Joseph Marie VIEN (Montpellier 1716 - Paris 1809)

Lot 38
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Estimation :
15000 - 20000 EUR
Result without fees
Result : 15 000EUR
Joseph Marie VIEN (Montpellier 1716 - Paris 1809)
Loth and his daughters Canvas 63 x 81 cm (Restorations) Provenance: - Collection Prevot, Normandy, at the end of the 19th century; - Collection of his grandson; - Anonymous sale, Monaco, Christie's, June 22, 1991, n°146, reproduced; - Acquired in 1992 in Montpellier by the current owner. Note: Our painting is a replica of the painting by Vien, signed and dated 1747, kept in the Musée des Beaux - Arts du Havre (see Th. Gaehtgens and J. Lugand, Joseph Marie Vien, Paris, 1988, n°26, reproduced). The painting in Le Havre was commissioned in 1747 by the miniaturist Hubert Drouais (François Hubert's father) who had already owned a Suzanne et les vieillards since 1744 (Nantes, Musée des beaux-arts, see Th. Gaehtgens and J. Lugand op. cit. n°9, reproduced). From the Nantes painting, Vien executed an autograph replica (op. cit. n°11) sold in New York, Sotheby's, on January 26th 2007, n°358, reproduced, former Suida - Manning collection. Our painting, because of its dimensions and its great pictorial quality, seems to be the counterpart of this American painting, commissioned by his teacher. These two compositions, treated as a pair, are both taken from the Old Testament. Our painting takes up the text of Genesis (XIX, 31-36): an angel appears to Lot and commands him to flee the city of Sodom with his daughters to escape its destruction. They take refuge in a cave where, in order to offer their father descendants, the two sisters decide to get Lot drunk in order to share his bed.
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