Old Master Paintings
December 17, 6pm
On the occasion of our prestigious Old Masters sale to be held on 17 December at Tajan in Paris, Thaddée Prate, head of the department, and Landry Orizet, auctioneer, unveil a selection of major works.
This sale will showcase the art of portraiture, notably with a delicate Portrait of the Virgin and Child with Saint John by Bernardino Luini (1440–1532), estimated at €200,000–300,000. Collectors will also be able to discover an important collection of portraits from the reign of Louis XIV, featuring aristocrats and members of the royal family, including Louis XIV, Louis XV, Colbert, Saint-Simon, Mademoiselle de Blois and the Duke of Maine. This fine ensemble carries a total estimate of €180,000 to €250,000. A charming miniature portrait, fitted with sixteen mica overlays allowing it to be transformed, will be offered with an estimate of €2,500–3,500.
A rare Self-Portrait by Labille-Guiard, the eminent 18th-century French painter renowned for her portraiture and her advocacy for women artists, will be offered with an estimate of €300,000–500,000. Meanwhile, a remarkable Young Woman with a Lyre, or A Muse (?), sometimes identified as Mademoiselle Colombe, by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, will be presented with an estimate of €400,000–600,000.
The 19th century will also be represented, with an equestrian portrait of Napoleon III signed by Charles-Louis Müller, and an imposing full-length portrait of the Countess of Galliffet with her son, painted by Émile Waters. Nature and hunting will likewise hold a prominent place: a basket of fruit by Isaak Soreau, a landscape by Herman van Swanevelt, a set of four canvases devoted to the hunt by Henri Auguste d’Ainecy de Montpezat, as well as a large pair of paintings depicting dogs by Christophe Huet, will further enrich this fine sale.
The public will also be able to admire a work by Jacob Bunel—an artist very rarely seen on the market—depicting a group of musicians in an interior (estimated at €40,000–60,000). Finally, a section devoted to the theme of the sea will offer a visual journey through the centuries: from 17th- and 18th-century harbour scenes to works on paper by the official Marine painter Marin-Marie, including the tempestuous seas of the Romantic period.
Adélaïde Labille-Guiard
Adélaïde LABILLE-GUIARD (Paris, 1749 – 1803)
Autoportrait
Pastel, 62 x 51 cm
Signed and dated lower left “Labille F Guiard 1782”
Original frame
€300,000 / 500,000
Adélaïde Labille-Guiard is one of the few women artists of the second half of the 18th century to have achieved official recognition under the Ancien Régime, on a par with her ‘rival’ Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. Her prestigious clientele included the Parisian bourgeoisie as well as members of the royal family at Versailles, notably Mesdames, the aunts of Louis XVI, of whom she would become the official painter.
After studying with François Vincent, she learned the technique of pastel from the undisputed master of the medium, Maurice-Quentin de La Tour. She exhibited our Self-Portrait at the Salon de la Correspondance in 1782, before being admitted a year later to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1783.
In this brilliant self-portrait, she presents herself wearing an elegant beige satin dress, asserting her status by displaying her painter’s attributes: a palette and brushes. Pastel, her preferred medium, gives the work a soft modeling and a delicate, powdery luminosity.
It directly anticipates her masterpiece Self-Portrait with Two Pupils (1785, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), exhibited at the Salon in 1785, which highlights the empowerment of women through art. Her commitment helped pave the way for the recognition and professionalization of women artists.
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
Jean-Honoré FRAGONARD (Grasse, 1732 – Paris, 1806)
Young Woman with a Lyre, or A Muse (?), sometimes called Mademoiselle Colombe
Oval canvas, 69 × 56 cm
€400,000–600,000
Bernardino Luini
Bernardino Scapi, dit Bernardino LUINI (vers 1480 – 1532)
The Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist
Canvas, transferred panel
84 × 66 cm
19th-century Italian frame
Inscription on the back of the stretcher: ‘Belonging to Count Louis de Sartiges / 3 Place d’Iéna / Paris 16’
Old restorations
€200,000–300,000
PROVENANCE
Former collection of Baron Henri de Triqueti;
Collection of his daughter, Blanche Lee Childe, née Triqueti, until 1886;
Lee Childe sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot (Me Chevallier; expert Féral), 4 May 1886, no. 6 (Luini, sold for 1,450 francs);
Anonymous sale, Paris, Tajan, 26 June 1998, no. 10 (Luini, sold for 380,000 francs).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
– Cristina Quattrini, Bernardino Luini. Catalogo generale delle opere, Turin, 2019, cited p. 422 under no. C 3 (our painting was mistakenly identified with the painting from the Carlo Henfrey collection).
