Early 18th Century Wall Decorations

JOHANN WILHELM WEINMANN (1683-1741) - PHYTANTHOZA ICONOGRAPHIE - Antique set of six framed 18th century first edition PHYTANTHOZA ICONOGRAPHIE botanical hand colored mezzotint engrav...

A manuscript page containing Persian miniature painting, surrounded by script. This artwork is characteristic of Islamic manuscript illumination, pa...

Title: "Solemn Mass or Grand' Messe" Description: This detailed engraving depicts a Roman Catholic solemn or high mass, typically celebrated on Sundays and holy days. The scene is s...

Antique map titled 'Typus Totius Orbis Terraquei Geographice Delineatus, Et Ad Usum Globo Materiali Superinducendus'. Beautiful example of Scherer's map of the World, configured in 12 globe gores. California is shown as an island. Fascinating Northwest Passage...

Wonderful copper-plate engraving after Jan Luyken Published by Marten Schagen, Amsterdam. 1724 Text on verso The measurement given is the paper size.

A circa 1725 oil on canvas portrait of Louis George Simpert, as Hereditary Prince, the future Margrave of Baden-Baden (Deutsch: Ludwig Georg Simpert, Markgraf von Baden-Baden) portrayed one-quarter length in powdered wig and wearing ceremonial armor and crimson sash newly fitted in a period molded giltwood frame with bead-and-reel inner border from the Eli Wilner collection. Canvas measures 24.5" x 19.25". A related, but later portrait of circa 1735, attributed to the same unknown painter, is held in the collection of Lichtenthal Abbey, Baden-Baden. Biography: Louis George or Ludwig Georg Simpert, Margrave of Baden-Baden, born June 7, 1702 at Ettlingen Palace was the son of Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden and his wife, Princess Sibylle of Saxe-Lauenburg. Hereditary Prince of Baden-Baden from birth, at the death of his father in 1707, he succeeded as Margrave of Baden-Baden at the age of four. As such, his mother was regent of Baden-Baden until he reached his majority on 22 October 1727 at the age of 25. He married Maria Anna of Schwarzenberg April 8, 1721 at Český Krumlov Castle. The couple were the parents of four children, of whom only one survived infancy. After the death of the first Maria Anna in 1755, he married the Princess Maria Anna Josepha of Bavaria on July 10, 1755; the daughter of Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor and his Austrian wife Archduchess Maria Amalia. The second marriage remained childless. Due to his passion for hunting instead of military service, he became known as "Jägerlouis", "hunter Louis", a play on his father's nickname of Türkenlouis ("Turk Louis") due to his famous heroics against the Turkish army at the Siege of Vienna...

A Religious oil painting on canvas of Jesus Christ carrying the cross on the way to his crucifixion. This European piece of art is probably 17th-18th Century. This art piece was disc...

Wonderful copper-plate engraving after Jan Luyken Published by Marten Schagen, Amsterdam. 1724 Text on verso The measurement given is the paper size.

Antique map titled 'Geografische Kaarte van de Oude Weereld (..).' Original antique map of the ancient world depicting Europe, Asia, and northern Africa with ancient place names....

Antique print titled 'Le Temps qui te passe t'approche du jour auquel tu dois rendre compte du Temps que tu auras passé'. Copper engraving of the Allegory of Time...

Two images on one sheet. Top image: "Sacrifice que les Floridiens sont au Soleil, de leurs Premiers nez." Lower image: "Ofrande que les Floridiens sont d'un Cerf au soleil." This ...

Wonderful copper-plate engraving after Jan Luyken Published by Marten Schagen, Amsterdam. 1724 Text on verso The measurement given is the paper size.

An early 18th century French 3-panel folding screen, oil-on-canvas, depicting village and maritime scenes in cartouches with other decoration.

American sampler of silk floss on linen with a modest zig-zag border framing an uppercase letter alphabet, followed by a cursive alphabet, a lower case alphabet, and the numerals one...

