Still Lifes, Sacred Scenes and Modern Elegance

Old Master Paintings & Drawings

Tuesday, June 16, 6pm

Tajan’s Manager of Old Master Paintings and Drawings, Landry Orizet, is pleased to announce the upcoming “Old Master Paintings” auction, to be held on Wednesday, June 16 at 6 pm in Paris. This selection highlights a group of works showcasing the richness of the European schools from the 16th to the 19th century, through a variety of compositions ranging from religious painting to genre scenes and still lifes.

Among the featured works is Still Life with a Bouquet of Flowers, Fruits, Shell, Porcelain Cup, Lute and Silverware by François Habert, distinguished by its strong decorative qualities and illustrating a taste for rich and detailed compositions. The work is estimated at €30,000–50,000.

One of the highlights of the sale, however, is a religious scene depicting Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist before a Blue Curtain by Cornelis van Cleve. Collectors and connoisseurs alike will appreciate the work for its quality of execution, expressive character, and clarity of composition. It carries an estimate of €150,000–200,000.

The selection is further complemented by 19th-century works, including Le Bal by James Tissot, which brings a touch of elegance and modernity to the auction, with an estimate of €30,000–50,000.

François Habert

François HABERT (Active in France in the mid-17th century)
Still Life with a Bouquet of Flowers, Fruits, Shell, Porcelain Cup, Lute and Silverware
Canvas, signed and dated
53,1 x 65 IN

€30,000/50,000

Very few archival documents relating to the life of this painter of flowers and fruit have survived. Probably of Flemish origin, he is thought to have trained in the Antwerp studio of Jan Davidsz de Heem before settling in Paris, where he is known to have been active around 1643–1652. He was likely a collaborator of Jean-Michel Picart who, in his correspondence with Matthijs Musson, mentions dealings with “Monsieur Habert” and was therefore probably also an art dealer. His works are mentioned on two occasions: first in the inventory of the collections of Philippe de Champaigne, which records “a garland of flowers by Monsieur Habert” purchased for 100 livres; and secondly in the inventory of paintings belonging to Monsieur Charles Tardif, secretary to the Marshal of Boufflers.

His works reveal both sensitivity and remarkable iconographic variety, demonstrating his affinity with the restrained and elegant style of the “painters of reality,” particularly Sébastien Stoskopff, as well as Flemish influences, notably that of Pieter van Boucle, who was also living in Paris at the time. The density of the composition recalls the richness of the works of his master, Jan Davidsz de Heem. Depicting sumptuous objects, this painting is like a window opening onto the opulence of the 17th century at the court of Louis XIV.

The ornate ewer, emblematic of the lavish silverwork of the 17th century, may be compared to the one depicted in the Maisons Royales tapestry series produced by the Manufacture des Gobelins for Louis XIV after cartoons by Charles Le Brun, now preserved at Château de Chambord. The lute, set slightly back within the composition, is enhanced by delicate reflections on its varnished surface. The instrument serves as a backdrop for the nautilus shell, whose iridescent surface catches the light and guides the viewer’s eye toward a piece of Chinese porcelain, adding further richness and refinement to the composition.

Cornelis van Cleve

Cornelis VAN CLEVE (Anvers, 1520-1567)
The Virgin and Child with the infant Saint John the Baptist in front of a blue curtain
Oak panel
25,1 x 20,2 in

€150,000/200,000

Our panel is a precious testament to the introduction of the Italian High Renaissance into Flanders. The composition derives from a model by Andrea del Sarto, the Madonna Corsini, highly popular during the 16th century and now lost, though known through various copies [1]. While the origin of the motif is Florentine, its interpretation by Cornelis van Cleve is distinctly Antwerpian and reflects a Flemish sensibility: the clarity of the contours, the harmonious arrangement of the figures, and the attention paid to decorative effects depart from the Italian sfumato in favour of a more precise and structured composition. Stricken by mental illness around 1550, Cornelis ceased painting shortly thereafter, and his œuvre was long confused with that of his father, Joos van Cleve.

