Lot no. 95
Louis CARROGIS, known as CARMONTELLE (Paris, 1717 - 1806) Scenes of rejoicing in a park Watercolour gouache over pen and black ink Scenes of celebration in a park, watercolour and gouache on pen and black ink, by L. Carrogis called Carmontelle 14.17 x 18.90 in. 36.0 x 48.0 cm Provenance: Probably fragments of one of the scrolls from the Carmontelle sale, Paris, 17 April 1807, lot of 11 "boxes of transparent scrolls". Private collection, Paris Germaine de Staël wrote to King Gustav III of Sweden on 9 August 1786: "I am sending VM a brochure by Carmontelle, the author of all the proverbs in the world, entitled Conversations du jour de l'an. What I found piquant about this work is its extreme truth". Carmontelle did not invent: he transcribed what he saw and heard. In the pair of watercolours shown, for example, the rider in a yellow dress on a horse with a blue saddlecloth is giving an order to a rider in a red outfit with blue braiding: this is Bathilde d'Orléans, whose colours are red and blue, married to the Duc de Bourbon Condé, whose colours are buff blue and yellow. On the other, in a carriage in these colours, perched the Condé coachmen and his valet Orléans, is a group of ladies in white dresses: she had started the fashion to match the red hunting costume of the gentlemen! Louis Carrogis, known as Carmontelle (1717-1806), was a prolific genius: Dozens of comedies and art reviews, but also a Treatise on Perspective, hundreds of watercolour portraits of all the notables who passed through the Palais Royal, the prerogative of the Dukes of Orléans in whose service he spent many years, some forty transparent paintings and more than a dozen rolls made up of these paintings following each other according to a scenario, a term he promoted: a veritable ancestor of cinema. He devoted himself to this until his death. These three watercolours are from one of the rolls, depicting the French Campaigns, painted between 1783 and 1787. The two forming the pair have been cut off at the top. These scrolls can be up to 45 metres long and vary in height from 35 to 48 cm. They were presented in an optical box, unrolled from one axis to another, and lit at the back. We would like to thank Mrs Laurence Chatel de Brancion for confirming the authenticity of this sheet by means of a visual examination on 17 July 2024 and for writing these instructions. Louis CARROGIS, known as CARMONTELLE (Paris, 1717 - 1806) 36.0 x 48.0 cm Germaine de Staël wrote to King Gustav III of Sweden on 9 August 1786: "I am sending VM a brochure by Carmontelle, the author of all the proverbs in the world, entitled Conversations du jour de l'an. What strikes me as piquant about this work is its extreme truth". Carmontelle did not invent: he transcribed what he saw and heard. Thus, in the pair of watercolours shown, we see the rider in a yellow dress, on a horse with a blue saddlecloth giving an order to a rider in a red outfit with blue braiding: this is Bathilde d'Orléans, whose colours are red and blue, married to the Duc de Bourbon Condé, whose colours are buff blue and yellow. On the other, in a carriage in these colours, perched the Condé coachmen and his valet Orléans, is a group of ladies in white dresses: she had started the fashion to match the red hunting costume of the gentlemen! Louis Carrogis, known as Carmontelle (1717-1806), was a prolific genius: Dozens of comedies and art reviews, but also a Treatise on Perspective, hundreds of watercolour portraits of all the notables who passed through the Palais Royal, the prerogative of the Dukes of Orléans in whose service he spent many years, some forty transparent paintings and more than a dozen rolls made up of these paintings following each other according to a scenario, a term he promoted: a veritable ancestor of cinema. He devoted himself to this until his death. These three watercolours are from one of the rolls, depicting the French Campaigns, painted between 1783 and 1787. The two forming the pair have been cut off at the top. These scrolls can be up to 45 metres long and vary in height from 35 to 48 cm. They were presented in an optical box, unrolled from one axis to another, and lit at the back. We would like to thank Mrs Laurence Chatel de Brancion for confirming the authenticity of this sheet by means of a visual examination on 17 July 2024, and for writing these instructions.
See original version (French)
Pictures credits: Contact organization
Old paintings
About the sale
Catalog
Old Masters and 19th century
75008 Paris - France
11/26/2024
Offered by Artcurial
33 (0)1 42 99 20 26