A fine 17th century Flemish oil painting on copper depicting the Virgin Mary in a radiant vision of the Immaculate Conception, surrounded by a lavish garland of flowers including tul...

Wonderful copper-plate engraving after Jan Luyken Published by Marten Schagen, Amsterdam. 1724 Text on verso The measurement given is the paper size.

Wonderful copper-plate engraving after Jan Luyken Published by Marten Schagen, Amsterdam. 1724 Text on verso The measurement given is the paper size.

Large Antique Wooden Carved Black Forest Baroque stag head with 10 Point Trophy A large antique Black Forest baroque stag head. Carved in typical abstract style of the early 18th century. It is mounted on a wooden carved and painted plaque with emblem and foliages and features a large real stag antler trophy. The head still has its original polycrome painted finish witch is partly restored. The left side of the plaque has been replaced. A great individual piece which enhances every wall decoration. A special way to present hunting trophies is to attach them to carved animal heads. This tradition exists since the Middle Ages. Even after intensive investigations, it is not yet possible to explain exactly how this happened. The carved heads are often colored and mounted on cartouches that are also carved and painted. They follow a naturalistic representation and one could think that in this way they are symbolically brought back from the abstraction of dead antlers into liveliness. Famous artists to be named are Madl in Ichenhausen, Germany and Heissl in Ebensee, Austria. Around 1900, the antler collection...

A pair of elaborate gilded wall brackets having shaped platforms resting on scrolled supports with intricately carved acanthus decoration. French Regence period, circa 1720.

painting on wood in the style of the Italian primitive, prayer choir, arched panel closing with two shutters, in a frame inscribed "ave maria", wear and small loss of paint, comes fr...

Wonderful copper-plate engraving after Jan Luyken Published by Marten Schagen, Amsterdam. 1724 Text on verso The measurement given is the paper size.

Original oil on canvas laid on panel painting, Italian school. Unsigned. Possibly a religious composition with three putti in lower left. Condition: Age related craquelure, some abra...

Lepautre 1652-1716 was a French drawing artist and engraver,architect. He was appointed to the French royal design department headed by Mansart and later by Robert de Cotte in the la...

Very large Aubusson Tapersty Circa 1720's. ‘Verdure’ (foliage) tapestries were woven throughout the 17th and 18th Centuries, featuring wooded landscapes, reflecting the interest in b...

"Justice and Diversity in the Early Modern World" Description: This detailed engraving presents a vivid tableau in two distinct parts, each illustrating significant cultural and hi...

Antique map titled 'Diversa Orbis Terrae. Visu Incedente per Coluros Tropicorum, Ambos Ejus Polos, et Parciularis Sphaerae Zenith, in Planum Orthographica Projectio (..) Plat Ontwerp van verscheyde Aert-klooten (..)'. One of the earliest Dutch World Maps to focus on a more modern cartographic style, based on Carel Allard's map of 1696. This map represented a noteworthy shift from the traditional decorative Dutch 17th century maps where the margins would be full of classical mythological...

Antique portrait titled 'Thomas Muntzer'. Portrait of Thomas Müntzer. Thomas Müntzer was an early Reformation-era German theologian, who became a rebel leader during the Peasants' War. He turned against Luther with several anti-Lutheran writings, and supported the Anabaptists. In the Battle of Frankenhausen, Müntzer and his followers were defeated. He was captured, tortured and decapitated. This print originates from 'Historie der kerken en ketteren van den beginne des Nieuwen Testaments tot aan het jaar onses Heeren 1688 ... In het Neederduyts vertaald' by G. Arnold. Artists and Engravers: Gottfried Arnold (1666 – 1714) was a German Lutheran...

Antique print, titled: 'Gezicht van het eiland en de haven van Pathmos (…).' This plate shows a view of the city and harbour of Pathmos, Patmos or Patimo in Greece. This plate or...

