Lot 13: Jacques Linard (Troyes 1600-1645 Paris) The Flower-arranger

Jacques Linard
(Troyes 1600-1645 Paris)
The Flower-arranger oil on canvas98.8 x 132.7cm (38 7/8 x 52 1/4in).

Provenance: With P. Landry, Paris, 1962 With Galerie Pardo, Paris, 1969 Sale, Christie's, Monte Carlo, 4 December 1992, lot 38Sale, Ader-Picard-Tajan, Paris, 28 June 1993, lot 17Private Collection, Belgium ExhibitedParis, Galerie Charpentier, Les jardins et les fleurs de Breughel à Bonnard, 1965, no. 59 Literature M. Faré La nature morte en France, Geneva, 1962, vol. II, fig. 35 (as Louise Moillon)M. Faré, Le Grand Siècle de la nature morte en France, Le XVIIe siècle, Fribourg, 1974, p. 18-19, ill. (as in Collection F.M, Paris)C. Wright, The French painters of the Seventeenth Century, Boston, 1985, p. 222 While little was known to art historians about Jacques Linard in the early part of the last century, his work, like that of his contemporaries such as Louise Moillon and Sébastien Stoskopff, has been recently exonerated, recognising how the still-life in France, so long under the shadow of its Nordic counterparts at this point took on a stylistic independence. Previously considered to be an inferior art form to history painting, as well as the portrait, this genre nonetheless represented an important part of the artistic output in France at this time, allowing artists such as Linard to perfect their skills. Indeed, art historians have recently established a more substantial biography of the artist that recognises his rightful place, since we now know that when working in Paris, Jacques Linard received the title of painter and valet de chambre to the king in 1631, thus testifying to his fame and the esteem he aroused during his lifetime.