The Restoration of the Catholic Religion in Strasbourg

The Artist: Claude Guy Hallé was part of a dynasty of accomplished, academic painters. His father, Daniel (1614–1675), made his career with large format religious and historical subjects and his son, Noël (1711–1781), received numerous royal commissions, including for the Château de Choisy and the Petit Trianon. Claude Guy was also closely associated with the Catholic Church and the royal family, completing works for the Château de Meudon and the Grand Trianon, as well as for Notre-Dame Cathedral. As Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d’Argenville recorded, Hallé had “a great liaison with Charles Le Brun, first painter to the king, who made much of his skill” and “the Churches of Paris and the provinces are filled with his works; he made few independent easel paintings.” This latter observation partially explains the general absence today of works by Hallé outside of France.

The Picture: At the center of a shallow, stage-like space, Louis XIV, dressed in Roman armor, looks directly out of the picture. He inhabits a world of allegorical figures. With his right hand, he gestures to Religion whose arm, in turn, gently encircles a cross that is held aloft by a putto and an angel. Religion herself is just touching down to earth. She and the cross are strongly illuminated by light radiating from a dove, a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Along the left edge of the canvas, Truth chases away Heresy and The Schism, thereby clearing the path for Louis XIV and Religion to proceed through a city gate. At right, between Louis XIV and a cityscape, Victory crowns the king and Fame blows a trumpet.

The Genesis of the Picture: Claude Guy trained with his father, but his early career is poorly documented. He received his first academic prize in 1675 for a Transgression of Adam and Eve (now lost) and sometime before 1678 appears to have traveled to Bologna and Rome. On the basis of a painting of an unknown subject shown to the Académie Royale on July 5, 1681, Hallé was invited to paint an official reception piece (morceau de réception), a requirement of entry into this august body. The Académie’s minutes record that he was ordered to visit Charles Le Brun, director of the Academy. We do not know the subject; however, the resulting work and specifically the capture of Strasbourg by Louis XIV’s forces on September 30, 1681 (see below) resulted in an allegorical representation of The Restoration of the Catholic Religion in Strasbourg. Hallé’s early thought process is recorded by a pen and ink drawing with white gouache on blue paper (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen), which must also date from after September given what is represented: Louis XIV assumes an active pose clearing the way for Religion, who levitates on a cloud near his right shoulder. Hallé made the additional step of submitting an oil sketch to the Académie, not a standard requirement but perhaps motivated by such a topical subject, before moving ahead with the full-scale work. On Saturday, December 20, 1681, the Académie’s minutes record having “viewed an oil sketch [l’exquisse (sic)] by the Sieur Hallé, on the subject of the reestablishment of the Catholic Religion in Strasbourg, and on the basis of which the Académie ordered him to make his reception painting, for which it gave him a period of six months.” The subject, scale, and quality of The Met’s painting strongly suggest that this was the sketch submitted for the Académie’s approval. Changes from his initial pen and ink drawing include turning Louis XIV’s head so that he looks directly out of the composition and lowering the figure of Religion, who now comes close to touching the earth. Hallé delivered the final painting, which hewed closely to his oil sketch but measures some five by six feet, on December 28, 1682. It hung in the Académie’s halls until 1794 when its collection was absorbed by the Revolutionary government.

The Académie’s official historian, Guillet de Saint-Georges, described Hallé’s composition in a conférénce on August 4, 1685. While his text is lost, his choice of this painting for the subject of a formal lecture intended to edify young students suggests how highly esteemed Hallé’s painting was to his generation of academicians. In 1715, the Académie’s secretary, Nicolas Guérin recorded this work hung in the second room of the Académie’s official chambers in the Musée du Louvre and explicated its iconography in detail: “This subject is illuminated by a light that comes from the sky, where appears a symbol of the Holy Spirit in order to mark that it is he who presides over this grand action. At the right side of the painting, one sees the principal entrance for the Cathedral of this City, from which Truth chases Heresy and the Schism, seeming thereby to lift the obstacles that might impede the King as he enters. This prince leads Religion inside by the hand and, in order to show his motivations, Faith and Charity precede him and turn toward him, inviting him to fulfill a design that he so happily projected. Renown prepares herself to publish this great event in which the great advantages gained by the King over his Enemies are too great not to be extolled by Victory, on whose head she places a crown. The figures of this composition are characterized by Hieroglyphs that are so well known that it would be useless to enter into further detail.”

