Talabardon & Gautier: 30 Years of Passion Results in Auction Success

As David Norman said immediately after the Thursday session: This sale brought major dealers and collectors from all over the world to Drouot. Obviously, the date had been carefully chosen, since it coincided with the Salon du Dessin, and if this year the Talabardon & Gautier Gallery was not present, it was because a large part of its collection was on the walls of Drouot. One might expect difficulties, since it is never easy to put recently acquired works up for auction, which often command a high price and are already available on the art market. It was not the case, on the contrary...

Everyone, and the French institutions first and foremost, were on the lookout for drawings, paintings and sculptures, which were previously inaccessible, as the two dealers' prices were quite high. However, their eye for discovery and their talent as avid hunters were not contested by anyone and the estimates posted by the experts sparked a strong enthusiasm. The two days, with 350 lots in succession concluded with a total of €5,765,000—above the high end of expectations—and no less than fourteen preemptions, bearing witness to the acknowledgement of the museum world.

The 19th century being the favorite period, it was natural that it should be the one that won the most votes, starting with the €243,200 for a drawing by Louis-Léopold Boilly (see photo). This Young Girl Carrying Her Brother on Her Shoulders in a Garden, executed around 1797-1799, is a perfect illustration of the successor to Jean-Baptiste Greuze's mastery in transcribing scenes of family and daily life. Next, at the other end of the century, was the Portrait of Germaine, the artist's daughter, at the age of 4 (49 x 49 cm/19.2x 19.2 in, €204.800), painted on canvas in 1882 by an obviously loving father, Jean-François Raffaëlli (1850-1924). Indeed, he never ceased to represent her, at four months old, at two years old, in adolescence... The little girl was here transcribed in light tones and a luminous palette which contrast with the rest of a more official production. A View of Saintes, Taken From Lormont (32 x 46 cm/12.5 x 18.1 in, see photo) by Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) in 1865, which fetched €140,800, reflected Talabardon's and Gautier's taste for landscape painting, which they greatly contributed to bringing back to the fore. The €76,800 achieved by a View Taken in Rome Under the Arch of Janus (96 x 73.5 cm/37.7 x 28.9 in) by Count Lancelot Théodore Turpin de Crissé (1782-1859), dated 1818, and the €51,200 for another of Vesuvius in Eruption (46 x 61 cm/18.1 x 24 in), on paper mounted on cardboard by Simon Denis (1755-1813), were also evidence of this. Lake Lucerne from Rigi-Kulm (27 x 41 cm/10.6 x 16.1 in), a panel by Giuseppe De Nittis (1846-1884), which fetched €53,760, is yet another masterly illustration.
 

A Lesson in Things
The Old Masters were not easily outdone and also took their place in this successful auction, starting with The Embroidery Lesson (50.5 x 39.5 cm/19.8 x 15.5 in) by Michael Sweerts (1618-1664) at €108,000. This 17th-century painting, which in the following century belonged to Armand-François-Louis de Mestral de Saint-Saphorin (1738-1805)—a Swiss collector and ambassador to several European countries on behalf of the King of Denmark—conveys the freshness of childhood and the beauty of simple things with great delicacy for its time. Two sketches by Jean Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755), Io Changed Into a Cow (47.2 x 69.2 cm/18.5 x 27.2 in) and Hippomenes and Atalanta (47.5 x 69 cm/18.7 x 27.1)­—belonging to the cycle of the "Metamorphoses of Ovid"—were sold at €110,080 and The Apotheosis of Psyche (57.6 x 65.2 cm/22.6 x 25.6 in) by Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre (1714-1789), an oil on canvas study for the ceiling of the ceremonial apartment of the Duchess of Orleans at the Palais-Royal, at €115,200.

Concerning the Preemptions
The Condottiere by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (reproduced above— also see the article “When Ingres Paints a Condottiere From Florence”) seemed to be a difficult artwork for collectors, but one that is characteristically museum-quality: it was therefore only fitting that the Montauban museum acquired this piece for its corpus, for €198,400. The master of neoclassicism portrays here a rough and not very affable face, far from the canons of beauty that are often attributed to him. By making a detour into historicism, he wanted to "tackle" a man of war, bearded and armored as it should be, and to glorify him. This painting is an echo of the investigative work carried out with unfailing determination for thirty years by the two Bertrands.
 

No less than thirteen other preemptions were announced. Including the acquisition by the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans of a painting by Louis Hersent (1777-1860), La Fiancée du Roi de Garbe (61.8 x 50.5 cm/24.3 x 19.8 in), for €7,680, a painting by Antoine-Auguste Thivet (1856-1927) showing a martyr (59.7 x 82 cm/23.5 x 32.2 in, for €6,656) and a bas-relief in red wax by David d'Angers (1788-1856) showing the profile of Achille Devéria (€7,680). The Musée Napoléon I in Fontainebleau was next in line paying €12,800 for a full-length portrait of Nicolas-Charles Oudinot, Duke of Reggio, Marshal of France, painted in 1810, and the Musée de la Maison Bonaparte in Ajaccio, at €3,840 for a drawing by Carle Vernet (1758-1836), La Délivrance de la Corse, 29 Vendémiaire An 5. The Musée d'Orsay ended with three sheets by Louis-Adolphe Hervier (1818-1879): true historical testimonies showing scenes of barricades in Paris during the revolutionary days of 1848 (€6,400, €6,400 and €2,304). The Hôtel Drouot, which as Bertrand Gautier said, had been for them "a real school", gave a worthy welcome to this ensemble, whose sale will allow their work to continue, albeit differently.