Early 18th century Italian Venetian inland painting, a large size oil on canvas Baroque mountain landscape with stream, bridge, waterfall, wayfarers and a village in the background. The woodland is animated by figures, a caravan with horsemen fishermen. This monumental Italian Baroque landscape painting has a strong impact and an excellent composition balance, as it depicts in the center the luminous perspective of a fortified village, whose side wings consist of two mountain rocks with dark wooded vegetation crowded by characters, horsemen, paths, streams.On the left side, with respect to the observer, there is a path that runs alongside a stream that flows into a waterfall in the center of the composition. from a caravan of travelers on foot and on horseback traveling along it in both directions: going up the slope on the mountainous coast you can see a church and a village near the top. The right part of the painting depicts a more sparse and dry vegetation, painted in the chromatic tones of ocher, inside of which there are dead plant, dry branches and a smaller number of figures on the rugged mountain. The iconographic inspiration of this wooded representation seems to be in the large trunk of the withered conifer in a central position, which represents a dead tree, as a? reminder of the transience of everything in life, whose phases are summarized in the two mountainous coasts. In the background a village painted in light and soft blue colors, in stark contrast to the previous scene, seems  to reassure and project us into a future season. With a suggestive theatrical effect, more than 250 cm wide, this Baroque Italian painting comes from a private collection of Milan, the canvas has been lined and shows minor painting retouches at a horizontal seam of the canvas. It is unframed, it has just a wooden profile covering the canvas edge. It is an antique Italian landscape, the perfect opportunity to make a statement. Get the perfect size painting for a great living room, to create that eye-catching focal point. You can make an impact with a single large work by hanging this early 18th century Italian Baroque painting...

Antique map titled 'Les Iles de Banda (..).' (The islands of Banda, Indonesia.) Extremely rare in this edition. This plate originates from the very scarse: 'La galerie agreable d...

Two copperplate architectural engravings of elevations and plans of English Neoclassic country houses from Volume III of Colen Campbell's "Vitruvius Britannicus". Archival mounted an...

Antique map titled 'Regni Gothiae (..)'. Detailed map of South Sweden. Embellished with beautiful title cartouche with scale and coats of arms. Published in Amsterdam by Covens & Mor...

By Johannes Van den Aveelen and engraved by Holmice. Six views of Swedish royal residences. Hand colored engravings. Framed and matted.

Historische Wappen-Charte: Coats of Arms of the Prominent Italian Royal and Ducal Houses, 1718 This exquisite copper engraving, printed in 1718 in Nuremberg by Johann Ernst Adelbuln...

18th century English or Continental old master portrait of a gentleman wearing a red robe with a black fur collar, holding a stick in his right hand. The stick might be the attribute...

Inscriptions on the Legs of the Colossus of Memnon – Greek & Latin Graffiti Description: This fascinating paired engraving documents the inscriptions found on the legs of the famed ...

JOHANN WILHELM WEINMANN (1683-1741) - PHYTANTHOZA ICONOGRAPHIE - Antique pair of framed 18th century first edition Phytanthoza Iconographie botanical hand colored mezzotint engraving...

Antique Roman Hunting Scenes – Hyenas and Wild Boar, Goeree after Desseine, 1704 This antique engraving, published in 1704 by François Halma after designs by Jan Goeree, depicts two...

Pair of 18th Century Spanish Colonial School Reverse Glass Paintings Gold Leaf Carved Frames. Each painting depicts vivid religious scenes rendered in rich color and detail. The comp...

This six panel Italian screen is from the Baroque period, circa 1700. The four central panels have been affixed to a foldable frame, while the two outer panels are detached. When all...

This antique map, titled "Totius Americae Septentrionalis et Meridionalis," represents a significant cartographic piece from 1710 by Johann Baptist Homann. Here's a description of this remarkable map: - Title: Totius Americae Septentrionalis et Meridionalis (...) - Date: Published in 1710 by Johann Baptist Homann. Description: This map is a first edition of Johann Baptiste Homann's map of America, and it is notable for several cartographic features and historical representations: 1. California as an Island...