Hallé’s finished painting was lost for over a century, but was identified by Pierre Rosenberg in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy (Willk-Brocard 2005; see fig. 1 above). The preliminary oil sketch, which is evidently The Met painting, descended through generations of the Hallé family, a typical provenance for working materials, particularly those related to a work of such professional importance to the artist. The posthumous inventory of Noël Hallé’s godmother, Marie Darbisse, November 20, 1744, lists among works destined for her godson, “a painting on canvas representing Louis XIV who reestablished religion.” The marriage contract of Noël Hallé’s son, Jean-Noël, dated April 7, 1785, lists what is probably the same object, but with some confusion as to subject: “An oil sketch of M. Hallé’s reception piece, representing an Allegory for Peace relative to the region of Louis XIV.” Hallé’s oil sketch for The Restoration of the Catholic Religion in Strasbourg entered The Met attributed to Le Brun and has at various points been attributed to Bertholet I Flémal (1614-1675), Pierre-Jean Rivalz (1625–1706), the circle of Gerard de Lairesse (1641–1711), and a copyist of Claude Guy Hallé. For its shifting attribution, see the annotated list of references provided below.

The unusual subject described by Guérin requires some explanation and situates the painting within a very specific historic moment—indeed, current events effectively interceded between an initial subject set for the artist and his completed reception piece. With Louis XIV’s conquest of Alsace, Strasbourg became a French city on September 30, 1681. Less than one month later, on October 24, Louis XIV made a triumphal entry to the city and declared the cathedral of this Protestant stronghold to henceforth be Catholic. As head of the Académie Royale, Le Brun appears to have been eager to represent this restoration of Catholicism as a means of celebrating Louis XIV. Variations on this challenging subject, which required aspiring painters to address a contemporary event with the elevated language normally reserved for history or religious subjects, were assigned to two other artists in the 1680s. On December 28, 1681, Le Brun assigned Guy-Louis Vernansal (1648–1729) the subject of “The King Who Extripates Heresy” for his reception piece. After a lengthy delay, on April 27, 1686, Vernansal submitted his oil sketch and, on September 27, 1687, presented the finished work, Allegory of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1687; Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon) in reference to the Edict of Fontainebleau, declared in October 1685, which brought an end to the protection French Protestants had enjoyed since 1598. On March 30, 1686, the painter Simon Guillebault (1636–1708) was given the subject of “Heresy and the Supression of the Edict of Nantes,” but perhaps realizing the repetition of themes previously given to Hallé and Vernansal, the subject was soon revised to the broader theme of The Triumph of the Church, a painting lost today, but which served as the basis on which Guillebault was accepted to the Académie in 1687.

David Pullins 2019

?Marie Darbisse (until d.; posthumous inv., 1744; claimed by Hallé); ?her godson, the painter's son, Noël Hallé, Paris (1744–d. 1781); ?his widow, Françoise Geneviève Lorry Hallé (from 1781; given to her son, Jean Noël); ?her son, Jean Noël Hallé (by 1785); [Ambroselli, Paris, until 1969; as "L'Hérésie détruite (Révocation de l'Édit de Nantes)," by Charles Le Brun; share exchanged with Kleinberger]; [Ambroselli, Paris, and Kleinberger, New York, 1969–71; half share exchanged with Ambroselli]; [Kleinberger, New York, 1971–75; bequeathed by Harry G. Sperling, last surviving partner of firm, to The Met]

List of works claimed by Noël Hallé included in the posthumous inventory of his godmother, Marie Darbisse. November 20, 1744 [Archives nationales, Minutier central, Paris, LVII, 375; extract published in Willk-Brocard 1995, p. 661], lists "un tableau qui est sur toille représentant Louis quatorze qui rétabli la religion," possibly this picture.

