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PIERRE-ANTOINE DEMACHY (PARIS 1723-1807)
Vue du Jardin du côté du Palais des Tuileries ; Vue de la Place Louis XV depuis le Jardin des Tuileries du côté du Pont Tournant
le premier porte une signature 'DEMACHY' (en bas, à gauche) ; le second porte une trace de signature (en bas, à gauche)
huile sur panneau, une paire
34,5 x 27 cm. (13 1/2 x 10 2/3 in.) ; 34,8 x 25,7 cm. (13 3/4 x 10 1/8 in.)
(2)
Provenance
Vente anonyme, palais Galliera, Paris, (Mes Rheims & Laurin), 19 juin 1970, lots 21 et 22.
Collection particulière, Paris.
Post lot text
PIERRE-ANTOINE DEMACHY, VIEW OF THE GARDEN FROM THE TUILERIES PALACE; AND VIEW OF THE PLACE LOUIS XV FROM THE TUILERIES GARDEN, THE FIRST SIGNED, THE SECOND INDISTINCTLY SIGNED, OIL ON PANEL, A PAIR
The theatre of the everyday and the evolution of the Parisian landscape in the middle of the 18th century were for Pierre-Antoine Demachy (1723-1807) key sources of inspiration and gave the painter the opportunity to celebrate Parisian life. Received as an architectural painter by the Academy in 1755, after initial training with the great scenographer Giovanni Niccolo Servandoni (1695-1766), Demachy's works retained a theatrical flavour throughout his life, which is clearly in evidence in these views of the Tuileries where the artist offers us a lively parade of the beau monde.
Demachy perfectly captures the bucolic atmosphere of the gardens, which were popular with his contemporaries at the end of the reign of Louis XVI (1754-1793). In both paintings we find the hallmarks of the artist's style; his use of the warm summer evening light, the foliage which creates a beautiful chiaroscuro effect and the groups of elegant figures. There is an engraving of each composition by Charles-Melchior Descourtis (1753-1820) in the musée Carnavalet (Paris, inv. nos. G4177 and G4178), with slight differences in the figures. These tondo aquatints attest to the success of the paintings as evidence of the changing society and mores of the late Enlightenment. Other versions of the Vue de la Place Louis XV are known, and the present painting is apparently a later version of the one formerly in the collection of David David-Weill (1871-1952).
The Pont Tournant des Tuileries was destroyed in 1817. It spanned the moat, a vestige of the ramparts of Louis XIII (1601-1643), allowing people to cross from the Jardin des Tuileries to the Place Louis XV. This bridge, created in 1716 by the Augustinian friar Nicolas Bourgeois, was barred in the evening and allowed the Tuileries Garden to be closed at night. In the present painting, the view point is slightly removed from the structure of the Pont Tournant and the silhouette of the equestrian statue by Edmé Bouchardon (1698-1762). The latter was installed on its pedestal on 19 February 1763. Demachy also depicted it in a painting, exhibited at the Salon of 1763, which has now disappeared but of which an engraving is kept in the musée Carnavalet (Paris, inv. no. G.17054).
We would like to thank Ms. Petkowska Le Roux for writing the above note and for suggesting a date of circa 1780-1785 for these paintings.