Vandalized, hidden and finally acclaimed. On Tuesday November 26, 2024, the painting by Nicolas Poussin, Venus spied on by two satyrs, will be presented at auction at the Hôtel Drouot, by the Ader house. Estimated between 800,000 and 1,000,000 euros, this large canvas from the painter's youth has an extraordinary history.
This painting, painted between 1625 and 1627, was part of the Paul Jamot collection, chief curator of the Louvre museum and specialist in Nicolas Poussin, until its sale in 1943. It was then lost sight of: only a photo in black and white remained. It was ultimately by chance that it was rediscovered by a “Drouot's eye”the famous Parisian auction house, while bargain hunting, says auctioneer David Nordmann.
The painting, judged “not good”, had then been passed anonymously for sale in Drouot and had ended up with a private individual, “on the walls of a very dark Parisian apartment, on the quays”according to the expert. “Vandalized in the 18th century, the body of Venus had been repainted, considered too scandalous at the time“, he explains.
Until the painter Jean-Baptiste Sécheret passed by, continues David Nordmann. He spotted it and called lecturer Mickaël Szanto, who authenticated it, once free of its repaintings and restorations.
For years, experts clashed: was it really an authentic Poussin? It must be said that the painting is rare in more than one way: by its size, firstly, since it is a gallery format, and, above all, by its subject. It is indeed an erotic work. It shows a Roman landscape and, as its title indicates, two satyrs who fall on a sleeping Venus, an omnipresent theme in 16th century Venetian painting.
Originally from Normandy, Nicolas Poussin spent most of his career in Italy. Arriving in Rome in 1624, he enjoyed painting mythological scenes depicting love relationships. He is still an artist in training, has no patron and needs money. This short vein of erotic, very sensual paintings, “repressed by morality”, however easily found a buyer at the time, contextualizes Ludmila Virassamynaïken, curator of ancient paintings and sculptures at the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon. But Nicolas Poussin very quickly abandoned this licentious imagery in favor of more classic, historical or religious themes.
Besides, the hypothesis of a licentious Poussin was rejected by art history until the 21st century. CIt was only after the publication in 2017 of an article by Nicolas Milovanovic and Mickaël Szanto that the painting was truly reattributed to the man who is considered the founder of classical art.
However, other erotic paintings of the same format and from the same period have been preserved. There Venus sleeping with Love or Venus spied on by shepherds is, for example, part of the national collections of Dresden, Germany. Three of them were brought together in 2022 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon for the exhibition Chick and Love. The Venus spied on by two satyrs appeared between the Venuses, both equally erotic, from the Kunsthaus in Zurich and the National Gallery in London.
