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Lot Essay
Born in Nice, Carle van Loo was from the renowned family of painters whose members included his brother, Jean-Baptiste, and his nephews Louis-Michel (1707-1771) and François (1708-1732). On the death of his father in 1712, Carle joined his brother's family travelling with them to Rome (where he studied drawing under Benedetto Luti) and Turin, returning to Paris around 1718.
Though his first canvas is not recorded until 1723 (see M.-C. Sahut, in the catalogue of the exhibition Carle Vanloo, Nice, Clermont-Ferrand and Nancy, 1977), the artist gained quick recognition winning the Prix de l'Academie de Peinture et Sculture in Paris in 1724 and being appointed Professor at the Academie in 1737. He was made Chevalier de l'Ordre de Saint Michel in 1751 and a decade later in 1762 appointed Premier Peintre du Roi, a post he held until his death in 1765 and in which he was succeeded by François Boucher.
The quality of the present works sets them apart from the numerous studio versions of a set of paintings commissioned by Madame de Pompadour and executed by Carle van Loo in 1752-3 as overdoors for the Salon de Compagnies in the Château de Bellevue. Originally accompanied by Comedy and Tragedy (now in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow), those paintings (84 x 87cm.), formerly in the Mildred Anna Williams collection, and now in the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, were engraved in the same sense by Etienne Fessard in 1756.
The allegories of the Four Arts enjoyed enormous success when exhibited at the Salon of 1753, which Pierre Rosenberg and Marion Stewart note was in no small part due to the established reputation of van Loo (P. Rosenberg and M.C. Stewart op. cit., p. 305). The critics were, in general, most impressed with the novel treatment of these allegorical subjects, and the use of children in representations of the arts. Jacques Lacombe noted that they were '... of pleasing composition, the brush being guided by the gods of taste and talent', and that van Loo was 'the Rubens of our academy' (see Collection Deloynes 5, 12-15, no. 55). The Abbé Leblanc wrote 'These four pretty pieces are conceived with spirit, composed with clarity, drawn with elegance, and gracefully colored' (ibid., no. 59). The novelty of this set of overdoors came, as the critics of the day observed, from the use of children in the allegories, a convention which soon achieved wide popularity, with François Boucher subsequently painting a set of six pictures of the Arts and Sciences (now in the Frick Collection, New York) for Madame de Pompadour. The extravagant costumes of the figures, some in 18th century dress, others in Renaissance clothes with slashed velvet sleeves and lace ruffs, has a precedent in the work of Alexis Grimou and was in turn to influence Jean-Honoré Fragonard.
As Marie-Christine Sahut (op. cit., pp. 70-1, no. 125) notes, the popularity of the original compositions is attested to by the number of copies executed by Carle van Loo's contemporaries, which includes the set of paintings in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Inv. nos. 349-53. In the 1955 catalogue of the Parke-Bernet sale (see under provenance above) it was suggested that the present lot is the same as the Allegories formerly in the collection of King Louis-Philippe of France and subsequently sold in the estate sale of Sir Hugh Hume Campbell Bt., Christie's, London, June 16, 1894, lots 13-4. However, none of the pictures bear the Christie's stencil marks on the stretchers. Rosenberg and Stewart (op. cit.) record numerous full sets after the original works and scores of other single canvasses and partial sets thus underlining the difficulty in ascertaining the provenance of any of these works.
Though his first canvas is not recorded until 1723 (see M.-C. Sahut, in the catalogue of the exhibition Carle Vanloo, Nice, Clermont-Ferrand and Nancy, 1977), the artist gained quick recognition winning the Prix de l'Academie de Peinture et Sculture in Paris in 1724 and being appointed Professor at the Academie in 1737. He was made Chevalier de l'Ordre de Saint Michel in 1751 and a decade later in 1762 appointed Premier Peintre du Roi, a post he held until his death in 1765 and in which he was succeeded by François Boucher.
The quality of the present works sets them apart from the numerous studio versions of a set of paintings commissioned by Madame de Pompadour and executed by Carle van Loo in 1752-3 as overdoors for the Salon de Compagnies in the Château de Bellevue. Originally accompanied by Comedy and Tragedy (now in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow), those paintings (84 x 87cm.), formerly in the Mildred Anna Williams collection, and now in the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, were engraved in the same sense by Etienne Fessard in 1756.
The allegories of the Four Arts enjoyed enormous success when exhibited at the Salon of 1753, which Pierre Rosenberg and Marion Stewart note was in no small part due to the established reputation of van Loo (P. Rosenberg and M.C. Stewart op. cit., p. 305). The critics were, in general, most impressed with the novel treatment of these allegorical subjects, and the use of children in representations of the arts. Jacques Lacombe noted that they were '... of pleasing composition, the brush being guided by the gods of taste and talent', and that van Loo was 'the Rubens of our academy' (see Collection Deloynes 5, 12-15, no. 55). The Abbé Leblanc wrote 'These four pretty pieces are conceived with spirit, composed with clarity, drawn with elegance, and gracefully colored' (ibid., no. 59). The novelty of this set of overdoors came, as the critics of the day observed, from the use of children in the allegories, a convention which soon achieved wide popularity, with François Boucher subsequently painting a set of six pictures of the Arts and Sciences (now in the Frick Collection, New York) for Madame de Pompadour. The extravagant costumes of the figures, some in 18th century dress, others in Renaissance clothes with slashed velvet sleeves and lace ruffs, has a precedent in the work of Alexis Grimou and was in turn to influence Jean-Honoré Fragonard.
As Marie-Christine Sahut (op. cit., pp. 70-1, no. 125) notes, the popularity of the original compositions is attested to by the number of copies executed by Carle van Loo's contemporaries, which includes the set of paintings in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Inv. nos. 349-53. In the 1955 catalogue of the Parke-Bernet sale (see under provenance above) it was suggested that the present lot is the same as the Allegories formerly in the collection of King Louis-Philippe of France and subsequently sold in the estate sale of Sir Hugh Hume Campbell Bt., Christie's, London, June 16, 1894, lots 13-4. However, none of the pictures bear the Christie's stencil marks on the stretchers. Rosenberg and Stewart (op. cit.) record numerous full sets after the original works and scores of other single canvasses and partial sets thus underlining the difficulty in ascertaining the provenance of any of these works.