Phoenix and Peacocks. A pair of six-panel Japanese folding screens by Tsunetake Yotei (n.d.) First half of the 18th century. The signature reads 67 year old Tsunetake. The seals read: -Tsunetake no in, -Yotei, -Seishin Dimensions: Each screen – H. 69” x W. 149” (176 cm x 378 cm) A pair of Kano Grand Picture (Waga) screens depicting phoenix and peacocks rich with symbolic meaning. Dating to the first half of the 18th century, from the Kobikicho Kano school in Edo, this pair of folding...

Appears in overall decent, stable, ready-to-hand condition. Likely cut down from a larger panel. Having some fading from age and exposure but with decent variance in colors. Scattere...

Andere Wappen-Charte: Coats of Arms of the European Empires and Kingdoms with Historical Annotations, 1718 Detailed description: This beautifully hand-colored copper engraving, pri...

This charming drawing is a preliminary study for the larger drawing, Trois etudes de femme assise, coiffee d'une fontange, in the British Museum. This little gem comes from Brooke A...

A traditional Russian triptych of Christ and the Virgin of the Unfading Roses. The Mother of God and her son are shown wearing crowns and dressed in r...

An antique pair of stunning French Baroque painted and partial – gilt carved architectural elements or wall panels, in good condition. These wall décor ornaments are very ornate and ...

Large religious icon made in Russia in the early 18th century depicting the Veneration of St. Michael. He is shown surrounded by Saints and Prophets. They are painted delicately in t...

Antique engraving of Thomas Cromwell by Nicolaes Pitau after van der Werff, c.1700 This finely executed portrait depicts Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex (1485–1540), the powerful...

Antique print titled 'Hercules cum Hesperide Beneuentanus'. Engraving with two scenes of Hercules in the Garden of Hesperides. This print originates from 'Nurnbergische Hesperides' b...

Edinburgh City Plan, Italy c.1700 – “Edenburgo Metropoli della Scozia” This is a charming hand-colored engraved plan of Edinburgh, titled in Italian Edenburgo, Metropoli della Scozi...

Temple of Jupiter in Thebes – Floor Plan and Gate Elevations, circa 1710 This precise architectural engraving, titled "Platte-Grond en Doorsnede des Tempels van Jupiter te Thebe, en...

Floor Plan of the Temple of Amun at Luxor – Ancient Thebes, c.1710 Description: This antique architectural engraving presents a detailed floor plan of the famous Temple of Amun in L...

The engraving titled "Pantheon nunc vulgo la Rotunda" is attributed to the publishing efforts of Joan Blaeu and was part of a series published around the ea...

An exceptionally executed oil on canvas Baroque painting depicting "lovebirds" Paolo Malatesta and Francesca Da Rimini whispering to one another. At the feet of Paoio there is a dog symbol...

Hand-Colored Dutch Map of Ancient Israel Divided by the Twelve Tribes – After Ezekiel, c.1730 This beautifully hand-colored antique map is titled "Ontwerp en Erfdeeling van’t Land K...

Two images on one sheet. The first image shows the festivities of Canadian people while the deceased is carried to a Cabin. The second image shows a funeral procession. This print...

A Prospect of the Inside of St Peter’s in Westminster – Coronation Preparations, c. 1720 – Hand-Coloured Engraving Hand-coloured engraving showing the interior of the Collegiate Chu...

This hand-colored copperplate engraving titled “Manière dont les Prêtres Caribes soufflent le Courage” (The way Carib Priests blow courage) depicts a ceremonial ritual performed by t...

