Signed and dated (center left): J. Michelin / f 1656
A Protestant artist active in Paris, Michelin is cited at the end of the seventeenth century as a master of popular life who commonly sold his work under the name of Le Nain. The present picture was, in fact, purchased by the Museum as by Le Nain. Cleaning in 1928 disclosed the signature and date, and these have made it possible to identify the artist and several other works, most of which, like the present picture, show street scenes.
There appear to have been four artists with the name Jean Michelin active in 17th-century Paris (see Ref. Thuillier 1978), all of them Protestants. Sterling (Ref. 1938) and Thuillier lean toward the Jean Michelin who was born about 1616 and died in Paris in 1670 as the painter responsible for a distinct body of work that includes our picture. Jamot (Ref. 1933) first proposed the Jean Michelin—according to Sterling, a brother of the above Jean—born at Langres in 1623, who died in Jersey in 1696. The latter became a member of the Académie Royale in 1660 and is best known for making small portraits for the dukes of Brunswick at the court of Hanover. In 1693–95, Loménie de Brienne (Discours sur les ouvrages des plus excellens peintres . . .), reminiscing about his youth (ca. 1655–63), mentions the painter Michelin in the following context: "Bourdon et Michelin, le faiseur de bamboches, qu'il vendoit à la foire pour les tableaux de Le Nain, étoient deux dangereux copistes, des fourbes achevés en fait de copies . . ." Now that a body of twenty works by the artist has been assembled, many of them signed and dated, it is difficult to accept Loménie's view of the artist as a simple forger; his remarks, however, are the only instance in which an artist named Michelin is described as a maker of "Bamboches" or paintings with "low-life" subjects.
Another version of this picture dated 1654—and according to Ref. Rosenberg 1993, also signed—was sold at Christie's, New York, January 11, 1979, no. 57, ill. Rosenberg describes it as a mediocre replica.
?Baron Thiébault (until 1817; his sale [with "Potain"], Henry and Bonnefons, Paris, February 25–26, no. 71, [no dimensions], as "Vieille femme qui vend de l'eau-de-vie et du pain. A côté, au coin d'une rue, deux portefaix et un petit garçon sont debout. Un peu plus loin, un autre jeune garçon arrange quelque chose dans une charrette," by Louis Le Nain); Édouard Barré (until 1838; his sale, George and Benou, Paris, May 21–22, 1838, no. 46, [no dimensions], as "Le Nain: Deux portefaix et deux enfants sont arrêtés au coin d'une rue auprès d'une vieille femme qui vend du pain et de l'eau-de-vie; un autre enfant arrange quelque chose dans une charrette"); Miss Jane Margaret Seymour, Salisbury (until her d.; sold by her estate through Messrs. Trower, Still & Keeling to Agnew); [Agnew, London, until 1918; sale, Christie's, London, June 7, 1918, no. 47, as "Spanish Beggars, at a baker's stall," by A. L. and M. Le Nain, for £84 to Martin]; [Demotte Galleries, New York, by 1920]; [Édouard Jonas, New York, until 1927; sold to MMA]
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Paintings by Old Masters," 1920, no. 84.
Paris. Musée de l'Orangerie. "Les peintres de la réalité en France au XVIIe siècle," 1934, no. 85.
Toledo Museum of Art. "The Brothers Le Nain," October 1947, no. 18.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Splendid Century, French Art: 1600–1715," March 8–April 30, 1961, suppl. no. 169.
Little Rock. Arkansas Arts Center. "Five Centuries of European Painting," May 16–October 26, 1963, unnumbered cat.
Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. "In Focus: A Look at Reality in Art," December 28, 1964–January 31, 1965, no. 48.
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux. "La peinture française: Collections américaines," May 13–September 15, 1966, no. 12.
Huntington, N. Y. Heckscher Museum. "Mistaken Identity," December 17–January 28, 1973, no. 12.
Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. State Hermitage Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," May 22–July 27, 1975, no. 50.
Moscow. State Pushkin Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," August 28–November 2, 1975, no. 50.
Paris. Grand Palais. "Les frères Le Nain," October 3, 1978–January 8, 1979, no. 82.
