| | | | | | | | Document | Sale Catalog F-A1142 | |
| Sale Location | Rue du Gros-Chenet, no.488, Paris, France | | Seller(s) | Bouquet
from catalog: Un Artiste
from auctioneer's copy: Bouquet | | Expert | Lebrun, Jean-Baptiste-Pierre | | Lugt Number | 5526 | | No. of Painting Lots | 32 | | Notes | The sale was limited to just 28 lots of paintings and two lots of drawings, concluding with four collective lots that contained a number of items that are not detailed. The owner is given only as an artist, but the AAP copy of the catalogue, which belonged to J.B.P. Lebrun, is inscribed by him with the name "Bouquet," and while Bouquet seems to have been more of a speculator or a dealer than an artist, there is no reason to question the identification. Bouquet is recorded buying and selling a relatively limited number of paintings between 1794 and 1798, mostly at sales organized by Lebrun, but his activity does not seem to have survived beyond this time. Nonetheless, he did own some works of more than average importance, and of a few of them can be identified.
At least three of the paintings in the present sale had appeared at auctions held between 1793 and 1795, suggesting that most, if not all, of the pieces were recent acquisitions. Because Bouquet is recorded as buying additional paintings in the course of 1797, it seems unlikely that a need for money was the reason he was putting the present group up for sale so soon after having bought them, and he may have simply been attempting to turn a quick profit. If so, he seems to have had limited success. An Interior with a Cavalier offering Money to a Young Woman by Ter Borch had been sold in 1794 for 1961 livres (to the younger Lebrun, Joseph-Alexandre) but fetched only 900 francs on the present occasion; and an Interior with a Woman holding a Herring by Metsu (now in the Musée Fabre in Montpellier) was bought in for just 580 francs at the present sale had fetched as much as 3012 livres in 1795. Bouquet had presumably paid still more for it. However, three other lots brought more than 2000 francs, and so may have been sold advantageously: a Hunting Scene by Adriaen van de Velde cost 5001 francs and an Interior by Teniers reached 2000 francs, both of which were sold to the collector Alexandre-Louis Roëttiers de Montaleau (1748-1808) who resold them in 1802 for still higher prices.
Two lots knocked down to "Bouillon" (lot 11 by Willem van Aelst and lot 29, a drawing by Jacques-Louis David now in the Crocker Art Gallery in Sacramento, California) both reappeared in a later Lebrun sale held on August 29, 1797, and must have been bought in on the present occasion. (The FLNY copy of the catalogue, which may have belonged to J.A. Lebrun, in fact records lot 29 as "retiré".) (B. Fredericksen) | | Catalog Location(s) | AAP [photocopy in Provenance Index Sales Files] Expert's copy annot. by J.B.P. Lebrun with all buyers and prices.
FLNY Annot. with all buyers and prices. There is also a list of prices at the back, some of which differ from those in the catalogue. Ex-LRB catalogue and perhaps originally belonging to J.A. Lebrun. | | See Also | Sale Contents | | | Art Sales Catalogues Online | | | Digitized Catalog - INHA | | | Digitized Catalog - Frick | | | |
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