Marriage contract of Jean-Noël Hallé. April 7, 1785 [Archives nationales, Minutier central, Paris, C, 882; extract published in Willk-Brocard 1995, p. 667], lists "Une esquisse du tableau de reception de M. Hallé ayeul, representant une Allégorie pour la paix relative au règne de Louis quatorze," possibly this picture.

Anatole de Montaiglon. Procès-verbaux de l'Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, 1648–1793. Vol. 2, 1673–1688. 1878, p. 205, under December 20, 1681, records Hallé's presentation to the Académie of a sketch with this subject, possibly this picture; notes that the sketch was approved and that Hallé was given six months to produce the final painting as his reception piece.

O. Estournet. La famille des Hallé. Paris, 1905, p. 77, under no. 106, under the entry for Claude Guy Hallé's painting of this subject now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy, mentions that the sketch (possibly this picture) was given by Madame Hallé to her son Jean-Noël Hallé, a doctor, in 1785.

Quarterly Calendar: M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, Center of Asian Art and Culture, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, San Francisco (April–June 1971), pp. 6–7, ill., as "L'Église Victorieuse de l'Hérésie (La Révocation de l'Édit de Nantes, 22 Oct. 1685)," by Charles Lebrun, about 1687, on extended anonymous loan to the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.

Jean-Pierre Cuzin. "New York: French Seventeenth-century Paintings from American Collections." Burlington Magazine 124 (August 1982), p. 530, as "Dutch, of the generation of Lairesse?".

Pierre Rosenberg. France in the Golden Age: Seventeenth-century French Paintings in American Collections. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1982, p. 377, fig. 6 [French ed., La peinture française du XVIIe siècle dans les collections américaines, Paris], as "The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes(?)" by an unknown painter.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 365, ill.

Nicole Willk-Brocard. Une dynastie Les Hallé: Daniel (1614–1675), Claude-Guy (1652–1736), Noël (1711–1781). Paris, 1995, pp. 267–68, 563, 661, 667, ill., illustrates it under the entry for the painting in Nancy (no. C6; as lost), calling it mediocre and too far from Guérin's ("Description de l'Académie royale des arts de peinture et de sculpture," 1715, pp. 126–27) description of that work to be called a bad copy; catalogues the sketch (no. C6a; as whereabouts unknown; possibly this picture) presented by Hallé to the Académie on December 20, 1681, identifying it with works mentioned in documents of 1744 and 1785.

Jean Penent. Antoine Rivalz, 1667–1735: Le Romain de Toulouse. Exh. cat., Musée Paul-Dupuy. Toulouse, 2004, pp. 64–65, 181–82, no. 254, ill. (color), firmly attributes it Antoine Rivalz and calls it "La Paix d'Utrecht"; tentatively identifies it as a modello belonging to Pierre de Lagorrée exhibited in Toulouse in 1751, 1773, and 1784.

Nicole Willk-Brocard. "Le 'morceau de réception' de Claude-Guy Hallé, 'Le Rétablissement de la religion catholique à Strasbourg' au musée des Beaux-arts de Nancy." La revue des musées de France 4 (October 2005), pp. 52, 54, 56 n. 23, announces the identification by Pierre Rosenberg of the painting in the Musée des beaux-arts, Nancy, as Hallé's reception piece depicting the restoration of the Catholic religion in Strasbourg; continues to call the sketch presented by Hallé to the Académie in 1681 lost; identifies The Met's picture as a mediocre copy after the Nancy painting.

This painting is related to a larger work in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy (oil on canvas, 142 x 183.5 cm, inv. 1118), of 1682. The painting in Nancy was Claude Guy Hallé's "morceau de réception" (reception piece) to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture.