A Gobelins Tapestry depicting Sancho's Entry on the Island of Barataria, from the Don Quixote Series, woven by the Workshop of Michel Audran, after designs by Charles Antoine Coypel, the alentour after a design by Jean-Baptiste Belin de Fontenay the Elder, dated 1757

Madame Véron, acquired from the Garde-Meuble, 4 July 1763;

Francis Seymour-Conway, the Third Marquess of Hertford (1777-1842);

Monsieur le Baron of Gunzburg;

Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 30 January 1884;

Clarence O. Mackay;

Thence by inheritance to Mrs. Robert Hawkins, 1926;

Her estate sale, 1958;

Jack R. Dick, Greenwich, Connecticut, 1969;

Ravi Tikkoo, Dunnellen Hall, Greenwich, Connecticut;

By whom sold, Sotheby's Parke Bernet, New York, 29 November 1975, lot 170;

With Timken Art Gallery, San Diego, 1976;

From whom acquired, 1980.

Paris, Exposition de l'Union centrale des Beaux-Arts appliqués à l'Industrie, Objets d'art et de curiosité exposés du Musée rétrospectif ouvert au Palais de l'Industrie en 1865.

M.M. Fenaille, Tapisseries des Gobelins, Volume III, Paris, 1904, pp. 227 - 229

Michael M. Thomas, 'Bellagio House. The David Murdock Estate in Bel-Air', Architectural Digest, February 1987, p.57

The Story of Don Quixote is among the most celebrated tapestry series produced by the Gobelins Royal Manufactory. Over the course of the eighteenth century, approximately 200 panels illustrating the narrative were woven, with the central scenes based on cartoons by Charles Coypel, the peintre du Roi.¹

Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote follows Alonso Quijano, a nobleman so captivated by tales of chivalry that he reinvents himself as the knight Don Quixote. Accompanied by his loyal squire, Sancho Panza, he embarks on a series of adventures that are both heroic in intent and comically misguided. The present scene depicts the moment in which Sancho arrives to the fictitious “island of Barataria,” which is in fact only a small town, owned by a wealthy Duke and Duchess who are hosting Don Quixote and Sancho. Throughout the tale, the Duke and Duchess devise a series of elaborate and often humiliating pranks at the expense of both men. In this episode, they persuade Sancho that he has been appointed governor of this imaginary island.

While the selection of episodes varied from set to set, each tapestry was framed by a trompe-l’œil frame border, with the central scene placed against a yellow or red ground, adorned with decorative motifs that imitated the fashionable wallpapers of the period. This scene was further enclosed by a decorative border of flowers, animals, and other motifs. Known as an alentour, this ornamental scheme evolved over the course of the century to keep up with changing tastes, while Coypel’s narrative compositions remained unchanged.

The alentour seen here corresponds to the cinquième alentour – modification deuxième, introduced in 1751,² and is characterized by this yellow ground. As its name suggests, this version is derived from the second alentour, but with the two putti formerly included in the border removed. The second alentour was based on designs from 1714 by Jean-Baptiste Belin de Fontenay the Elder, and this later modification was carried out under the direction of Coypel’s workshop.

The present tapestry, along with lot 108, was woven in the workshop of Michel Audran for the sixième tenure. These two weavings are recorded as having been purchased directly from the Garde-Meuble by Madame Véron on July 4, 1763. They subsequently entered the collection of Francis Seymour-Conway, Third Marquess of Hertford (1777–1842), followed by that of the Baron of Günzburg, before being sold again.³

¹https://www.frick.org/exhibitions/don_quixote/gobelins

²M.M. Fenaille, Tapisseries des Gobelins, Volume III, Paris, 1904, p. 174.

³Ibid, pp. 227 - 229.