Oil Painting of the Day: "The Judgement of Solomon" Antoine Coypel (1661-1722)

Antoine Coypel (French, 1661-1722)

The Judgment of Solomon

Oil on canvas

45 x 57 inches

In her five volume book titled "Etat General des Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins depuis son origine jusqu’a nos jours", 1600-1900 author Maurice Fenaille devotes chapter four of the third volume (which is dated 1699-1736) to the Old Testament, where she discusses eight works of art by Antoine and Charles Coypel. 

Fenaille notes that Antoine Coypel exhibited paintings he created after scenes from the Old Testament in the Paris Salons of 1699 and 1704.  In 1699 he exhibited a work entitled "Le Judgment of Solomon.", and again in 1713. Fenaille describes the visual aspects of our painting - where the columns are, how the characters are arranged, etc. As scholar Mme. Nicole Garnie notes in an analysis of the painting owned by Arader Galleries, “this painting is a version of the Judgment of Solomon that Coypel exhibited at the Salon in 1699 and which later provided the composition for a tapestry by the Gobelins factory (1717-1720).”  Garnier further remarks that “Coypel’s estate inventory shows that he kept smaller replicas of his important paintings in his studio so that copies could be made of them. One interesting feature... is the face of the young man looking out at the viewer on the right, which appears to be a portrait of the artist’s son, Charles-Antoine Coypel (1694-1752).” Garnier wrote a publication titled Antoine Coypel (1661-1722) in which she discusses his "Le Judgment de Salomon" on page 128, no. 59 and page 166, no. 117. She also illustrates his preparatory drawings of the subject, fig. 115 as well as a full oil painting dated 1713, fig. 369.

Offered at $250,000

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