Jean-baptiste Mallet (1759–1835), Attributed, 17th-century Interior With Mother And Lutenist

Jean-Baptiste Mallet (1759–1835), attributed – 17th-Century Interior with Mother, Children and Lutenist

Attributed to Jean-Baptiste Mallet (Grasse, 1759 – Paris, 1835).

Oil on panel.

Panel dimensions: 36 × 24 cm.
Framed dimensions: 47 × 36.5 cm.

The composition depicts a young mother with her two children, while a maid enters the room carrying a tray. In the background stands a young lutenist. Although painted in the early decades of the 19th century, the scene is deliberately set in the 17th century, as revealed by the costumes, the monumental late-Mannerist fireplace, the furnishings and the decorative details. This refined historical evocation is fully in keeping with the Troubadour taste that characterized an important strand of French painting of the period.

Born in Grasse in 1759, Jean-Baptiste Mallet was one of the leading exponents of French genre painting between the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His works, often set in an idealized past, combine scenes of everyday life with a learned historical reconstruction. The choice of oil on panel, a support that had become less common by this period, also deliberately recalls the pictorial tradition of earlier centuries. Meaningful comparisons can be made with works preserved at the Bowes Museum and with the paintings exhibited in the Jean-Baptiste Mallet exhibition at the Musée Fragonard in Grasse.

The attribution is based on the close stylistic and iconographic affinities with the artist’s documented oeuvre.

Good condition. Presented in its original gilt wooden frame.