Claude Michel Duplessis (versailles, XVIII Sec.), Pair Of Paintings With Horsemen

Claude Michel Hamon Duplessis (active in Versailles from 1791 to 1799)
Signed one lower right, the other lower left “M. h. Duplessis”

Pair of paintings
Knight near an inn
Camp with tent and travellers

Oil on panel

27 x 37 cm
In frame 55 x 45 cm.

Provenance: Christie's, Paris, auction of 14/09/2016, lot 50, estimate €6,000 - €8,000 (see details)

This is a pair of landscapes with figures of knights and travellers, executed in oil on panel, signed by the painter Claude Michel Hamon Duplessis, who was mainly active in Paris around the second half of the 18th century and specifically documented in Versailles from 1790 to 1799.

One painting depicts a distinguished horseman wearing a bright red cloak on a white horse, stopping near an inn: he points to a building in the distance, perhaps the place he is heading for, as if asking the woman with the child for directions.

The second painting shows two tents in a landscape, one of which, with a crown hanging above it, is identified as a typical field inn, which served to entertain and supply knights. In front of it, three men are unloading food from a cart, and next to it there are empty supply baskets, with farmers and their livestock.

The brilliant quality of the colour, the accurate and fluid brushwork, the richness of detail and the smoothness of the painted surface of these works, which are in excellent condition, are typical characteristics of Duplessis's best works. specialising in scenes of this kind, often animated by knights, soldiers or travellers stopping for a rest, the author's style, with its Italianate taste, is also influenced by Flemish examples, in a mixture that was very successful in 18th-century Paris.

His works are remarkably elegant, and his compositions reflect in particular the influence of Philips Wouwerman (Haarlem, 1619 - 1668), as can be seen from the catalogue of his works; see, for example, those preserved at the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg (cf. B. Schumacher, Philips Wouwermans (1619-1668), the horse painter of the Golden Age, Doornspijk 2006, no. A 459, vol. 2, fig. 72).

Works by the painter can be found in French museums in Besançon (Suburb of a Camp) and Bayeux (On the Banks of a Canal in Flanders).

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The works are sold complete with two attractive wooden frames and are accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and a descriptive iconographic card.

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