Meiffren COMTE (Marseille, circa 1630 - circa 1705) Composition with silver coins, oriental carpet, porphyry vase, shell, bigarade and citron tree Canvas (Restorations on a strip of about 12 cm in the upper part) Composition with silver coins, oriental rug, porphyry vase, seashell and citrus, canvas, by M. Comte 47.64 x 79.72 in. 121.0 x 202.5 cm Provenance: Charles Marcotte d'Argenteuil (1773-1864) Collection, Château du Poncelet, near Meaux, until 1995; Then by descent; Private collection, Charente Our painting is Meiffren Comte's masterpiece and probably his most ambitious composition, given its format and the choice of luxurious objects depicted. It is one of the most sumptuous still lifes to have come down to us from 17th-century France, rivalling the great contemporary Baroque examples by Willem Kalf, Abraham Brueghel and Cristoforo Munari. The alternation of vertical pieces and oblique elements gives a musical rhythm to the whole. Although he worked mainly in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille, Comte travelled to Rome in his youth, where he saw the works of Francesco Fieravino, known as il Maltese (1611-1654). He also travelled to Paris in 1671 and 1675. He was appointed painter to the King's Galleys by Louis XIV and, during his stay in Paris, worked with artists from the Manufacture des Gobelins, including Baudouin Yvart, as well as with other pupils of Charles Le Brun1. From left to right, we see a porphyry vase with a handle and gadroons inspired by the one in Louis XIV's collections. A very similar example is now in the Louvre (MR 2840). The candlestick depicting the exploits of Hercules is one of those designed by Le Brun for Versailles. Chiselled by Thomas Merlin and René Cousinet2, they were cast in 1689 in response to the kingdom's financial difficulties. Another torch from the same series of the Labours of Hercules is depicted in two paintings by Meiffren Comte in the collections of the Château de Versailles (MV8919 and MV8555). Several drawings by Charles Le Brun and his workshop have survived, providing evidence of the torches commissioned from the silversmiths Jean de Viaucourt, René Cousinet, Thomas Merlin and Jacques Du Tel, who also produced several sets of torches, including another on the theme of the twelve months of the year. Of particular importance, it is possible that some of the torches in this Les Travaux d'Hercule series were placed in the Salon de Mars3. In the centre, the silver ewer with the decoration of the triumphal entry on horseback belongs to the painter's usual repertoire, as do the large basin, the citron and the oranges4. On the right, the shell is a large West Indian lambi, also one of the painter's favourite motifs. The richly decorated handle of a dagger set in a marble bas-relief is also depicted at the far right of the painting, as well as what appears to be a sugar bowl just behind it. These basins, decorated in concentric registers, and the ewers with their extensive sculpted decoration, known as ear ornaments, have disappeared. Meiffren Comte's paintings are therefore key documents for gaining an idea of the goldsmiths' and silversmiths' objects that were probably on display at the Gobelins and the Garde-Meuble. 1. On the life and work of Meiffren Comte, see Michel Faré, Le Grand siècle de la Nature morte en France. Le XVIIe siècle, Fribourg, 1974, p. 205-232. 2. Catalogue of the exhibition Quand Versailles était meublé d'argent, Versailles, Musée national du château de Versailles et de Trianon, 2007-2008, p. 239-240, repr. p. 37, fig.15. 3. On this subject we refer to the article by Gaëlle Taxil, "L'ameublement et le décor intérieur du salon de Mars (1673-1789)", Bulletin du Centre de recherche du château de Versailles, (online), Articles et études, put online 16 July 2014, accessed 6 October 2024. 4. The ewer is similar to the one on the Nature morte au bassin et aux deux aiguières in a private collection (the work is illustrated in Michèle Bimbenet-Privat, Les orfèvres et l'orfèvrerie de Paris au XVIIe siècle, tome II, Les œuvres, Paris, 2002, p. 132). Several pieces of silverware from our painting are also represented on the still life from the former Heim-Gairac collection (see Faré, op. cit., repr. p. 226-227). Meiffren COMTE (Marseille, circa 1630 - circa 1705) 121.0 x 202.5 cm Our painting is Meiffren Comte's masterpiece and probably his most ambitious composition in terms of its format and the choice of luxurious objects depicted. It is one of the most sumptuous still lifes to have come down to us from 17th-century France, rivalling the great contemporary Baroque examples by Willem Kalf, Abraham Brueghel and Cristoforo Munari. The alternation of vertical pieces and oblique elements gives a musical rhythm to the whole. Although he worked mainly in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille, Comte travelled to Rome in his youth, where he saw the works of Francesco Fieravino, known as il Maltese (1611-1654). He also travelled to Paris in 1671 and 1675. He was appointed painter to the King's Galleys by Louis XIV and, during his stay in Paris, worked with artists from the Manufacture des Gobelins, including Baudouin Yvart, as well as with other pupils of Charles Le Brun1. From left to right, we see a porphyry vase with a handle and gadroons inspired by the one in Louis XIV's collections. A very similar example is now in the Louvre (MR 2840). The candlestick depicting the exploits of Hercules is one of those designed by Le Brun for Versailles. Chiselled by Thomas Merlin and René Cousinet2, they were cast in 1689 in response to the kingdom's financial difficulties. Another torch from the same series of the Labours of Hercules is depicted in two paintings by Meiffren Comte in the collections of the Château de Versailles (MV8919 and MV8555). Several drawings by Charles Le Brun and his workshop have survived, providing evidence of the torches commissioned from the silversmiths Jean de Viaucourt, René Cousinet, Thomas Merlin and Jacques Du Tel, who also produced several sets of torches, including another on the theme of the twelve months of the year. Of particular importance, it is possible that some of the torches in this Les Travaux d'Hercule series were placed in the Salon de Mars3. In the centre, the silver ewer with the decoration of the triumphal entry on horseback belongs to the painter's usual repertoire, as do the large basin, the citron and the oranges4. On the right, the shell is a large West Indian lambi, also one of the painter's favourite motifs. The richly decorated handle of a dagger set in a marble bas-relief is also depicted at the far right of the painting, as well as what appears to be a sugar bowl just behind it. These basins, decorated in concentric registers, and the ewers with their extensive sculpted decoration, known as ear ornaments, have disappeared. Meiffren Comte's paintings are therefore key documents for gaining an idea of the goldsmiths' and silversmiths' objects that were probably on display at the Gobelins and the Garde-Meuble. 1. See on the life and work of Meiffren Comte: Michel Faré, Le Grand siècle de la Nature morte en France. Le XVIIe siècle, Fribourg, 1974, p. 205-232. 2. Catalogue of the exhibition Quand Versailles était meublé d'argent, Versailles, Musée national du château de Versailles et de Trianon, 2007-2008, p. 239-240, repr. p. 37, fig.15. 3. On this subject we refer to the article by Gaëlle Taxil, "L'ameublement et le décor intérieur du salon de Mars (1673-1789)", Bulletin du Centre de recherche du château de Versailles, (online), Articles et études, online 16 July 2014, accessed 6 October 2024. 4. The ewer is similar to the one on the Nature morte au bassin et aux deux aiguières in a private collection (the work is illustrated in Michèle Bimbenet-Privat, Les orfèvres et l'orfèvrerie de Paris au XVIIe siècle, tome II, Les œuvres, Paris, 2002, p. 132). Several pieces of silverware from our painting are also represented on the still life from the former Heim-Gairac collection (see Faré, op. cit., repr. p. 226-227).