Paris. Musée de l'Orangerie. "Orangerie, 1934: Les 'Peintres de la Réalité'," November 22, 2006–March 5, 2007, no. 85.
Paul Jamot. Letter to Josephine Lansing. September 3, 1928.
Josephine M. Lansing. "A Fourth Member of the Le Nain Group." Metropolitan Museum Studies 1, part 2 (May 1929), pp. 201–4, ill.
J. M. L[ansing]. "The Le Nain Assistant." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 24 (June 1929), p. 173.
Paul Fierens. Les Le Nain. Paris, 1933, p. 31.
Paul Jamot. "Autour des Le Nain. Un disciple inconnu: Jean Michelin." Revue de l'art ancien et moderne 63 (January–May 1933), pp. 210–12, 214–16, 218, ill. (overall and detail of signature).
V. Lasareff. "An Unknown Picture by Michelin." Art in America 22 (December 1933), p. 32.
Charles Sterling. Les peintres de la réalité en France au XVIIe siècle. Exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie. Paris, 1934, pp. 121–23, no. 85, pl. 34.
"Les peintres de la réalité en France au XVIIe siècle." Commune (February 1935), p. 647 [reprinted in Ref. Georgel 2006, p. 382].
Paul Fierens. "Réalistes français du XVIIe siècle. IV." Journal des débats politiques et littéraires no. 4 (February 5, 1935), p. 3 [reprinted in Ref. Georgel 2006, pp. 359–60; mentioned p. 360].
Charles Sterling. "Musée de l'Orangerie: L'exposition des peintres de la réalité au XVIIe siècle." Bulletin des musées de France 7 (January 1935), p. 6.
Charles Sterling. "Le problème des influences: Espagne et France au XVIIe siècle." L'Amour de l'art 16 (January 1935), ill. p. 12 (detail).
George Isarlo. "Les trois Le Nain et leur suite." La Renaissance 21 (March 1938), p. 50, no. 148.
Charles Sterling. "Un tableau de Jean Michelin acquis par le Musée du Louvre." Bulletin des musées de France 10 (November 1938), pp. 151–53, ill.
Philippe Erlanger. Les peintres de la réalité. Paris, 1946, p. 97, ill. p. 105.
Millia Davenport. The Book of Costume. New York, 1948, vol. 2, p. 517, no. 1381, ill. (cropped).
Charles Sterling. "XV–XVIII Centuries." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of French Paintings. 1, Cambridge, Mass., 1955, pp. 91–92, ill.
A. Hyatt Mayor. "Children Are What We Make Them." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 15 (March 1957), ill. p. 184 (detail).
Theodore Rousseau Jr. The Splendid Century: French Art, 1600–1715. Exh. cat.Washington, 1960, supplement, p. 2, no. 169.
Michael Thomas. "The Problems of the Splendid Century." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 19 (April 1961), p. 227, ill. p. 229.
Charles Sterling in "La peinture française et la peinture espagnole au XVIIe siècle: Affinités et échanges." Velázquez: Son temps, son influence. Actes du colloque tenu à la Casa de Velázquez (1960). Paris, 1963, p. 116, pl. 76c.
Jacques Thuillier and Albert Châtelet. French Painting. Geneva, 1964, p. 25.
Jacques Thuillier. Les frères Le Nain. Exh. cat., Grand Palais. Paris, 1978, pp. 339–42, no. 82, ill.
Pierre Rosenberg. France in the Golden Age: Seventeenth-century French Paintings in American Collections. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1982, p. 364, fig. 8 [French ed., La peinture française du XVIIe siècle dans les collections américaines, Paris, 1982].
Pierre Rosenberg. Tout l'oeuvre peint des Le Nain. Paris, 1993, pp. 5, 103–4, no. Mi6, ill.
Alain Mérot. La peinture française au XVIIe siècle. Paris, 1994, pp. 176–77, ill. (color, image reversed).
Sophie Biass-Fabiani in The Dictionary of Art. 21, New York, 1996, p. 463.
Pierre Georgel. Orangerie, 1934: Les "Peintres de la réalité". Exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie. Paris, 2006, pp. 20–21, 231–33, 328–29, 360, 382, no. 85, ill. (color) pp. 69, 232.
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