| | | | | | | | Document | Sale Catalog F-A1048 | |
| Sale Location | La grande Salle de Vente, Rue de Cléry, no. 96, Paris, France | | Seller(s) | Grimod de La Reynière, Laurent
Forestier, Augustin
Lebrun, Joseph-Alexandre
etc.
from catalog: Citoyen Lareynière
from auctioneer's copy: M. de Lareynière; Citoyen Forestier; Cadet; etc. | | Expert | Lebrun, Jean-Baptiste-Pierre | | Lugt Number | 4965 and 5025 | | No. of Painting Lots | 189 | | Notes | The principal portion of this sale consisted of paintings belonging to Laurent Grimod de La Reynière (1734-1793), a wealthy fermier-général , whose family enjoyed connections with the French court and also cultivated a tradition of close relations with prominent writers and artists. (For a full discussion of Grimod de La Reynière's career as a collector see Colin B. Bailey, Patriotic Taste, Collecting Modern Art in Pre-Revolutionary Paris , Yale University Press, 2002, pp.207-233.) His father had also collected paintings and objects of artistic value, but it was the son who first began to collect on a broad scale, building a gallery that became most notable for its representation of French artists, especially his contemporaries.
Grimod de La Reynière is documented as having begun buying works of art already at the age of nineteen, and in 1756, still in his early twenties, he was among the buyers at the sale of the Duc de Tallard's collection, purchasing a small group of primarily Italian pictures, most of which he later disposed of as his interest in the work of French painters took precedent. But in spite of having commissioned a picture from the marine painter Joseph Vernet in 1762 and having purchased a work by Greuze from the Salon of 1765, he generally preferred to buy from auctions or from other collectors rather than directly from the artists. His activity began in earnest in 1770 - the year he was also made administrateur-général des postes - with his purchase of the residence of the banker Jean-Joseph de Laborde, which contained a series of large canvasses by François Le Moyne executed some four and a half decades earlier. Three years later he participated in an unusual speculation with the dealer Vincent Donjeux involving an auction of paintings (Lugt, Répertoire, no.2116), but much of his time during this period was spent supervising the construction and decoration of his residences, and it was only in the next decade that he bought most of the pictures for which his collection became known. These included three paintings from the sale of Auguste-Gabriel Godefroy in 1785 and eleven from the sale of the Comte de Vaudreuil in 1787, all of which had been knocked down to the dealer J.B.P. Lebrun, who presumably sold them in turn to Grimod de La Reynière. Two of the paintings still belonged to Lebrun in April 1791, and it cannot be excluded that he and Grimod de La Reynière were somehow in business together, just as he and Donjeux had collaborated in 1773.
In August, 1789, just a month after the fall of the Bastille, Grimod de La Reynière agreed to participate in a large financial speculation initiated by a fellow collector, the comte de Saint-Morys, that involved the purchase of bonds floated by the French crown. The overthrow of the monarchy proved to be the undoing of this plan and the resulting debt forced Grimod de La Reynière to offer his collection for sale. This was done with the help of Lebrun, who in mid-1792 published a catalogue consisting of 60 paintings (though the last lot is mis-numbered 68), including all of the major pieces, which Lebrun hoped to sell en bloc. In the event of failure to sell the pictures privately - which in fact did occur - an auction was to take place in November of the same year, but for unknown reasons when the time came the sale was postponed, taking place only in April of the following year. Lebrun then issued a supplement to the catalogue with 115 additional lots of paintings - most of which were of less importance than those found in the earlier catalogue - as well as some sculpture, porcelain and furniture. These two catalogues comprised the contents of the present sale, which, to judge from Lebrun's notes, lasted at least five days.
Although the supplementary catalogue also carried the name of Grimod de La Reynière, annotations in Lebrun's copy (AAP II) show that only six of the new lots were his property and that the majority belonged to other consigners, most notably a certain "Citoyen Forestier," whose name Lebrun inscribed on the title page. Forestier is probably identifiable as Augustin Forestier (or Deforestier), whose children put many of the same paintings up for sale on Nov.27/28, 1816, following the death of his widow, Elisabeth Angelique Godin, their mother. Forestier's profession is not known, nor is the cause or date of his death, but it is worthy of note that in 1816 the family's address is given as No.40, rue de Cléry, the same street in which Lebrun and other dealers had their rooms. Forester consigned 37 of the supplementary lots, but at least seven further sellers were represented, including: Espier (20 lots), Sesval (11 lots), Jean-Baptiste Buffault (14 lots), Grandchamp (8 lots), one of the family of painters from Liége named Aubée (3 lots), and the dealer P.L. Parizeau (1 lot). Finally Lebrun included six items from of his own stock and his younger brother - and occasional partner - Joseph-Alexandre Lebrun added 22 lots, including one owned in partnership with his brother. A list of handwritten lots added at the time of the sale includes still other pictures belonging to the dealer Hamon and a certain "Luisse" (?)
