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« Feasts and Festivities » XVIIe & XVIIIe Dutch, Flemish, French, German and Italian Master Paintings From October19th to December15th, 2001 |
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Rome, 1682 - Paris, 1740
The picnic at the countryside
Oil on canvas
54 x 65 cm
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| Attribué à François OCTAVIEN Rome, 1682 - Paris, 1740 The picnic at the countryside Oil on canvas 54 x 65 cm |
| François Octavien was born in Rome, although his parents were from the Lorraine region of France. On 30 September 1724, he was agréé by the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, and on 25 November 1725 he became an official member of the Académie, exhibiting, as a morceau de réception, the work The fair at Bezons (Paris, Musée du Louvre; 135 x 195 cm; see the exhibition catalogue Les peintres du Roi, 1648-1793, Tours – Toulouse, 2000, p. 256, illustration R. 224), a colourful representation of the animation of a country fair near Paris. Like many other artists of his time, he was profoundly influenced by the paintings of Watteau. This work can be compared to one of the same subject, signed by the artist, that was once part of the collection of Kaiser Wilhelm in Postdam, sold in New York by Sotheby’s on 21 January 1982 under the lot n° 80 (oil on canvas, 65 x 127 cm, present location unknown). As in this painting, a group of figures are seated for a meal around a table beneath the trees. In addition, the wine cooler and bottles of wine are identical in the two paintings. We wish to express our gratitude to Mr. Pierre Etienne, of Cabinet Turquin-Mauduit-Etienne, who suggested that this painting should be attributed to François Octavien, and who helped to write this description. |
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