Lot 160: Gabriel-François Doyen (Paris 1726-1806 St. Petersburg)

The Martyrdom of a Female Saint - a sketch
oil on canvas
16 1/2 x 21 1/4 in. (42 x 54 cm.)

Paris, Galerie Cailleux, Esquisses & Maquettes de l'École francaise du XVIII°e siècle, March 1934, no. 35, as Fragonard.

Baron Portalis, Fragonard, sa Vie et son Oeuvre, Paris, 1889,
p. 289, as Fragonard.
L. Réau, Fragonard, sa Vie et son Oeuvre, Brussel, 1956, p. 142, as Fragonard.

C. Marcille, as Fragonard.
A. M. Decoeck in 1934.
Walferdin; sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 12-16 April 1880, lot 68, as Fragonard.
Gerard de Berny; (+), Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 2 December 1958,
lot 8, as Fragonard.

The Property of the late Professor René Küss (Lots 11-19 and Lots 131-161)

After having been considered as Fragonard, the painting was given to Doyen in the 1980s, on the basis of its resemblance in style and treatment with the Death of Virginia by Doyen in the Pinacoteca of Parma (see M. Sandoz, Gabriel François Doyen, Paris, 1975, no. 14, illustrated). Martine Herold, who was writing a thesis on Doyen, wrote to Professor René Küss in November 1998, stating that she believed the painting to be by Doyen, possibly executed for a private client after the success of the exhibition of the Death of Virginia at the Paris Salon of 1759.

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.