Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings Signed and dated (lower left): C. Natoire / 1740
Gallery Label This well-preserved painting dates from the moment of Natoire's greatest success, when he was living in Paris alongside his contemporary, François Boucher. In 1751 Natoire moved to Rome as Director of the French Academy, and Boucher remained in Paris to become the darling of the French court. The gentle figures are typical of Natoire's work and of an eighteenth-century trend toward intimate interpretations of grand religious themes.
Notes In the catalogue of the 1765 Villette sale our picture is described as the pendant to a work by Natoire's master, François Le Moyne. The latter work, which represented Adam and Eve before the Expulsion, was not included in Villette's sale and has since been lost. Engraved by Laurent Cars (fig. 50, Ref. Bordeaux, 1984), it was a replica of a larger painting of the subject by Le Moyne from about 1723–25, also lost. Our picture was engraved by Jean Jacques Flipart and the engraving was exhibited at the Salon of 1755.
Provenance Pierre Charles de Villette, marquis de Villette (by 1755–65; his estate sale, Paris, April 8, 1765, no. 32, for 532 livres); [Eugène Fischhof, Paris, until 1913; sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, June 14, 1913, no. 33, for Fr 1,900]; Lizé, Rouen; sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, November 20, 1985, no. 38, for Fr 820,000; [Stair Sainty Matthiesen, New York, until 1987; sold to MMA]
Exhibition History Paris. Salon. 1740, no. 12.
New York. Stair Sainty Matthiesen. "François Boucher: His Circle and Influence," September 30–November 25, 1987, no. 57.
References Salon livret . 1740 [untitled 1740 Salon livret, published in Collection des livrets des anciennes expositions . . . , Paris, 1869, p.14] no. 12.Sale [Estate Sale of Charles de Villette, père] . Pierre Rémy, Paris. April 8, 1765, no. 32.Archives de l'art français , n.s., 21 (1949), pp. 35, 74, no. 6.Letter to Elizabeth Gardner . October 3, 1972.in De Watteau à David: Peintures et dessins des musées de province français . Exh. cat., Palais des Beaux-Arts. Brussels, [1975], p. 98, under no. 58.François Le Moyne and his Generation, 1688–1737 . Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1984, p. 99.The Dayton Art Institute Bulletin 39 (December 1984), pp. 2–3.in François Boucher: His Circle and Influence . Exh. cat., Stair Sainty Matthiesen. New York, 1987, pp. 93–95, no. 57, ill. (black and white and colorpl. 14).Burlington Magazine 129 (December 1987), p. 836, ill.in Guido Reni und Europa: Ruhm und Nachruhm . Exh. cat., Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. Frankfurt, 1988, p. 738, ill.in Recent Acquisitions: A Selection, 1987–1988 . New York, 1988, pp. 34–35, ill. (color).Selected French Paintings, 1700–1810, Recently on the Market with The Matthiesen Gallery and Stair Sainty Matthiesen Inc. Exh. cat.London, 1989, unpaginated, ill. in color.
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