PAUL DE VOS Lot n° 12

PAUL DE VOS (HULST AROUND 1596 - ANTWERP 1678) THE TRIUMPH OF NEPTUNE Canvas. 204 x 343 cm Signed lower left on the rock: P. De Vos Fecit. Numbered lower left 99. Without frame. Provenance: Lazareff Collection; Marquis d'Abzac sale, Paris, January 29, 1875, (Me Haro), n°33 (François Snyders; acquired 2450 francs by M. Duberville); Anonymous sale, Versailles, Chevau-Légers (Me Martin et Desbenoit), February 28, 1988, out of catalog (Snyders). A true ode to the sea, and an allegory of triumphant Flanders, this painting, of rare ambition in subject and size, and probably painted for a large Antwerp residence, is probably the artist's masterpiece. Paul de Vos was born like his brother in Hulst in Zeeland. He was born in 1596, much younger than Rubens (1577) or Snyders (1579). He came from a family of artists. His brother Cornelis is a famous portraitist, almost as famous as van Dyck as van Dyck, his sister Marguerite married Snyders in 1611. In the same year Paul de Vos married Isabella van Waerbeke with whom he will have ten children, Rubens will be the godfather of one Rubens was the godfather of one of their sons, Peter-Paul, born in 1626. His career would be in Antwerp, where he was received as master of the the Academy of Saint Luke in 1620. Paul de Vos specialized in representations of hunting, animals and still life. Like all Antwerp painters of his time he worked in collaboration sometimes with Rubens, often with Snyders, for Spanish royal commissions for Spanish royal commissions, Jordaens, Wildens or van Hoecke. We propose to see in the two male figures in our painting the hand of figures in our painting the hand of Erasmus Quellinus. The painting of Paul de Vos is comparable to that of Snyders with some some slight variations: brighter and more metallic colors and above all this way of cutting the motifs, characters and and animals, to give more dynamism to his composition. If the origin of our painting can be found in the various fish markets of Snyders, this generosity in the description, this description, this power of evocation (Antwerp is the first European European port) have Rubens as their matrix. One can certainly find correspondences with van Kessel's small coppers, but in such a monumental size Jordaens and perhaps Snyders painted The Gifts of the Sea around 1640-1650, canvas, 269 x 377 cm, in the Residenzgalerie in Salzburg (see R.A. d'Hulst, Jacob Jordaens, Antwerp, 1982, reproduced on p. 196, fig. 167). It is probable that Paul de Vos saw Jordaens' painting: the two tridents support eels, the two seals in the lower right, but above all an arrangement very close to the large sea fish. The Besançon Museum has a study for the two seals on the right (canvas, 80 x 146 cm, see catalog of the exhibition Le siècle de Rubens, Paris, Grand Palais, 1977-1978, no. 211, reproduced). Lazare Ekimovitch Lazareff (? 1797 - Brussels 1871) from an important and rich Russian family of Armenian origin of Armenian origin, famous for its patronage and its philanthropic philanthropic works as well as for the Art Collection that it constituted in Saint Petersburg during the 19th century. His father, Ekim Lazarevitch Lazareff, the founder of the dynasty, founded the famous Lazareff Institute in Moscow in 1815, which specialized in the study of Caucasian languages and was a center of Armenian culture. Lazare Ekimovich made a career in the army until 1830. He He was famous for his role in the resettlement of the Armenians from Persia to Russia. He was a friend of many artists, including Pushkin and Turgenev, whom he met during one of his many stays in Paris. From 1841 onwards, he travelled between Saint Petersburg and Paris, investing himself, like other members of his family, in charitable works. In Saint Petersburg, he succeeded in imposing himself in the social circles. Lazareff was imprisoned and expelled from Paris in 1854 because of his legitimist sympathies for the Bourbons. With his death, followed two months later by that of his brother Christophe, the male branch of the Lazareffs died out. Lazare Ekimovitch Lazareff had married in 1834 in Brzeg Dolny (Silesia), the princess Antoinette Biron of Courland, descendant of Ernest Johan von Biron, favorite of the empress Anne of Russia. They had three daughters, the eldest of whom Dorothée (1835-1886) married in 1858 the marquis Charles Venance d'Abzac de Mayac (1822 - 1905). Coming from an old family of the Périgord, the latter had also made a career in the army, notably as aide-de-camp to Marshal Mac Mahon. Heir to his father-in-law's paintings, the Marquis d'Abzac put part of the estate up for sale in 1875 in Paris. PASSPORT N°233827 ISSUED ON 13/06/20