Tapestry from the Royal Manufacture of Aubusson, Louis XVI period , made in 1738 at the Gobelins One panel from a series of Gobelins tapestries depicting the History of Esther, illustrating Esther seated and attended by handmaidens, one washing her feet in golden basin, another fastening a bracelet, another offering a mirror, all observed by Mordecai, woven in the workshop of Michele Audran after a design by J. F. de Troy. The Toilet of Esther c.1778-85.Royal Collection Trust-Queens Audience Chamber Windsor Castle The Sketches for the Esther Cycle by Jean-François de Troy (1736) “and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mor’decai, ..., took for his own daughter.” (Est. 2:7) A supple and undulating genius, both a flattering portraitist and a prolix history painter, as well as a brilliant genre painter, in a gallant or worldly vein, Jean-François de Troy (Paris, 1679 – Rome, 1752), solicited, although he had passed the threshold of old age, a new royal commission up to his ambitions. To obtain it, he submitted – successfully - for the approval of the Bâtiments du roi (administration), seven modelli painted in 1736 with his usual alacrity. Inspired by one of the most novelistic texts of the Old Testament, the Book of Esther, these sketches in a rapid and virtuoso manner were transformed by the artist, between 1737 and 1740 into large cartoons intended to serve as models for the weavers of the Gobelins factory. Showing undeniable ease and skill in the composition in perfect harmony with the sensitivities of the times, the tapestry set met with great success. The Story of Esther perfectly corresponded to the plan of the Bâtiments du roi to renew the repertoire of tapestry models used for the weavers of the royal factories while it also conformed to the tastes of Louis XV’s subjects for a fantastical Orient, the set for a dramatic tale in which splendour, love and death were combined. Indeed, no tapestry set was woven in France during the 18th century as often as that of Esther. The series of modelli painted by de Troy during the year 1736 looks to the history of French painting and decoration under Louis XV as much as it does the history of the Gobelins. It probably counts among the most important rococo pictorial groups to have remained in private hands. First the Biblical source illustrated by De Troy which constitutes the base of one of the richest iconographical traditions of Western art will be considered. Then the circumstances and specific character of French civilisation during the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV which contributed to making the theme of Esther a relevant subject, both attractive to contemporaries and remarkably in line with the sensitivities of the time will be elucidated. An examination of the exceptional series of sketches united here, the cartoons and the tapestries that they anticipate as well as a study of their reception will close this essay. The Book of Esther: A scriptural source at the source of rich iconography. The origin of the Esther tapestry set by Jean-François de Troy – origin and creation of a masterpiece According to the evidence of one of the artist’s early biographers, the chevalier de Valory, author of a posthumous elegy of the master, read at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture on 6 February 1762, it was apparently due to early16 rivalry with François Lemoyne (1688-1737), his younger colleague who had precisely just been appointed First Painter to the King in 1736, that had encouraged François de Troy to seek a commission allowing him to show off his ease and his promptitude at the expense of a rival who was notoriously laborious: “M. De Troy, retaining some resentment of the kind of disadvantage which he believed to have suffered compared with his emulator looked to regain some territory by making use of the facility his rival did not possess. Lemoyne was excessively long in the creation of his works,and M. De Troy of a rare celerity: consequently, with this particular talent, the latter offered to the court to make paintings appropriate to be executed at the Gobelins Factory; and it is to this circumstance that we owe the beautiful series of the Story of Esther, which would be sufficient alone to give him a great reputation.”17 Beyond the suspicion inspired by the topos, which still constitutes, more or less, a tale of rivalries between artists in ancient literature, there is probably some truth in what Valory reports although A.