Skip to Content

Jean Raoux (Montpellier 1677-1734 Paris)
- Jeune fille faisant manger des oiseaux

Contemporary, modern and old century works of art at auction for buyers and collectors at Christie’s auction house

View, register and bid for sales

Jean Raoux (Montpellier 1677-1734 Paris)
Jeune fille faisant manger des oiseaux
Estimate
(Set Currency)
    $40,000 - $60,000

Sale Information

Sale 2322
Old Masters & 19th Century Art Including Select Works From the Salander-O'Reilly Galleries
9 June 2010
New York, Rockefeller Plaza Buy Catalog





Lot Description

Jean Raoux (Montpellier 1677-1734 Paris)
Jeune fille faisant manger des oiseaux
oil on canvas
31 7/8 x 26 in. (81 x 66 cm.)

Lot Condition Report
I confirm that I have read this Important Notice and agree to its terms.
View Condition Report
Pre-Lot Text

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION

Provenance

General Oswald Ball, England.
with Leger & Son, London, by 1937, where purchased by the present owner.

Literature

M. Hilaire and O. Zeder, Jean Raoux: un peintre sous la régence, 1677-1734, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2009, pp.128-129, 196, possibly the painting refered to under no. 28.

Engraved

Jacques Chéreau the younger (Le Blanc no. 24).

Lot Notes

The catalogue from the Jean du Barry sale in 1774 lists two paintings by Jean Raoux -- Jeune fille faisant voler un oiseau (signed and dated 1717, oil on canvas, 45¼ x 34 5/8 inches; now, Sarasota, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) and Jeune fille faisant manger des oiseaux. The painting now in the Ringling Museum was purchased at that sale by the art dealer Jean Baptiste Lebrun (for 360 livres) as, presumably, was its pendant. In the 1778 Silvestre sale another pair matching this description by Raoux appeared, and they are considered to be versions of the paintings in the Barry sale (op. cit., p. 128). It is likely that the present painting is the lost pendant to the Ringling picture. Comparison with Chéreau's engraving indicates that this painting has been reduced, which would explain the variance in size between the two works.

The association between young birds and carnal love has been a theme in art since Antiquity. Raoux drew from seventeenth-century sources such as Frans van Mieris' A woman feeding a parrot (National Gallery, London) for his depiction of this subject. A young woman amusing herself with her captive bird is akin to playing with one's lover and can be interpreted as a lesson in seduction.

Department Information
Artist/Maker/Author Information
Keywords
Related Features