JEAN BAPTISTE CORNEILLE (PARIS, 1649-1695) ALEXANDER MAKING HIS SOLDIERS DRINK Canvas Old restorations Alexander making his soldiers drink, canvas, with restorations 301 x 431 CM - 118 x 169,6 IN. Provenance Most probably the collection of Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683), a painting of this subject is mentioned in the Great Hall of the Château de Sceaux, in his after-death inventory drawn up by Charles Le Brun after September 1683 (see Bibliography, J.-C. Boyer, op. supra., 2014); Probably the collection of Louis-Philippe I; sold in 1848 to the Marquis de Courtilloles (bought for 1,000 gold francs), according to a family tradition; Collection of the Marquis de Courtilloles, Château de Courtilloles, Sarthes; Sale of the entire furniture of the château de Courtilloles, L'Isle-Adam (Me Elkaïm), 20 June 1993, no. 172 (Attributed to Charles Le Brun, 2 million francs); Galerie Jean Pierre Gros, Paris, Carré Rive Gauche in 2014. Bibliography F. de P. and A.S., Découvert - Un tableau de Le Brun reste en France, in Le Figaro, 22 June 1993 ; C. Lebrun-Jouve, Deux têtes pour un seul Corneille : Jean-Baptiste, in Album amicorum. Œuvres choisies pour Arnauld Bréjon de Lavergnée, Trouville, 2012, quoted p. 114-115, reproduction of a detail fig. 2 (Jean-Baptiste Corneille) ; E. Coquery, Charles Errard ca.1601-1689. La noblesse du décor, Paris, 2013, no. PcE. 3, cited p. 192, reproduced in colour p. 194 (Jean Baptiste Corneille under the direction of Charles Errard) ; J. C. Boyer, Some identifications of paintings in the collection of 'le grand Colbert in The Burlington Magazine, April 2014, cited p. 214, reproduced fig. 6. This sumptuous composition fits in well with the series of large-scale history paintings produced during the reign of Louis XIV, in the tradition of the tapestry cartoons for The Life of Alexander the Great by Charles Le Brun (Musée du Louvre), which were intended for the Manufacture des Gobelins. Our painting was discovered at a 1993 auction and offered under the name of Charles Le Brun. It was subsequently returned to Jean-Baptiste Corneille by Jean-Claude Boyer in 1994, then by Jean-Pierre Cuzin, and matched with a preparatory drawing by Claudine Lebrun-Jouve. Emmanuel Coquery has suggested that it was produced during the artist's stay in Rome, under the direction of Charles Errard, but no archival documents have been found to support this hypothesis, which is based on stylistic considerations. Another large-format work, its possible counterpart, Dinocrate présente à Alexandre son projet pour le mont Athos (collection Louis-Phiippe), was sold in our galleries in 2008 (Tajan sale 26 June 2008, no. 60). The two works would have belonged to Louis Philippe's collection, but were separated in 1848. They were reunited by the Marquis de Courtilloles and separated again in 1993). To set himself apart from Le Brun, Jean-Baptiste Corneille chose a little-represented episode from Quinte-Curce's History of Alexander the Great (Book VII). After spending eleven days riding in pursuit of Bessos, the satrap of Bactria under the reign of Darius III, Alexander and his men run out of water. On their way, they met two courtiers who had come to bring water for their sons in the Macedonian army. Seeing the sovereign overwhelmed by thirst, they offered him their water. Unable to bring himself to drink it alone, and knowing that such a small quantity would not be enough for everyone, he refused. Struck by his greatness of spirit, the soldiers regained their courage and swore to follow him wherever he went. The subject highlights the self-sacrifice of the war leader. With a symbolic gesture, he pushes away the filled cup and points with the other hand to his army, in whose name he must sacrifice himself. Jean-Baptiste Corneille belonged to a dynasty of artists. Like his elder brother Michel II (1642-1708), he trained with his father Michel I Corneille (1602-1664), who worked for a time with Simon Vouet. In 1665, he completed his training in Rome, becoming one of the Academy's first boarders in Italy. During his long stay, from 1665 to 1671, Charles Errard commissioned him to copy the frescoes in the Galerie Farnèse, for the decoration of the Galerie des Ambassadeurs in the Tuileries Palace. A few years after his return to France, in 1675, he painted his reception piece La Punition de Busiris par Hercule (The Punishment of Busiris by Hercules), now kept at the Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1679, he painted La Libération de Saint-Pierre for the May de Notre-Dame. The end of his short life was marked by considerable activity and an evolution in his style, which became freer and more tormented. He was appointed assistant professor in 1684, the year in which he completed a Saint Roch for the Grand Commun de Versailles, now in the church at Mouriès. He became a professor in 1692. Influenced by Le Brun and Giulio Romano, his style is characterised by vivid colours and expressive faces. Attached to colour, to "beautiful fire", Jean-Baptiste Corneille liked acid colours, "cangianti", changing colours that enlivened the composition, underlining the painter's bias in the Querelle du coloris, following the debate launched by Philippe de Champaigne at the Académie in 1671. Classified as a Historic Monument by the decree of 24 May 1994, and as such will be subject to a declaration within fifteen days of the sale to the Regional Conservation of Historic Monuments, giving the name and address of the new owner, as well as the date of disposal. Objects classified as historic monuments may not be exported from France.