-J. Dezalier d’Argenville (who indicates rather spitefully that de Troy did not hesitate to “cut prices” to impose himself, benefitting from the productivity assured by the unlikely rapidity of his brush)18 proves to be more evasive: “As he looked to busy himself, he had offered to make the paintings that serve as models for the King’s tapestries cheaply: which did not please his colleagues. He was given a choice of two tapestry series to be made and he took the Story of Esther and that of Jason”.19 Whether or not the choice was actually left to de Troy (which would appear rather casual on the royal administration’s part all the same), it seems likely that the artist, whose contemporaries extol his “fire”, as the faculty of invention was then called, must have ardently aspired to the possibility of using on a very large scale the “creative genius” with which Dezallier d’Argenville credits him. The decoration of the private apartments, the fashion for which Louis XV had promoted at Versailles and Fontainebleau, offered little opportunity to excel in this area. Other than painting for altarpieces, only tapestries could allow comparison with Lemoyne who had been granted – unfortunately for him – a major decoration: the enormous ceiling of the Hercules Room at Versailles. Favoured by the recent improvement in France’s financial situation, the revival of patronage offered de Troy a commission fitting for him, in a field in which, however, he had hardly any experience. Anxious to renew the repertoire of models available to the Gobelins factory, the Duc d’Antin, surintendant des Bâtiments du roi from 1708 to 1736 followed by his successor, Philibert Orry comte de Vignory, gave him the task of producing seven large cartoons inspired by the Book of Esther corresponding to the brilliant sketches or modelli which de Troy had produced in one go, or almost (very few preparatory drawings can in fact be linked to the Esther cycle and all seem to be at the execution stage of the cartoons).20 Subjected to the approval of the Administration des Bâtiments according to the procedure in use for projects being planned for the Gobelins, sketches made rapidly during 1736 were approved and the project launched immediately. Thereupon came the news of François Lemoyne’s death, who, ground down by work and a victim of his private torment, committed suicide on 4 June 1737. Against all expectations, de Troy did not replace his rival in the position of First Painter (which remained vacant until the appointment of Charles Coypel in January 1747), which would perhaps have made him too obviously the beneficiary of the drama. The awarding of the position of Director of the French Academy in Rome came to console him while he had already produced (or he was in the process of finishing), in Paris, three of the seven cartoons of the cycle (The Fainting of Esther finished in 1737 and the Toilet and Coronation of Esther, both finished in 1738). De Troy, we can see, did not follow the order of the narrative but began with the subjects which apparently offered the least difficulty because he had already depicted them, or because they fall into a strong pictorial tradition (such is the case especially for the Fainting of Esther). He had hardly settled at the Palazzo Mancini in August 1738, when his first task which awaited the new director of the French Academy naturally consisted of honouring the royal commission and finishing without delay the final cartoons of the Story of Esther after the sketches he must have taken with him. As prompt as ever, de Troy discharged himself of the execution of the four remaining cartoons in only two years, by beginning with the largest format which allowed him to strike the imagination and to impose himself as soon as he arrived on the Roman stage: the Triumph of Mor’decai which was finished in 1739 (like Esther’s Banquet). The following year, the Mor’decai's Disdain and The Sentencing of Haman were brought to an end in the same Neo-Venetian style, obviously tributary to Veronese with its choice of “open” monumental architecture which is characteristic of the entire cycle.21 The series, it should be noted, was almost augmented with some additional scenes in the mid 1740s. Indeed, the first tapestry set finished at the Gobelins in 1744 proved to be unsuitable for the arrangement of the Dauphine’s apartments at Versailles for which it had been intended to decorate the walls the following year (cf infra). Informed of this, de Troy, considering that the story of Esther offered “several good subjects,” immediately offered