Noël-Nicolas Coypel

Possibly anonymous sale, Paris, Hôtel Corberon, 28 November 1810, lot 110 (as 'Coipel, Naissance de Bacchus');

Possibly Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827), London;

Possibly his sale, London, Sotheby's, 26 June 1828, lot 510 (as 'Coypel, The Birth of Bacchus'), to Hull;

Possibly Michael Tijou (active from 1795–1835), London;

Possibly his posthumous sale, London, Foster, 13 April 1836, lot 133 (as 'Coypel, The Birth of Bacchus'), to Herrman;

With Giovanni Meggiolaro Antiquités, Montecchio Maggiore, Italy;

Anonymous sale, Brest, Thierry & Lannon, 22 February 2024, lot 300 (as French School, 18^th century);

Where acquired by the present owners.

This hitherto unpublished painting constitutes an important addition to Noël-Nicolas Coypel's œuvre. Indeed, since the publication of Jérôme Delaplanche's catalogue raisonné of the artist's work some twenty years ago,¹ Coypel's corpus has not been expanded significantly. Datable to the mid-1710s, this picture evidences the young painter's early development around the time that he was accepted into the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Paris.²

Note on Provenance

A painting given to Coypel and titled The Birth of Bacchus, a conceivable misidentification of The infant Bacchus entrusted to the Nymphs of Nysa, is traceable in a number of sales in Paris and London during the early nineteenth century. Most notable among these is that of the renowned Georgian caricaturist, Thomas Rowlandson. The painting of this subject sold in Paris in 1810 (see Provenance) was recorded as measuring '9 pieds sur 6 de large', which equates to approximately 3 x 2 metres. It is not out of the question that the present canvas was originally larger in size; the positioning of Bacchus suggests that the composition may have been reduced at least along the bottom edge, perhaps previously depicting additional nymphs.

We are grateful to Dr François Marandet for endorsing the attribution to Coypel on the basis of digital images.

¹ J. Delaplanche, Noël-Nicolas Coypel (1690–1734), Paris 2004.

² The exact date for Coypel's acceptance into the Académie is 31 December 1716.