
Jean-Jacques Lagrenée, called le jeune (Paris 1739 - Paris 1821)
Vestals making a sacrifice in the interior of a temple
Description:
executed 1776-1777
signed lower left
oil on panel
410 x 350 mm
Provenance:
Mrs R G Walker, Bramshott Court, Hampshire, UK
Her sale, London, Christies 11 June 1928, lot 28, as Angelica Kauffman
Private Collection, Switzerland
Literature
Paris, Salon du Louvre, 1777, p. 767, n° 29
Sandoz, M., ‘Jean-Jacques Lagrenée, peintre d’histoire (1739-1821)’, Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire de l’art français, 1963 [Paris], pp. 121-132
Sandoz, M., Les Lagrenée, II. Jean-Jacques Lagrenée (le jeune), 1739-1821, 1988 [Tours, Éditart, Les Quatre Chemins], pp. 204-205, n° 76
Exhibitions
Paris, Salon du Louvre, 25 August to the end of September/early October 1777
Note:
This panel by Lagrenée, is the one which was exhibited at the Salon du Louvre in 1777 and was thought lost ever since. Thanks to the sketches of Gabriel de Saint Aubin on his copy of Livret and to the given dimensions, there is no doubt that this is that panel. Although Saint Aubin's is only a hasty sketch, one can clearly make out Lagrenée’s five feminine characters, as well as the altar, the foreground ewer, the drapery in the rear and the circular architecture of the temple.
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