to illustrate one or new subject among those “which could appear to be the most interesting”. The directeur des Bâtiments Orry, who managed the State’s accounts, obviously judged it less costly to have one of the tapestries widened to fill in the end of the Dauphine’s bedroom,22 which has probably deprived us of very original compositions, because de Troy had already illustrated the most famous themes, those that benefitted from a strongly established iconographical tradition and from which it was not easy to deviate The Tapestry Set of the Story of Esther Placed on the tapestry looms of the Gobelins at the end of the 1730s in Michel Audran’s workshop, the cycle created by de Troy aroused true infatuation. The few hundred tapestries made between 1738 and 1797 – all in high-warp tapestry and woven in wool and silk except for four in low-warp made in Neilson’s workshop – show the impressive success of a tapestry set that was without any doubt the most frequently woven of the 18th century in France. 29 Only three cartoons had been delivered by de Troy in 1738 when the first tapestry set was begun by Audran under the expert eye of Jean-Baptiste Oudry to whom the Directeur général des bâtiments, Philibert Orry had assigned the (weekly) supervision of the weaving. During the summer of 1738, the piece of the Fainting of Esther, which Oudry judged to be admirable, was finished. During the winter of 1742, Oudry informed Orry that about two ells of the Triumph of Mor’decai had been made “with no faults”,that the Coronation of Esther was finished and that the Esther at her Toilet “a very gracious tapestry” was “a little over half” finished. Exhibited at Versailles in 1743, these two last pieces were admired by Louis XV and the Court. On 3 December 1744, the set of seven tapestries was finally delivered to the Garde Meuble. It was intended, the honour was not slight, to decorate the apartments of the Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain whose marriage to the young Dauphin Louis-Ferdinand had been fixed for the following year (it took place on 23 February 1745). Apparently it was thought that the theme of Esther the biblical heroine and wife of a foreign sovereign was appropriate for the apartments of the Spanish Dauphine. As early as the month of March, the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel informed de Troy that her grand cabinet was decorated with the “Esther tapestry set” specifying however that “for lack of two small or one large piece, we have not been able to decorate the end of the room”. This difficulty led immediately to the Banquet episode being woven a second time in two parts (they were delivered to the Garde-Meuble on 30 December 1746) to garnish the panels on each side of the bed of the Dauphine who would hardly enjoy them (she died on 22 July 1746 and the decoration was installed for the new Dauphine Maria Josepha of Saxony). The appearance of the set’s remarkable border, which imitated a richly sculpted wooden frame, should be mentioned. Conceived in 1738 by the ornamentalist Pierre Josse-Perrot and used in the later weavings until 1768, it tended to reinforce the resolutely painterly appearance of the tapestry set which, in this regard, pushed the art of tapestry as far as its ultimate mimetic possibilities. With the exception of Mor’decai's Disdain which had been removed earlier, the “editio princeps” of the story of Esther (from then on in nine pieces) remained at Versailles until the Revolution. Of the eight surviving tapestries, four are at the chateau of Compiègne and four belong today to the Mobilier National. No less than seven tapestry sets reputed to be complete (one of them in fact only had six tapestries) would be produced officially at the Gobelins up to 1772. Literature: 1- The Œuvres mêlées of an emulator of Racine, the Abbé Augustin NADAL thus include an Esther. Divertissement spiritual which is exactly contemporary with Jean François de Troy’s cycle since it was performed in 1735 and published in Paris three years later. 2-Le Siècle de Louis XIV, 1751, 1785 ed., p. 96-97 for French ed. 3- Lemoyne and de Troy had been obliged to share the First Prize in the competition organised in 1727 between the most prominent history painters of the Académie Royale. 4- Mémoires…, pub. L. DUSSIEUX et al., 1854, II, p.265. 5-The fact that de Troy, at the risk of falling out with his colleagues, did not hesitate to make use of prices in order to convince the new directeur des Bâtiments Philibert Orry, is confirmed by Mariette who adds tersely “it caused much shouting” (pub. 1851-1860, II, p. 103). 