Lot 263: CHARLES ALPHONSE DUFRESNOY

CHARLES ALPHONSE DUFRESNOY PARIS 1611 - 1668 VILLIERS-LE BEL, VAL D'OISE THE TRIUMPH OF GALATEA oil on canvas 44 by 38 5/8 in.; 111.8 by 98.1 cm.

London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, Exhibition of the Works of Old Masters, 1871, no. 52 (as Francesco Albano, The Triumph of Venus);
London, Royal Academy of Arts, Exhibition of the Works of Old Masters, 1871, no. 62 (as Francesco Albano, The Triumph of Venus).

C. Goede, England, Wales, Irland und Schottland: Erinnerungen an Natur und Kunst aus einer Reise in den Jahren 1802 und 1803, Dresden 1804/5) vol. IV, p. 90;
J. Young, A Catalogue of the Pictures at Grosvenor House, London 1820, p. 29, no. 81, reproduced (as Albano);
A. Jameson, Companion to the Most Celebrated Private Galleries of Art in London, London 1844, p. 242, no. 1 (as Albano);
J. Young, Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures at Grosvenor House, London 1913, no. 77;
D. Jaffé, Summary Catalogue of European Paintings in The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 1997, p. 122, reproduced (as Circle of Jacques Stella, possibly Charles-Alphonse Dufresnoy).

Welbore Ellis Agar (d. 1805), London:
By inheritance to his sons, Emmanuel Felix Agar and Welbore Felix Agar, London, 1805;
By whom sold, London, Christie's, 2 May 1806, lot 53 (As Albano);
Where acquired prior to the sale by Robert Grosvenor, First Marquess of Westminster (1767-1845), Eaton Hall, Cheshire;
Thence by inheritance to Richard Grosvenor, Second Marquess of Westminster (1795-1869), Eaton Hall, Cheshire;
Thence by inheritance to Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, First Duke of Westminster (1825-1899), Eaton Hall, Cheshire;
Thence by inheritance to Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, Second Duke of Westminster (1879-1953);
By whom offered for sale, London, Christie's, 1 May 1925, lot 128 (as Francesco Albani);
Where unsold and returned to Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor;
By inheritance to William Grosvenor, Third Duke of Westminster (1894-1963);
By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, 24 June 1959, lot 1 (as Francesco Albano);
Where acquired by J. Paul Getty (1892-1976), Malibu and Sutton Place;
Held in trust by the estate upon his death, and thence distributed to The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1978.

Formerly attributed to the artist Francesco Albani, the present painting has only recently been identified by scholars as the work of Charles-Alphonse Dufresnoy, the seventeenth-century French painter, poet and theoretician. Depicting either the sea-nymph Galatea or the goddess Venus, the composition reveals the balance of color and design that were signatures of Dufresnoy's style.

Although he achieved great acclaim for his works during his lifetime, Dufresnoy's painted oeuvre has since fallen into obscurity. This is partly due to the paucity of works he produced: a perfectionist who produced copious preparatory studies for each of his paintings, Dufresnoy's body of finished paintings was never very large. Additionally, a number of his recorded works have been destroyed or lost, including two signed works closely related to the present composition -- Arrival of Venus on Cythera and Toilet of Venus -- both of which disappeared from the Palace of Sanssouci in Potsdam during World War II and are thought to have been destroyed. Now known only through photographs, these works nevertheless bear close comparison to the Triumph of Galatea: all three depict a similarly proportioned milky-skinned woman, with aquiline nose and hair piled on the crown of her head and streaming down her back. Additionally, the figure in the Arrival of Venus on Cythera is surrounded by the same billowing, arch-like drapery as Galatea; and the verso of a drawing by Dufresnoy in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (NM 2445/1863) depicts the same fantastical, dolphin-headed sea creature as the one Galatea is riding.

More influential thank his paintings, Dufresnoy's lasting legacy is a 549 line poem, De arte graphica, in which he lays out his personal treatise on the visual arts. Begun while he was studying in Rome, the poem is composed in Latin and uses the example of Horace's Ars poetica to frame poetry and painting as sister arts: "'Let poetry be like painting, and painting like poetry: they are sisters and rivals; they exchange roles and names; the one, they say, is mute poetry; the other is called a speaking picture."(1) The artist then goes on to lay out his belief in the purpose of art -- the depiction and perfection of the beautiful through the careful study and dedication of the artist to design and coloration: "Just as the practiced hand achieves nothing of great renown if it lacks the pure light of secret art...; so art achieves no perfection without the labor of the hands, but languishes helpless as if her arms were bound..."(2) Although never published during his lifetime, the poem first appeared in the original Latin shortly after Dufresnoy's death in 1668; the first French edition, translated and annotated by Roger de Piles appeared later that year, and the work was eventually translated into English, German, Italian and Dutch, and remainined required reading for all visual arts students until the early 19th century.

1. C. Allen, et. al., De arte graphica (Paris, 1668) by Charles-Alphonse Dufresnoy, Geneva 2005, p. 179.
2. Ibid., 183.