work was the artist’s first major canvas and is a charming ode to her relationship with her brother-in-law and teacher; indeed Fragonard himself painted the mischievous white cat in the present painting.
Both paintings will be offered in the evening sale of the de Ribes collection, to be held on 11 December 2019. The exhibition opens at Sotheby’s Paris on 7 December 2019.