6- Abrégé de la vie des plus fameux peintres…, ed. 1762, IV, p. 368-369 20 Early comments on the painter are inclined to present him as a kind of “pure painter”, doing without the medium of drawing, a few intermediary studies between the Esther sketches and the large cartoons at the Louvre nevertheless show that de Troy used red chalk (see in the catalogue, the notice for the Meal of Esther and Ahasuerus under the entry drawing) to change one or other figure. 7-C. GASTINEL-COURAL (cat. exp. PARIS, 1985, p. 9-13) as well as the article by J. VITTET, exh. cat. LA ROCHE-GUYON, 2001, p. 51-55. 8-The Hermitage in St. Petersburg conserves five tapestries of these two royal gifts whose provenance still awaits elucidation (as far as we are aware). In 1766, the Grand Marshal of Russia, Count Razumovski (or Razamowski), acquired the Fainting and the Banquet extracted from the sixth weaving (J. VITTET, 2001, p. 53). 9- Lettres écrites de Suisse, d’Italie…,quoted by J. VITTET, op. cit., p. 54. 10-The tapestry set remained in the hands of a branch of the Hapsburg-Lorraine family until 1933 (ibid. P. 54). 11-Quoted by Chr. LERIBAULT, 2002, p. 97, note 269. 12-Y. CANTAREL-BESSON, 1992, p. 241. Catalogue The Esther at her Toilet Oil on canvas, 57 x 51 cm Provenance: Painted in 1736 at the same time as the six other modelli of the Story of Esther intended to be presented, for approval, to the direction des Bâtiments du Roi; perhaps identifiable among a lot of sketches by Jean-François de Troy in the post mortem inventory of the amateur, historian and critic Claude-Henri Watelet (1718-1786) drawn up on 13 January 1786 and following days (A.N. T 978, n° 30) then in the sale of the property of the deceased, Paris, 12 June 1786, n° 33; Paris, François Marcille Collection (who owned a series of six sketches from which the Triumph of Mor’decai was missing, see infra); Paris, Marcille Sale, Hôtel Drouot, 12-13 January 1857, n° 36; Asnières, Mme de Chavanne de Palmassy ( ?) collection; Paris, Galerie Cailleux; Paris, Humbert de Wendel collection (acquired from the Galerie Cailleux in 1928); by inheritance in the same family; Paris, Sotheby’s, 23 June 2011, n° 61. In order not to add unnecessarily to the technical commentary on each work, the catalogue raisonné by Chr. Leribault which contains a substantial bibliography on the series should be referred to. The other bibliographical references only concern the publications and exhibitions to have appeared and been presented more recently. Bibliography and Exhibitions: Chr. LERIBAULT, 2002, n° P. 247 (repr.); E. LIMARDO DATURI, 2004, p. 28; Exh. cat. NANTES, 2011, p. 138, n° 34, referred to in note 1; Sotheby’s catalogue, Tableaux anciens et du XIXe siècle, 23 June 2011, n° 61 (repr.). Related Works: Tapestry cartoon: The cartoon (oil on canvas, 329 x 320 cm), the third made by the artist in Paris after the sketches had been approved by the direction des Bâtiments, is in the Louvre (Inv. 8315). It previously bore the painter’s signature and the date 1738 (inscriptions which are found on the tapestries). The royal administration paid 1600 livres for it on 21 June 1738 and it was exhibited at the Salon in the year of its creation. Summary Biography 1679 (27 January): Baptism in Paris (Parish of St. Nicolas du Chardonnet) of Jean-François de Troy, son of the painter François de Troy and Jeanne Cotelle, sister of the painter Jean II Cotelle. 1696-1698: Studies (apparently rather turbulent) at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. 1698-1708: First trip to Italy. Is obliged to leave Rome in January 1711 after a tempestuous affair (a duel?), de Troy extends the traditional Roman experience as a pensionnaire at the Académie de France by also visiting Tuscany where he stays for a long time, Venice (his art in face has a strongly Venetian character) and Genoa. 1708: De Troy (whose father had been elected Director of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture on 7 July) is agréé and immediately received at the Académie with Apollo and Diana Piercing with their Arrows the Children of Niobe (Montpellier, Musée Fabre) on 28 July. 1710: First royal commission, paid for on 10 May (a sketch representing “the Promotion of the Order of the Holy Spirit” for the tapestry series of the History of the King). 1716: Jean-François de Troy is elected Assistant Professor at the Academy. 1720: He is appointed Professor. 1723: The artist creates the double portrait of Louis XV...