Michel-François DANDRÉ-BARDON (Aix-en-Provence 1700 - Paris 1783)

Painting sketching Tullie's picture Canvas 98 x 78.5 cm Damage and restoration Provenance: Given by the artist to the engraver Henri-Simon Thomassin ; Fauquet collection in 1767; Collection Théodore Brouillon in 1897. Bibliography: E. Parrocel, Histoire documentaire de l'Académie de peinture et de sculpture de Marseille, tome 1, Paris, 1889, pp. 137-138 ; D. Chol, Michel François Dandré-Bardon, ou l'apogée de la peinture en Provence au XVIIIe siècle, Aix-en-Provence, 1987, no. 34 (location unknown). André Bardon's own account of the painting's history is given on September 10, 1767. He wrote to the Académie de peinture de Marseille: "I would be delighted to know if the painting representing Painting, which Mr. Fauquet has lent to your Salon, is the one I once did for the famous Thomassin, in recognition of my late father who engraved it after JB van Loo. I remember that I had represented the Painting sketching my painting of the Academy where Julie is traced passing her chariot over the body of her father." Jean-Baptiste van Loo did indeed paint the portrait of Dandré Bardon's father, Thomassin did the engraving, and the artist's reception piece at the Académie Royale de peinture on April 30, 1735 is now in the Musée Fabre in Montpellier (see D. Chol, opus cité supra, no. 32, reproduced). Our picture was painted at the end of the artist's stay in Paris (Thomassin died on January 1, 1741), at a time when Dandré Bardon preferred to retire to the Aix countryside. The painting is a kind of curiosity, a rarity in French painting of its time, which almost leans towards the world of curiosity. The painter's relaxed attitude and the young man looking out of the window at the moon are tributes to Venice and Commedia dell'arte. The Musée de Châteauroux preserves a sketch for the Montpellier painting, also horizontal, while Dandré Bardon prefers an oval format for our painting, freer and more soluble in the air. The references to the fine arts throughout the right-hand side of the painting, and even the freely suspended violin, show the eclectic character of an artist passionate about everything that surrounds him.