Preparatory study for a screen, 18th century

Rare seven-leaf screen project.
The composition represents a palace gallery, with a checkered marble floor and woodwork with seven symmetrical registers on a yellow background.
The latter represent arches made up of scrolls of garlands of flowers, with large bouquets in Medici vases positioned under lambrequin hangings.
The scene is animated by birds with multicolored plumages, including a Macaw parrot, a white cockatoo, a rosalbin cockatoo, a hoopoe, a green parakeet and two male and female peacocks.
If some birds seem quite serene like the two peacocks positioned at the ends, others are struggling with three young monkeys who vigorously shake the garlands in order to make them fall.
A certain disorder results from this agitation, flowers litter the ground, just like two satin draperies which have just fallen, but this does not seem to bother a small dog or even a small squirrel which peacefully eats its nut.

Oil on two canvases with traces of pencil preparation, one including six arches, plus one with a single arch (far left); the whole mounted on a large canvas and a stretcher in the 19th century.

Very good state of conservation; without frame.

Traces of signature lower right.

French school of the 18th century; probably workshop of Christophe Huet around 1740-1750.

Dimensions:

Width: 56.5cm; Height: 27.5 cm


Our opinion :

Our work is not a painting strictly speaking, but rather a “modello”, that is to say a model designed with the aim of creating a large screen.
The presence of a seventh arch placed on a small canvas on the left indicates a last minute modification and confirms that our work is above all a preparatory study.
The treatment of the background which allows a glimpse of the canvas and its first pencil drawing also goes in this direction.
A simple yellow varnish was randomly brushed over the entire surface to imitate a gold background.
This type of background as well as the garlands of flowers, the vases and the Bérain-style hangings are characteristic of the compositions of Claude III Audran (1658-1734).
The latter is a great specialist in wall decorations, tapestry boxes, woodwork projects, and even screens.
From the 1700s he developed aping sets for the royal family, notably at the menagerie of Versailles and the Chateau de Marly.
For several decades he continued to collaborate with the greatest painters of his time such as Oudry but also Christophe Huet with whom he created the famous golden salon of the Chateau d'Anet.
The latter excelled in the representation of animals but throughout his life he remained very inspired by the arabesques of Audran; he will develop successful combinations combining his style with that of his master.
His flagship work will be the great Chantilly monkey where he caricatures the owners of the castle in the guise of primates.
The iconography used to represent the fauna and flora of this woodwork is extremely close to that of our project.
However, it is difficult to attribute our work with certainty to the great painter because although we know that his workshop was particularly active, he was also abundantly copied from his time, particularly due to the massive distribution of his engravings.
Our tableautin, which is treated with great care, nevertheless remains a rare testimony informing us about the different stages of the design of a major decorative project.