Lot n° 82
Estimation :
15000 - 20000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 23 040EUR
Pierre-Henri de VALENCIENNES (Toulouse, 1750 - Paris, 1819) - Lot 82
Pierre-Henri de VALENCIENNES (Toulouse, 1750 - Paris, 1819)
Classical landscape
Fixed under glass
Signed and dated lower right: "P. Valenciennes. 1810 "
13 x 96 cm
Provenance:
Possibly Viscountess of L'Espine.
Our panoramic view is a decorative element inserted between the back of the keyboard and the soundboard to close the case of a square pianoforte (the maker had to be able to access the keyboard and eventually remove it for adjustments), an instrument that was established in France in the 1770s. From the years 1803-1804, the Erard brothers used a decorative system for their grand instruments with a lining of the keyboard bar with a decorative panel made of eglomized glass designed by Antoine Rascalon. The sides of the keyboard are then covered, thus constituting a case. The repertoire is ornamental, the format imposing a frieze decoration. In the instruments without particular decoration, this board carries a plate with the name of the manufacturer, often in marquetry.
Very few of these pianoforte friezes with figurative painting under glass have come down to us. We know the one painted by Anthelme François Lagrenée on a pianoforte built by Ignace Pleyel and Charles Lemme in 1806 (Madrid, Museum of Decorative Arts).
A major work of Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes' maturity, this painting can be considered as a panorama representing an ideal, Italianate place. Although the artist refused to paint vedute in the tradition of Canaletto and Bellotto, he was interested in the exact reproduction of light, which he used in optical drawings or in more complex creations such as the fixed under glass. Geneviève Lacambre worked on the subject in 2006 in her essay Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes et l'Optique.
(Non contractual photograph)
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