Workshop Of Charles De La Fosse, The Childhood Of Christ

The childhood of Jesus is a relatively little documented subject "in the sacred texts. Here the choice is made to represent the meal of Jesus between the Virgin Mary and Joseph. The presence on the table of grapes and bread is of course linked to the future mystery of the Eucharist. The composition is infinitely close to the work of Charles de la Fosse, we would moreover be tempted to attribute this painting directly to him. out of prudence, we have chosen to call it a work of workshop of the painter. the doubt remains nonetheless as we are close to his work. Charles de La Fosse, born June 15, 1636 in Paris, where he died on December 13, 1716, is a French painter. of the most important French painters around 1700, with Antoine Coypel and Jean Jouvenet. He was born in Paris to a family of goldsmiths. Son of a jeweler who gave him a taste for painting, after a first apprenticeship with François Chauveau, he apprenticeship in the workshop by Charles Le Brun in 1654-1655. The rapid progress of the young La Fosse was such that Le Brun, as a great observer, soon discovered, through the singularity of his first attempts, what he would one day become and foreshadowed in which part of the painting he was to appear more successfully. . He left for his trip to Italy, probably in 1658 and Charles Le Brun, with the help of Colbert, made him obtain a pension from Louis XIV to continue his studies there. He spent two years in Rome and there studied mainly Raphael and the Antiques. He then spent three years in Venice which was unusual at the time. He is passionate about the great Venetian painters, the works of Giorgione, Titian, Bassano, Veronese, Le Tintoretto and Correggio, of which he sought to discover the main principles and the effects that they knew how to spread in their works. . At the sight of their works, La Fosse adopted a method of color and chiaroscuro which he then put into practice in all his productions. In 1708, La Fosse had retired for 2 years, to the famous collector and financier Pierre Crozat, who wanted to lodge him all his life in his hotel, rue de Richelieu, in Paris, in the Hôtel Crozat (later known as Hôtel of Choiseul). He painted a ceiling there, which he finished in 1707. “We cannot admire enough,” says Germain Brice, “with what art he was able to take advantage of the space he had to paint; its sky is painted with so much truth and harmony that the vault seems indeed pierced in this place. ". At Crozat, Charles de La Fosse works with the young Watteau, whose landscapes are strongly inspired by the master. The merchant Gersaint relates that he generously sponsored Watteau during the last two years of his life2. La Fosse paints the ceiling of the Château de Montmorency, built by Crozat, on the theme of Phaeton.
Très beau cadre en bois doré du début du XVIIIe siècle