Nicholas Poussin (1594 - 1665) and Jean Lemaire (1598 - 1659...

Hammer

£24,000

Nicholas Poussin (1594 - 1665) and Jean Lemaire (1598 - 1659)
Theseus Rediscovering His Father's Sword
Oil on canvas

The subject of this ambitious composition is well known. Taken from the Life of Theseus by Plutarch (Lives of Illustrious Men), it centres upon the young Theseus, son of Aegeus, king of Athens, and of Aethra, who was brought up under a false identity by his grandfather Pittheus in the city of Troezen.

Before the birth of his son, Aegeus had hidden a sword and gold sandals under a rock that only Theseus would be able to lift; by doing so he would learn his true identity. This work depicts the very moment when, on his mother Aethra’s advice, the young Athenian hero, bent double by the weight, lifts the heavy rock under which are hidden the symbols that will mean he is recognised by the people of Athens as their sovereign. 

There are several versions of this work, all of comparable size and incorporating variations. In four of them, including the present example, it is thought that the architecture was painted by Jean Lemaire.

The principal version, in the Musée Condé in Chantilly (inv. 300) was, without doubt, the first to be painted: the figures (and in our view the landscape) are by Nicolas Poussin while the architecture is by Jean Lemaire. This collaboration between the two artists was confirmed by Pierre-Jean Mariette, who described the Chantilly painting (at that time about to join the collection of the Marquis du Tillot) as follows: 

‘This architecture, painted with great care, is not the work of Poussin, but of Le Maire, a French painter, who often lent his hand to Poussin for the architecture in his paintings and who truly excelled at it. Only the figures were painted by Poussin’ (Abecedario de P. J. Mariette et autres notes inédites de cet amateur sur les arts et les artistes: Ouvrage publié ... par MM. Ph. de Chennevières et A. de Montaiglon, Archives de l’Art français 1857-1858, vol. 4, pp. 204-205). 

We know from other sources as well as from Mariette that Nicolas Poussin frequently collaborated with Jean Lemaire – whom he considered a friend and held in high regard – at least during the 1630s and early 1640s. Poussin’s return to Rome after his time in Paris (1640–1642) put an end to their collaboration, but not to their friendship.

Rosenberg describes this as ‘Nicolas Poussin et Jean Lemaire (?)’, however the Lemaire scholar Maurizio Fagiolo dell’Arco, in his monograph on Lemaire, saw it as ‘a re-working of the painting executed in collaboration with Poussin’ (op. cit. p. 203) with a date in the artist’s Parisian period, around 1640-1650. 

The figures of Theseus, Aethra and the young girl also seem to be of a quality close to that of Nicolas Poussin, but their condition, which is not perfect – they have probably been subjected to slightly aggressive restoration in the past – makes it impossible to determine categorically whether Poussin had a hand in it or not.

Provenance: 
Christie’s, London, 26 June 1970, lot 43;
Sotheby’s, New York, 17 January 1985, lot 20;
Sotheby’s, Monaco, 18-19 June 1992, lot 135;
Sotheby’s, Monaco, 5 December 1992, lot 189;
Christie’s, New York, 15 April 2008, Lot 39, $300,000-$400,000;
Sotheby’s, Paris, 10 November 2022, Lot 32.

Literature:
P. Rosenberg, in cat. exh. Nicolas Poussin - La collection du musée Condé à Chantilly, Chantilly, Musée Condé 1994, pp. 53-54, under no. 4, repr. fig. 4d (as Nicolas Poussin et Jean Lemaire (?));
F. dell’Arco, Jean Lemaire, pittore « antiquario, Rome 1996, p. 203, no. 46, repr.

Dimensions:
40 in. (H) x 49 in. (W)