After training within the circle of Lombard artists such as Ambrogio Bergognone, Bramantino, and Bernardo Zenale, Bernardino Luini became one of Leonardo da Vinci’s principal disciples in Milan. He received commissions for cycles in churches of the region, for example at San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore, later worked at the Certosa di Pavia, and for various churches in Varese and Como. He combined Leonardo’s influence with traditional Lombard motifs in balanced and elegant compositions, characteristic of the High Renaissance.
A skilled storyteller as a fresco painter, he was also capable of producing portraits and medium-format devotional works, such as ours, for private patrons. Our painting can be compared with other Sacred Conversations dated around 1520–1525: The Virgin and Child with an Angel, known as the Madonna of Menaggio (Paris, Musée du Louvre, 80 × 58 cm, Fig. 1) [1]; The Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist (London, National Gallery, 88.3 × 66 cm); and the one from the Liechtenstein Collection in Vienna (83 × 66 cm). The harmony of the delicate colors of the garment against the dark background, the ethereal light, and the very subtle smile are a perfect affirmation of Leonardo’s legacy [2].
[1] Note the prominent presence of an iris, albeit yellow, as in our painting.
[2] Also worth mentioning is The Virgin and Child with Saint George and a Musician Angel, from the former Cook collection, circa 1530, sold in Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Aguttes, 14 November 2019 (Fig. 2).
Commissioned from Leonardo da Vinci in May 1484 by a lay confraternity for the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception at San Francesco Grande in Milan, the Virgin of the Rocks (Louvre Museum) was probably transferred around 1500 to a member of the French court [3]. The removal of the panel then forced the artist to produce a second, almost identical version with his pupils (London, National Gallery, Fig. 3). It is this version, which remained in situ, that served as inspiration for other artists.
Leonardo da Vinci’s painted output is very limited; only fifteen religious paintings and five portraits are known, each carefully conceived and deliberated, and each marking a significant moment in the evolution of Western art. Demand for these revolutionary images was very high at the time. His workshop and pupils in Milan produced replicas of his paintings at various stages of completion. Dozens of repetitions of Saint Anne, The Redeemer, or the Virgin of the Rocks are known.
[3] Painting that quickly entered the royal collection, acquired by Louis XII or François I.
In contrast, Luini does not copy; he interprets the master’s altarpiece. He omits the grotto and the landscape but retains the strengths of the original: the pyramidal composition, a symbol of elevation, carefully broken down into a sophisticated triangulation; the psychological relationships between the figures; and the spirituality of the group, achieved through a subtle use of sfumato and faces imbued with softness and melancholy.
He also preserves the lifelike aspect of the infants, based on careful observation of their anatomy, unlike medieval representations which reduced them to miniature adults. The blond curls gently falling on the forehead or shoulders and the Virgin’s jewel clasp are directly taken from Leonardo’s prototype. This idealization of the faces is balanced by the naturalism of the modeling and the almost scientific precision of the plant species, revealing the harmony of Nature and Creation. On the left, a blue iris, a Marian symbol, foretells the Virgin’s sorrow, pierced by the sword whose shape it evokes. In the upper right, yellow primroses are associated with the renewal of spring and the Resurrection. In Jesus’ hand, a white lily symbolizes purity and a sign of royalty.
Our painting is the lost original, of which two other replicas are known: one at the Museo Parrocchiale in Busto Arsizio and the second formerly in the Carlo Henfrey collection [4]. A copy of our painting, dating to around 1600, was sold in San Francisco on 28–29 September 2014, lot no. 3000.
We thank Cristina Quattrini for confirming the attribution from a digital photograph in October 2025.
[4] Quattrini, 2019, op. cit., p. 422.
Wednesday, December 17, 6pm
Tajan, 37 rue des Mathurins, 75008 Paris
CONTACTS
Thaddée Prate – Old Master Paintings Director
+33 1 53 30 30 47 – [email protected]
Landry Orizet – Auctioneer
+33 1 53 30 30 46 – [email protected]
Expert: Cabinet Eric Turquin
Press and Photo
Ariane de Miramon – Marketing & Communication Director
+33 1 53 30 30 68 – [email protected]