| | | | | | | | Document | Sale Catalog F-A1079 | |
| Sale Location | la grande salle de la maison Bullion, rue J.J. Rousseau, Paris, France | | Seller(s) | None
from catalog: [Aucun] | | Expert | Lebrun, Joseph-Alexandre | | Lugt Number | 5157 and 5165 | | No. of Painting Lots | 124 | | Notes | In addition to 110 lots of paintings and a single drawing, the sale consisted of 9 lots of sculpture, 12 lots of bronze objects, 4 lots of clocks and lighting fixtures, 15 lots of porcelain and 23 lots of furniture. Although the sale was held in the Hôtel Bullion, the site of almost daily auctions, and no proprietor is named, it appears that the items offered in the present sale may indeed have been the property of a single person, as claimed on the title page. One of the paintings, lot 84 by Robert Levrac-Tournières depicting Esther and Ahasuerus, had previously appeared in a sale held on June 29, 1775, but this has not yet led to the identification of its subsequent owner. The paintings were, as usual, mostly Dutch, Flemish and French, and preponderantly landscapes and genre subjects, but works by major artists were lacking. Moreover, the names of the artists represented are often badly garbled -- Adrien S'essen for Adriaenssen, Entonizain for Antonissen -- a trait common to the catalogues compiled by the younger Lebrun. Dimensions are included, but no provenance information is given.
The results of the sale are recorded by Lebrun in the FLNY copy of the catalogue, and they confirm that the items included were not exceptional. The highest price, 985 francs, was paid for lot 96, a view of Vesuvius by Volaire. Following that, Lebrun records a price of 610 francs paid for lot 75, a Holy Family supposedly copied by Pierre Mignard after Raphael. Most lots exceeded 100 francs, but approximately one-third of the paintings lots were also left unsold, and none of the sculpture or furniture found buyers. The unsold items do not immediately reappear in subsequent sales, although a few of the pictures returned to the market some years later, usually well after the turn of the century. (B. Fredericksen) | | Catalog Location(s) | FLNY I [photocopy in Provenance Index Sales Files] Expert's copy, annot. in ink and pencil with a few buyers and many prices. The annotations are presumably those of J.A. Lebrun. Ex-LRB catalogue.
FLNY II [photocopy in Provenance Index Sales Files] Annot. with a few prices. | | See Also | Sale Contents | | | Art Sales Catalogues Online | | | Digitized Catalog - Frick | | | |
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