1720s Paintings

Carle Vanloo (Nice 1705 – Paris 1765) Perseus and Andromeda Oil on canvas. H. 081; W. 065. Alongside François Boucher (1703-1770) and Charles-Joseph Natoire (1700-1777), Carle Vanlo...

US buyers pay no import tariffs on this item. This exquisite and exceedingly rare early 18th-century Russian Staurotek icon depicts The Crucifixion of Christ with an assemblage of s...

John Vanderbank (London 1694 - London 1739) Portrait of an artistic Gentleman, c. 1720s Three-quarter-length, wearing a turban Oil on canvas 125.5 x 101.7 cm.; (within frame) 145.6...

This simply superb French Old Master self portrait oil painting is attributed to portrait artist Alexis Grimou. Painted circa 1720 it is a bust length standing portrait of the artist...

Magnificent Italian painting from the first half of the 18th century. This oil on canvas artwork depicts the biblical episode of Moses driving the shepherds from the well of Midian. ...

Portrait of a woman with jewelry, early 18th-century Dutch school by painter Gérard Wigama (1673-1741). Monogram in the lower right corner on the base of the GW column. Fine Arts exp...

Portrait of Henrietta Pelham-Holles (née Godolphin) (1701-1776), Duchess of Newcastle, standing in a wooded landscape with a river beyond, three-quarter length wearing an ivory silk ...

Provenance : Arnold S. Kirkeby (1901-1962) Donated by Arnold S. Kirkeby to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1955, where it remained until its sale at Sotheby's, New York on January 10, 1991, lot 82. Christie's, London, July 7, 2010, lot 186, where it was purchased after the sale by the executors of the will of the late Edmund de Rothschild (1916-2009) for display at Exbury House The Trustees of Exbury House Literature : R. Brown, Bulletin of the Art Division, Los Angeles County Museum, VIII, 1957, pp.8-9, no. 4; S. Schaefer and P. Husco, European Paintings and Sculpture in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, 1987), p. 53 (illustrated and dated c. 1735) This sumptuous ceremonial portrait, executed around 1725-1730, depicts Monsieur Aubert, the French General Comptroller of Bridges and Roadways, as we learn from a letter on the desk beside our model. The virtuoso treatment of the fabrics, the authoritative yet confident pose, the vigorous treatment of the two hands, are representative of Largillière's talent, here at the peak of his art as portraitist. The portrait also has a rather extraordinary provenance: donated by Arnold S. Kirkeby, an American hotel magnate and real estate developer, it was exhibited during almost forty years in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum, before being acquired in 2010 by the executors of Edmund de Rothschild's will to adorn his former home Exbury House (Hampshire), where it remained until its sale in 2022. 1. Nicolas de Largillière, a great European portraitist Nicolas de Largillière (or Largillierre), one of Europe's premier painters of portraits, history paintings, and still lifes during the late seventeenth century and the first four decades of the eighteenth, was born in Paris in 1656. He was the son of a hatmaker and merchant who moved with his family to Antwerp in 1659. As a boy of nine, he traveled for the first time to London in the company of an associate of his father. After returning to Antwerp more than a year later, his artistic gifts were recognized and his father apprenticed him to Antoni Goubau (1616-1698), a painter genre scenes and landscapes. Something of a prodigy, he was admitted to the painters' Guild of Saint Luke when he was only seventeen. In 1675 he made a second trip to London, where he was employed at Windsor Castle and worked as a restorer under the direction of Italian painter and decorator Antonio Verrio (c. 1639-1707), who brought him to the attention of King Charles II (r. 1660-1685). At this time Largillière painted several still life paintings in the manner of the Dutch and Flemish masters. Thereafter he practiced this branch of painting with consummate skill, a talent that allowed him to make brilliant use of flowers, fruit, and animals in some of his most ambitious portraits and contemporary history pictures. In 1679 Largillière settled in Paris, where he specialized in baroque portraiture in the grand manner of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641), and Peter Lely (1618-1680). The Flemish battle painter Adam Frans van der Meulen (1631 or 1632-1690) introduced him to Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) who, as First Painter to King Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715) and director of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, was the predominant figure in France's official art establishment. Upon his acceptance as a candidate for admission to the Académie, he agreed to execute as his diploma picture a large portrait of Le Brun (completed 1686, Paris, Musée du Louvre, eight photo in the gallery) seated in his studio surrounded by the accoutrements of his art and an oil study for the ceiling of Galerie des Glaces at Versailles. In 1686, Largillière made a final trip to England, where he painted portraits of the newly crowned king, James II (r. 1685-1688) (Greenwich, National Maritime Museum) and his consort Mary of Modena...

A refined pair of antique paintings from the first half of the 18th century. Oil on canvas artworks depicting splendid romantic scenes, a banquet with gentlemen, and a dance scene du...

This small landscape shows a hunting scene: two riders are chasing a stag with their dogs at the edge of a forest. Signed by Peter von Bemmel, it is typical of the production of this...

Attributed to MILLOT, Henri. Portrait of a Lady. Oil on canvas. Unsigned, inscribed Millot on the reverse. 18th century. 85 x 69 cm. Framed. 85 x 69 cm. Portrait of a young woman in ...

A magnificent Italian painting from the first half of the 18th century. This oil on copper painting depicts the intense death of Cleopatra, an artwork of extraordinary pictorial qual...

As Florence Ingersoll-Smouse wrote in 1921 in her book devoted to Jean-Baptiste Pater, "a painter of the Fête galante, Pater is interesting both by his intimacy with Watteau, to whom many of his works are still attributed, and by his own value as an artist.” This sanguine, full of life and spontaneity, is typical of the preparatory studies made by the painter to be used later in the composition of his paintings. 1. Jean-Baptiste Pater, pupil and disciple of Antoine Watteau Antoine Pater, Jean-Baptiste's father, belonged to the petty bourgeoisie of Valenciennes where he worked as a merchant-sculptor. His brother Jacques was a local painter who was probably involved in his nephew's training. Born on December 29, 1695, Jean-Baptiste Pater was first trained with Jean-Baptiste Guider, a local painter whose death in 1711 was probably the reason for Jean-Baptiste’s departure alongside Watteau, who was visiting Valenciennes. Watteau's difficult character led to their separation in 1713. Back in Valenciennes, Jean-Baptiste Pater encountered difficulties with the powerful Corporation of Saint-Luke (to which he refused to belong) which forced him to return to Paris in 1718. He reconciled with Watteau shortly before his death (on July 18th 1721), inherited the commissions that Watteau had been unable to fulfil and completed some of his paintings. Pater was accepted by the Académie Royale in 1725 but did not produce his reception painting The soldier’s revels until three years later. Throughout his brief career (he died at the age of forty on July 25th 1736), he mainly had a clientele of amateurs and received only one royal commission, shortly before his death. 2. Description of the drawing and related artworks Pater had adopted his master Watteau's method of composition. His study drawings were carefully glued in a notebook and were used to animate his compositions. His paintings sometimes suffer from a somewhat artificial composition, since the figures seem to be pasted one next to the other. This point has also been made about Watteau’s. The theme of military scenes (which was at the time included in the genre of Fêtes galantes!) was one of Pater’s favourite subjects. Together with the Bathing Women...

This stunning 18th century Dutch Old Master Golden Age floral oil painting is attributed to a circle of Simon Pietersz Verelst. Painted circa 1720 it is a still life floral of a mixe...

Antique Italian painting from the early 18th century. Artwork oil on canvas depicting an amazing still life with flowers and a view in the background of excellent pictorial quality. ...