It is difficult to know whether or not Grimod de La Reynière's was pleased with the results. Twenty-three of the sixty lots in the principal part of the sale were knocked down to Lebrun himself and recorded in his own catalogue as sold, but at least twenty were certainly bought in since they reappeared as Grimod de La Reynière's property four years later. (One painting, lot 5, Eustache Le Sueur's Sacrifice of Abraham , was knocked down to "Duval" but also reappeared at the later sale.) This result was probably owing in part to the unstable political situation, but in some instances almost certainly to the reserves having been set too high. This was especially true of the eight large paintings by Le Moyne, only one of which, Tancred and Clorinda (now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Besançon), found a buyer, though at a very high price, 10,500 livres. However, many of the paintings recorded as having been sold - a large number of which were knocked down to J.-A. Lebrun - fetched significant amounts: A pair of relatively small landscapes by Vernet, for instance, was sold for 5600 livres, Greuze's The Drunkard's Return (now Portland Art Museum) was sold for 5050 livres, and the sole painting by Fragonard in the collection, Le Verrou (now in the Louvre) brought 3010 livres. But only one of the seventeenth-century pictures brought a comparable figure: Poussin's Holy Family Reposing on the Steps of a Building (National Gallery of Art, Washington, as by a follower of Poussin) was bought by the dealer Nicolas Lerouge for 3001 livres. To some extent these figures reflected the advent of an inflationary cycle, but they were also an indication of the importance of the paintings involved. When taken altogether - and if the group of pictures by Le Moyne is omitted - the sale was far from being a failure; and their owner may well have been pleased to have retained so many of the key pieces.
Grimod de La Reynière died in December 1793, still in possession of approximately one third of his once proud gallery, including seven of the canvasses by Le Moyne. His remaining pictures, including many that were not in the present auction, were put up for sale by his heirs once more on Sept.7-17, 1797, at a time near the end of the Directory when the market for valuable works of art was nearing its lowest ebb. While the paintings as a group brought generally lower prices than in 1793, all but one of those by Le Moyne fetched more than 1000 francs, confirming that they were still held in very high regard.
The paintings belonging to Forestier in the present sale did less well, and seem, on the whole, to have been relatively minor. Though also officially knocked down to Lebrun, nearly half of Forestier's lots reappeared at his widow's sale in 1816 and must have been left unsold in 1793. (Many of the others that do not reappear in the sale of 1816 were also "sold" to Lebrun or his brother, so it is distinctly possible that the number of unsuccessful lots was still higher.) The best price for any of his paintings that supposedly changed hands was 60l livres paid for a landscape by Jan Both. Of all the paintings found in the supplementary catalogue, the most expensive was a painting of revelers by Teniers that was owned jointly by the Lebrun brothers and brought 2910 livres. (B. Fredericksen) | | Catalog Location(s) | AAP I Expert's copy, both parts I & II annot. by J.B.P. Lebrun with all sellers, buyers and prices.
AAP II Expert's copy, part II only, annot. by J.B.P. Lebrun with a few buyers and some prices as well as a page of added lots.
FLNY I Both parts. Annot. with most buyers and prices. It probably belonged to the dealer J.A. Lebrun. Formerly LRB. .
ESP Both parts. Annot. with many buyers and all prices.
IFP Part I only. Annot. with a few buyers and all prices.
EBNP Both parts. Not annot.
AKW Both parts. Not annot. It belonged to M. König.
BNP I Both parts. Not annot.
AAP III Part I only. Not annot.
BNP IV Part I only. Not amn.
BNP II Part II only. Not annot.
BNP III Part II only. Not annot.
RKDH [photocopy in Provenance Index Sales Files] Part II only. Not annot. | | Photocopies | AMO (of RKDH) | | See Also | Sale Contents | | | Art Sales Catalogues Online | | | Digitized Catalog - INHA | | | Digitized Catalog - INHA | | | Digitized Catalog - Frick | | | Digitized Catalog - Frick | | | |
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