Lot 99: Charles de La Fosse (1636-1716)

Bacchus and Ariadne: An allegory of Autumn inscribed with measurements '... pieds.. 2 de haut' and '5 pieds 3/4 de large', with the artist's framing lines and indications of scale ( recto ) and with inscription '... de Lafosse', and traces of a study in red and black chalk ( verso ) black and red chalk on light brown paper, watermark proprietary 11 x 81/2 in. (278 x 215 mm.) PROVENANCE The artist's studio inventory number '892' ( verso ). Marquis Philippe de ChenneviŠres (L. 2073); Paris, 4-7 April 1900, part of lot 255. LITERATURE P. de ChenneviŠres, 'Une collection de dessins d'artistes fran‡ais', L'Artiste, 1894-97, XVII, p. 418. C. von Prybram-Gladona, Unbekannte Zeichnungen alter Meister aus europ„ischem Privatbesitz, Munich, 1969, no. 25, illustrated. NOTES Jo Hedley has kindly confirmed the attribution to Charles de La Fosse and pointed out that the drawing is an early study for the picture in the Mus‚e des Beaux-Arts in Dijon, C. Bailey, The Loves of the Gods, exhib. cat., Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum and elsewhere, 1992, no. 6. Bacchus and Ariadne, or Autumn was painted in 1699 for the newly renovated Grand Salon of King Louis XIV at Marly as one of a Four Seasons series. The other seasons were commissioned from Jean Jouvenet, Antoine Coypel and Louis de Boullogne, then the foremost painters of the Acad‚mie. The pictures were to be hung thirty feet above the ground, blocking the windows. In mid-September Fran‡ois Mansart, surintendant g‚n‚ral des bƒtiments du roi, was given authorisation by King Louis XIV to have the canvases painted and the pictures were hung less than a month later. Mansart would have specified in the commission the exact size of the space to be filled by the picture. Although La Fosse altered the composition, reversing the figures and removing the bystanders, the size indicated by the scale on the present sheet matches the finished canvas almost exactly: 53/4 x 71/2 pieds (approximately 184 x 240 cm.). We grateful to Jo Hedley for her help in cataloguing this drawing.