Singerie, the country lunch, attributed to Christophe Huet (1700-1759)

Christophe Huet (1700-1759) attributed. Singerie, the country lunch circa 1730/40.

Relined canvas measuring 52 cm by 35 cm.
Old frame measuring 77 cm by 59 cm.

The artist offers us a country lunch in the great tradition of 18th century monkeys. Luxuriously dressed guests, music, wine, banter and frolic around a perfectly well-set table, worthy of a grand interior, we are here, as is often the case with these monkeys, in a burlesque and satirical representation of the wealthy class.

Christophe Huet (1700-1759)

Son of a goldsmith and painter in his spare time, Christophe I Huet (1663 - before 1739), Christophe II is best known for his animal subjects even if he also produced genre scenes and portraits. He was received at the Académie de Saint-Luc and exhibited several animal figures at the "salons" that this institution organized in 1751, 1752 and 1756. His early works are not very well known because they are often confused with those of his nephew, Jean-Baptiste. Christophe was credited with teaching under Oudry for a long time, but some believe that he learned more from the archetypes of Desportes (Nantes Museum, dog pointing on partridges 1740, signed C. Huet). Many murals, very often "monkey or chinoiserie" are still in place except for those at the Château d'Anet where he collaborated with Claude III Audran in 1733 (or 1737, depending on the source) for the decorations of the Salon doré, which has now disappeared. In 1740, he created the Chinese salon and the corner cabinet of the Château de Champs, in 1741, the cabinets of the large and small singerie of Chantilly and finally, the Hôtel de Rohan in 1750. As for the magnificent singeries of the Château de Chantilly, they were long attributed to Watteau. Fortunately, a document was found that definitively removed the doubt: a document from the Condé family dated 1741 where it is written in particular "memorandum settled to Mr Huet painter of the estate of Mlle de Clermont..." He also painted easel canvases like the one we are offering. We know of a whole series that would have been produced around 1739. These are singeries with a theme for each painting: the painter, the dance, the concert, the picnic, the sculptor, the fishermen and the dance. The latter particularly attracts our attention because on the left of the work, the artist has made a table covered in the same way as in our painting, characters are seated around it. All these paintings are decorated on the back with a landscape. Some of these landscapes, this is particularly the case for our painting, are very close to those made by the painter Jacques de Lajoue.