17/11/24 – Art market – Paris – While waiting for the opening of FAB Paris under the nave of the Grand Palais, various auction houses are offering fine sales of old paintings and drawings echoing the furniture, sculptures and objects of art already offered by Christie's and Sotheby's (see the brief from 11/17/24): if we will return later to the rich program planned at Artcurial (article to come), let's start now with the Drouot hotel which presented a preview of a selection of some gems in room 9 but The lute player unpublished by Nicolas Tournier (ill. 1) was already admired by everyone in the salons of the Turquin cabinet in September. This very Caravaggesque subject is treated here in the very singular manner of the Languedoc artist, with this sometimes almost abstract stiffness which disconcerts and fascinates at the same time.
- 1. Nicolas Tournier (1590-1639)
The lute player
Oil on canvas – 91 x 68 cm
Millon sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot on November 20, 2024
Photo : Cabinet Turquin
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See the image on his page
The catalog notice compares the painting to another lute player, installed on the right of the Concert of the Louvre but we of course think of the painting kept in the Hermitage Museum as well as the Saint Genes sold by Christie's in 2008, the year in which the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was enriched by the superb Lute player by Valentin de Boulogne (see the news item from 11/26/08). If we can still dream of the hypothesis of a return to Toulouse of this new painting by Tournier, following the two figures of peasant women bearing fruit so happily reunited at the Bemberg Foundation (see the news from 27/11 /15), we bet that the bidding battle will be tough…
- 2. Willem Claesz. Heda (1594-1680)
Still life with rohmer, oysters and glass of wine1634
Oil on panel – 36.5 x 56 cm
Millon sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot on November 20, 2024
Photo : Cabinet Turquin
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See the image on his page
When…
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