* Please register before biding to participate in the auction of this painting: [email protected] - please register before biding Alexandre-François DESPORTES (Champigneulles, 1661 - Paris, 1743) Still life with pieces of silverware by Thomas Germain, porphyry vase, Chinese porcelain, peaches and bigarades. Canvas Without frame Height : 186 cm Width: 100 cm In the bibliography, the painting is mentioned as signed and dated 1740. Old restorations History : - From the collection of Jean Baptiste Machault d'Arnouville (1701 - 794) (Lastic, 1969); - Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot collection, his sale Tableaux anciens et modernes (école française du XVIIIe siècle) et objets d'art et de curiosité provenant de la succession de feu M. Odiot, Paris, 25-26 March 1869, no. 3; - collection comte de La Béraudière; - Louis Guiraud collection, Paris; - collection Jacques Helft; - presented by Jacques Helft to Mr and Mrs Arturo Lopez Wilshaw (the painting is illustrated in the book 14 rue du Centre, Monaco 1961, in the staircase of the town house). Bibliography : - Michel Faré, La nature morte en France, Genève, Pierre Cailler, 1962, vol. I, p. 210, vol.2, repr. 321 ; - Georges de Lastic, Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint et dessiné de François Desportes, dissertation of the Ecole du Louvre, typed, 1969, no. 1379; - Michel and Fabrice Faré, La vie silencieuse en France. La nature morte au XVIIIe siècle, Fribourg, Office du Livre, 1976, repr. 90; - Jacques Helft, Nouveaux poinçons, Paris, éditions Berger-Levrault, 1980, p.384-385, probably with its original frame; - Christiane Perrin, François Thomas Germain orfèvre des rois, Saint-Rémi-En-l'Eau, éditions Monelle Hayot, 1993, p.98; - Dominique Chevé, Fabrice Faré, "Les tableaux de trompe-l'œil ou la jouissance de l'illusion", Le Trompe-l'œil. De l'Antiquité au XXème siècle (edited by Patrick Mauriès), Paris, Gallimard, 1996, p. 206. - Pierre Jacky, François Desportes (1661-1743), doctoral thesis, typed, Université de Paris IV, Sorbonne, 1999, t. IV, p. 812-813. - Georges de Lastic, Pierre Jacky, Desportes, Catalogue raisonné, Saint-Rémi-En-l'Eau, éditions Monelle Hayot, 2010, vol. 1, p.224 and vol.2, p. 229, n°P820, repr. in black and white. - Michèle Bimbenet-Privat, Florian Doux, Catherine Gougeon, Orfèvrerie de la Renaissance et des temps modernes, XVIe, XVIIe et XVIIIe siècle La collection du musée du Louvre, Dijon - Paris, éditions Faton - Louvre édition, 2022, Vol.2, p.195. - Christophe Huchet de Quenetain, l'orfèvre Besnier (1686-1754), 2024, rep.p.249. Exhibitions : - Exhibition of old French Gold & Silver plate XVIth to XVIIIth century, A. Seligmann Galleries, New York, December 1933, n°81, rep. with its probably original frame. - Orfèvrerie française civile de province du XVIème au XVIIIème siècle exhibition, Paris, Musée des Arts décoratifs, 1936. - Exhibition Hommage à Chardin, Paris, Galerie Heim, 6 June - 10 July 1959, n°41. Around 1720, Desportes painted his first "grand buffet d'orfèvrerie", an evolution of his lunchtime still lifes in width. Desportes painted two large buffets, one of which is in the Metropolitan Museum in New York (circa 1720), and three others in private collections. They were intended to be hung in the panelling of dining rooms, above marble sideboards on which were placed goldsmith's dishes and various victuals served to guests. Organised in a pyramid shape, these trompe-l'oeil pieces decorated the rooms with unprecedented splendour. Luxurious manufactured objects and garden or farm produce stand out against a backdrop of sky. Here, a porphyry vase sits atop a green marble base adorned with satyr heads and a gilded bronze shell. Below, on an entablature partly covered with a red velvet drapery, are hard stone (agate) vases, two Chinese porcelain bowls and three silver pieces by Thomas Germain (1673-1748). The oille pot, decorated with a count's crown, is a model by Thomas Germain, taken over by François-Thomas Germain; a very similar example dated 1741-1744 is known (former Jacques Helft collection). Further down, in the centre, a poly-lobed stew dish, edged with rushes, with two handles, is very similar to the dish with handles made by Thomas Germain in 1733-1734 and which belonged to the Orléans-Penthièvre service (Paris, Musée du Louvre); the only difference is the rush decoration around it. On either side of it are two other rectangular dishes by the same silversmith. These three pieces show peaches contained in a terrine whose handles are in the shape of boar's heads (this model by Thomas Germain appeared in 1733). On the marble console, two oranges, a sliced ham and a cut-up slice of ham are placed in simpler everyday serving dishes. Our painting is often compared to Nature morte à la terrine de pêches et aux deux perdrix (Still life with a terrine of peaches and two partridges), bought directly from Desportes by Count Tessin, and brought back to Sweden by him (circa 1739-1740, Stockholm, Nationalmuseum). It features the same terrine and the same play of reflections of the fruit in the dish behind it. It is also related to two studies of goldsmiths' pieces on a red background, one in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the other in the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres. A painting in the Musée de Mulhouse also features the same pot à oille as our painting. Our painting is unusual in that it belonged to the famous goldsmith, Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot (1763-1850), and then to the great antiquarian, Jacques Helft (1891-1980), an expert in old goldsmiths' and silversmiths' wares whose works in this field, and in particular his studies on hallmarks, are still the standard reference today. It is probably no coincidence that he collected works by Thomas Germain, such as the bottle buckets from the Orléans-Penthièvre service, which he sold to David David-Weill, who donated them to the Louvre in 1946. Expert: Turquin et associés, Stéphane Pinta . Visible by appointment only with the expert 69 rue Sainte Anne 75002 Paris (0033 1 47 03 48 78).