Sébastien BOURDON (Montpellier, 1616-Paris, 1... Lot n° 14

Halt in front of the inn Canvas (old restorations). 65 x 54 cm Born into a Calvinist family in Montpellier in 1616, Sébastien BOURDON had an adventurous youth, apprenticing with a painter in Paris before leaving for Rome at the age of 20. He painted bambochades, frequented the young Nicolas POUSSIN, Peter van LAER, Giovanni Benedetto CASTIGLIONE, Claude LORRAIN, Pietro da CORTONA. Denounced as a heretic, he was forced to return to Paris, stopping off in Venice on the way. The arrival of POUSSIN in Paris (1640-1642) enabled him to adopt this master's classical style, although his large altarpieces show a slight Baroque influence. In 1648, he was one of the twelve elders who founded the Académie Royale de peinture et sculpture. He traveled to Sweden from 1652 to 1654, then returned to his hometown in 1657. On his return to the capital, he received prestigious commissions for large-scale decorations, in particular for the Hôtel de Bretonvillers in 1663. Our painting can be compared with his guardhouse scenes from around 1640, when he moved to Paris (Jacques THUILLIER, Sébastien BOURDON, 1616-1671, Catalogue critique et chronologique de l'oeuvre complet, Réunion des musées nationaux, Montpellier, 2000, pp.182 to 191). Note the detail of the animals drinking at the trough on the right, related to his pastoral scenes, and the alms-giving on the left to the little boy carrying a violin, close to the world of Le NAIN.