Attributed to Louis Chéron – St Philip baptising the Eunuch of Candace
Oil on copper (grisaille technique). Painted mark H ? 15 on reverse. Displayed in its original gilded Regency frame, made by Temple & Son 1809-1839 at 50 Great Titchfield St, Fitzroy Square 1811-1839. The title appears in the catalogue for Chéron’s studio sale in 1726, lot No. 114, “The Apostle Baptizing”. This painting is unusual to find on copper in the grisaille technique, usually reserved for his drawings. Chéron’s paintings decorated many country houses throughout England including Boughton House, Northamptonshire, London at Montague House (1706–12), at Ditton Park, Buckinghamshire, at Burghley House, Northamptonshire, and in the gallery and little dining-room at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire. The present painting relates to a drawing and etching (printed in reverse) both executed by Louis Chéron at the beginning of the 18th century.
Copper: 14 1/8 x 11 1/8 in. (36 x 28.4 cm).
Frame: 16 7/8 x 14 1/4 in. (43 x 36.3 cm).
Provenance
Possibly bequeathed by the artist, together with the rest of the contents of his studio, to Isaac Grassineau.
Possibly the Chéron studio sale, London, Covent Garden, 26 & 28 Feb 1725 & 2nd March 1726. Third day of the sale, 2nd March, lot number 114, “The Apostle Baptizing”.
Possibly James Stanley, the 10th Earl of Derby who acquired a “surprisingly” high proportion of the oil sketches at the sale. Of the drawings J. Stanley bought, the majority were acquired for the British Museum in 1953: twenty were unaccounted for. Inevitably the drawings in the sale were catalogued more telegraphically than the pictures.
Re: The Louis Cheron Sale Catalogue, author, Francis Russell, article 1988, The Burlington Magazine, pages 464-467.
The painting was acquired by (RFA) in May 2024, on the understanding it had been purchased via another dealer who had said the picture originated from a listed building in Derby. Originally sold as a decorative painting b
...y an unknown artist.
Other known impressions
Drawing: British Museum (T,14.17). Bequeathed by William Fawkener in 1769. Height: 346 millimetres. Width: 270 millimetres.
Print: Etched by the artist in reverse (BM impression, 1874,0808.946). Height: 360 millimetres. Width: 284 millimetres.
Louis Chéron may well have completed his cycle of the Acts of the Apostles because of the considerable interest in Raphael’s cartoons at the beginning of the 18th century. Engraved and copied several times these works from the Royal Collections were so admired that they inspired the decorations for St. Paul’s Cathedral. Louis Chéron could not claim to rival Raphael, but he was best placed in England to recreate a cycle of the Acts of the Apostles that would recall the spirit of the Master.
In 1700, Louis Chéron signed a series of drawings relating to the Acts of the Apostles . In the tradition of the ten cartoons (1515/16) by Raphael, made for tapestries intended for the Sistine Chapel. They were engraved in a horizontal format.
1. Saint Peter Healing the Lame Man
2. The Conversion of Saint Paul
3. The Laying of the Hands
4. The Death of Saphire
5. Saint Philip baptizing the Eunuch of Candace.
Louis Chéron was born in Paris on 2 September 1655 (Auguste, 379) into a notable French protestant family of artists, the son of Henri Chéron (d. 1677), a miniature painter and an engraver, and the younger brother of Elizabeth-Sophie Chéron (1648–1711), also a painter and engraver. After being taught first by his father, he studied at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, where he won the prix de Rome twice, in 1676 and 1678; on the first occasion he received financial help from his sister to visit Italy, where, as his many surviving drawings show, he particularly studied works by Raphael and Giulio Romano. Back in Paris he received several commissions, not
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T: 01597 272 439
M: 07790 208 712Antique Number: SA1097434
Dateline of this antique is 1700
Height is 43cm (16.9inches)Width is 36.3cm (14.3inches)Depth is 4.5cm (1.8inches)
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