As early as 1943, the art historian Max J. Friedländer reconstructed an initial corpus for the artist [2], distinguishing it from that of his father. He emphasized Cornelis’s Italianism, although the painter may never have travelled to Italy, as numerous transalpine models circulated in Antwerp at the time. Friedländer reproduced another version of our composition, featuring a landscape of trees beneath a blue sky behind the curtain [3]. A further variant, with clouds behind the canopy, is preserved at the Chrysler Museum of Art [3], notably incorporating a curved parapet also present in our painting. Among the known versions, ours is the finest. When it was sold in Zurich in 2024, it was described, following consultation with the specialist John Hand based on photographs, as a work from the studio of Cornelis van Cleve. Since then, the panel has been cleaned, revealing a remarkably high quality worthy of the master himself, and we subsequently sought this specialist’s opinion once again.

[1] John Sherman, Andrea del Sarto, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1965, n°32, pp. 217-119.
[2] Vente à Vienne, Dorotheum, 27 avril 2013, n°566 ; et vente à Paris, Artcurial, 26 novembre 2024, n°14.
[3] MJ Friedländer, Nachtträgliches zu Cornelis van Cleve, dans Oud Holland, LX, 1943, pp. 7-14 ; Early Netherlandish Painting, IXa, 1972, pp. 44, 49-50, 72-74.
[4] Donation the Irene Leache Memorial collection, inv. no. 2014.3.4

James Tissot

James TISSOT  (Nantes, 1836 – Chenecey-Buillon, 1902)
Le Bal
Original canvas. Dedicated and signed lower right “A l’ami Pierre (?) / J. Tissot” ;
bearing a pencil inscription on the reverse of the stretcher “Hotel de Paris 22 / J. Tissot n° 5194”
25,6 x 15,9 IN.

€30,000/50,000

Our painting is an initial idea executed around 1868–1869, which James Tissot would only fully develop ten years later in Le Bal, exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1878 under the title The Evening, now preserved at the Musée d’Orsay (fig. 1), and subsequently in L’Ambitieuse (Albright-Knox Art Gallery), painted circa 1883–1884 (fig. 2). A preparatory drawing for our sketch is known, in which the black strokes at the lower part of the dress, indicating the folds, already appear (sale in Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Dumousset-Deburaux, 2 June 1995, lot 115).

Between our sketch and the Orsay painting, the artist refocused the composition on the young woman shown in three-quarter view, eliminating the floor and the curtain on the left. He accentuated the twist of the body and the bustle of the dress, worthy of Charles Frederick Worth, whose colour changed from blue to yellow. The ostrich-feather fan became a more overtly seductive accessory. The décor also evolved: the large blue Chinese porcelain vase on the right was removed, and the entrance to the ballroom, where the crowd begins to arrive, was opened up further. The young woman’s gaze engages the viewer less directly and turns more decisively away from the guests.

In L’Ambitieuse, the sense of movement becomes even more pronounced. The pink dress features an even more voluminous bustle, and the woman now faces a denser crowd. The interior is more luxurious, while the velvet curtain frames the scene, marking the divide between the shadowy intimacy of the private sphere and the full light of public society. The work was etched by the artist himself. The model has successively been identified as Kathleen Newton and Lady Mary Craven, although the artist knew neither of them at the time our painting was executed.

The two finished compositions are firmly rooted in Victorian painting, characterized by an abundance of rich ornamental detail. Our canvas displays greater simplicity and spontaneity, bringing it closer to early Impressionist experimentation, particularly that of James Tissot’s close friends Édouard Manet — in the grey and blue tones of the dress — and Edgar Degas — in the vertically structured composition — and even suggesting an immediacy akin to that found in the works of Berthe Morisot and Eva Gonzalès.

OLD MASTER PAINTINGS & DRAWINGS

Tuesday, June 16, 6pm
Tajan, 37 rue des Mathurins, 75008 Paris

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