These extraordinary panels are two of the finest works by F lattery
Aubert Parent ever to have appeared on the art market.
Dated Ménage
1779, the year Parent first exhibited at the Paris Salon, they t heir
are two of the sculptor’s earliest works, executed just two i n
years after his first major achievement, the relief dedicated A mateur
and presented to King Louis XVI in 1777.
The present panels o b
are dedicated to François Marie Ménage de Pressigny (circa patron
1733-1794), Fermier Général (tax collector) to Louis XVI, whose h umble
collection included Les hasards heureux de l’escarpolette, or F ew
The Swing, by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), one of the a n
defining masterpieces of French 18th-century painting (Wallace i n
Collection, London, inv.
no. P430)
The Ménage de Pressigny o wners
panels, which have been in the same English private collection i ndicating
for almost a century, are exemplars of Parent’s work, and are c omte
preserved in near perfect condition. t he
appears to have been a modus operandus for Parent.
de Pressigny panels are rare in that they preserve
original ebonised wood frames, onto which are inscribed
gold words: Dedié à Monsieur Ménage de Pressigny
des Sciences et des Beaux Arts par son très hum
ser Parent pre du Roi [Dedicated Monsieur Ménage de
of sciences and the fine arts by his truly
and obedient servant Parent painter the king].
of Parent’s works retain their original frames, though
almost identical example with dedicatory inscription is
a private collection.However,
almost all the original
of Parent’s panels exhibited at Salon are recorded,
that they were likewise dedicated: M.le
Pelletier,
d’Aunay (1779); Mme la marquise d’Ecquevilly (1780);
marquis de Turpin (1780).This
campaign appears to
been a highly effective business strategy.Collin
Streeter
c oncludes, ‘Launched by such public royal approval, Parent
hardly fail succeed.private
commissions that
h e exhibited at the Salon de la Correspondance from 1779 to
1 783 reveal a pattern of patrons belonging to court rather than
circles’ (op.cit.,
Parent’s
61). bas-relief portrait of
C atherine the Great, Empress of Russia, appears to have been
deliberate attempt curry favour with foreign royalty and
t hus increase the artist’s celebrity
h ave
Parent’s career was launched by the presentation of an
elaborate masterpiece panel, entitled Allégorie de l’amour de
c ould
Louis XVI pour ses sujets, to Louis XVI at Valenciennes, the
artist’s native town, in 1777 (the panel is today housed in the
château de Versailles, inv.
no. MV8614). The moment was
P arisian
important to both artist and monarch, since it marked the
centennial of Valencienne’s return to French territor
The
a
Louis XVI panel is arguably the prototype for Parent’s panels
executed over the following decade.
Centred upon an elaborate
vase filled with jasmine, tulips, roses, periwinkle, lilac and other B etween
flowers, it is emblazoned with a large portrait medallion of R ome,
Louis XVI, flanked by cornucopiae and, further afield, trophies a rchitecture,
and a bird feeding its chicks in a nest.
The frame is cut with stylistic
the inscription: GRAND ROI DE VOS SUJETS ET L’AMOUR ET b e
LE PERE QUE LE FRANCOIS ADORE ET L’ETRANGER REVE e xemplified
QUAND J’ERIGE UN TROPHEE AUX PLUS RARES VERTUS n ow
MON ART TRACE LOUIS ET RAPELLE TITUS [Great King of 1 971.206.39).
your subjects, both lover and father, whom the Frenchman antique
adores and the foreigner ponders, when I raise a trophy to the medallions
rarest virtues, my art traces Louis and recalls Titus].
The King w ork
was so enamoured by Parent’s gift that he had it placed in his w hich
salle à manger intérieure at Versailles (the royal dining room) 1 971.513.4).
so that he might admire it every day.
1784 1788, supported by the king, Parent was in
where he immersed himself in the language classical
sketching the ancient ruins.Thereafter,
there is
shift his work, from what might be considered to
a rococo repertoire of motifs, to a neoclassical paradigm,
by the 1784 relief from the Wrightsman collection,
in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv.no.
Note
the inclusion a classicising bas relief
style urn in place of baskets royal portrait
of previous decade.transition
in Parent’s
is seen in a drawing that he executed in Rome in 1784
is now also the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv.no.
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Les hasards heureux de l’escarpolette, or The Swing, oil on canvas, circa 1767-1768, Wallace Collection, London (inv.no.
430)
100