Lot 39: Theseus finds his Father's sword

Jean Lemaire, called le Gros Lemaire Dammartin 1598-1659 Gaillon, and possibly Nicolas Poussin Normandy 1598-1659 Gaillon
Theseus finds his Father's sword
oil on canvas
39 x 49 3/8 in. 99.2 x 125.2 cm.

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 26 June 1970, lot 43, as 'Circle of Nicolas Poussin'.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 17 January 1985, lot 20, as 'Jean Lemaire'.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, Monaco, 18-19 June 1992, lot 135, as 'Studio of Poussin'.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, Monaco, 5 December 1992, lot 189, as 'Studio of Poussin'.

Hero of Greek legend, king of Athens, famous slayer of monsters, Theseus had his story recounted in Plutarch and Hyginus. Though his father was the king of Athens, Theseus was born and raised in Troezen. There his father placed a sword and sandals under a heavy rock and left orders that his son was to follow him to Athens when he was strong enough to raise the rock and recover the tokens hidden beneath. In the present painting, Theseus is depicted lifting a great slab of masonry while his mother points to the sword and sandals being revealed.

The present painting is one of several known versions of the composition by Nicolas Poussin; others are in the Musée Conde in Chantilly; the Uffizi in Florence; and several private collections. The most celebrated version - perhaps the prime example - is that in Chantilly, first recorded in the collection of Guillaume Leon du Tillot (1711-1774), and copied in a drawing by Fragonard made when the young artist visited Tillot's collection in Parma in 1761. (Fragonard's drawing is in the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena.) Mariette ( Abecedario , IV, pp. 204-05), in a notice written sometime before 1761, noted that while the figures in Tillot's painting were by Poussin, they were laid in against an architectural background by the artist's friend, Jean Lemaire. Recent radiography of the Chantilly canvas confirms that the figures are painted over a fully finished architectural setting and landscape. The Chantilly canvas is generally dated circa 1638.

It is generally assumed that other versions of the composition were also a collaboration between Poussin and Lemaire, as the exceptionally high quality of the present version confirms. Notable also are the numerous small variations between the present lot and other versions, further supporting the view that it is a fine autograph replica executed by the two painters working in tandem (see M.F. dell'Arco, op. cit .). Jean Lemaire (1598-1659) traveled to Italy in 1623, where he befriended Vouet, Letin and Poussin, with whom he lived in 1630. Upon his return to Paris, he worked on the decorations in the Grande Galerie of the Louvre (1641-42) under Poussin's supervision, and became the leading exponent of the architectural veduta in mid-seventeenth-century France.