A young boy with a pipe, blowing on a firebrand

Details

Studio of Georges de La Tour (Vic-sur-Seille 1593-1653 Lunéville)
A young boy with a pipe, blowing on a firebrand
oil on canvas
28½ x 23¾ in. (72.3 x 60.3 cm.)

Provenance

Dauzelle de la Pierre, Lunéville, and by descent to
Antoine Tulpain (1897-1976), Vaudoncourt, circa 1935.
with Wildenstein, New York, 1950, from whom purchased by the
Saint Louis Art Museum, 1956.

Literature

A. Philippe, 'Une nouvelle oeuvre de Georges de La Tour', Beaux-Arts, no. 118, 5 April 1935, p. 2, as 'a new discovery of a painting by de La Tour'.
F.G. Pariset, L'Image Saint-Alexis de Georges de la Tour, Nancy, 1938, pp. 2, 4, as 'de La Tour'.
F.G. Pariset, Georges de la Tour, Paris, 1948, pp. 268, 411 under note 74-1o, pl. 40-1, as 'an autograph version by de La Tour'.
S.M.M. Furness, Georges de La Tour of Lorraine, 1593-1652, London, 1949, pp. 145-146, no. 1, as 'possibly an original study by de La Tour that may have been cut'.
W.N. Eisendrath, Jr., 'Young Man with a pipe by Georges de La Tour', Bulletin of the City Art Museum of St. Louis, XLI, no. 3, 1956, pp. 30-36, as 'de La Tour'.
C. Wright, 'A Suggestion for Etienne de La Tour', Burlington Magazine, CXI, no. 794, May 1969, p. 296, as 'attributed to Etienne de La Tour'.
P. Rosenberg and J. Thuillier, Georges de La Tour, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1972, p. 257, under nos. 56 and 57, as 'a good copy but badly damaged'.
G. Isarlo, Combat-Arts, Bulletin no. 5, 11 September 1972, as 'the original'.
F. Solesmes, Georges de La Tour, Lausanne, 1973, p. 155, as 'a good copy'.
J. Thuillier, L'Opera Completa di Georges de La Tour, Milan, 1973, pp. 96-97, under no. 58, as 'a copy'.
P. Rosenberg and F. Macé de l'Epinay, Georges de La Tour, Friburg, 1973, p. 174, under no. 53, as 'a faithful copy'.
B. Nicolson and C. Wright, Georges de La Tour, London, 1974, pp. 198-199, under no. 65, Copy E, as 'a copy after a lost original dated c. 1648'.
J. Thuillier, Georges de La Tour, Paris, 1992, p. 294, under no. 74, as 'previously thought to be the original but now generally rejected'.
P. Rosenberg and M. Mojana, Georges de La Tour: catalogo completo dei dipinti, Florence, 1992, p. 116, under no. 40, as 'a copy'.
C. Wright, The Masters of Candlelight: An Anthologie of Great Masters Including Georges de La Tour, Godfried Schalken, Joseph Wright of Derby, Landshut, 1995, p. 128, no. 40(1), as 'a copy'.
J.P. Cuzin and P. Rosenberg, Georges de La Tour, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1997, pp. 264, 266, under no. 60, fig. 91, as 'a copy'.
P. Rosenberg, ed., Poussin, Watteau, Chardin, David..., exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2005, p. 372, under no. 78, as 'one of four workshop copies'.

Exhibited

Nancy, Musée Historique Lorrain, 1935, Jacques Callot et les peintres et graveurs lorrains du XVIIè siècle (no catalogue).
Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Seventeen Masters of Painting, 15 January-5 February 1950, no. 21.
São Paolo, Museu de Arte, O Retrato na Franca, January 1952, no. 8.
New Orleans, Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, A loan Exhibition of Masterpieces of French Painting through Five Centuries--1400-1900, 17 October 1953-10 January 1954, no. 12.
New York, Wildenstein, Fifty masterworks from the City Art Museum of Saint Louis, 6 November-13 December 1958, no. 12.

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Lot Essay

Dauzelle de la Pierre, the first recorded owner of the present lot, served as the chamberlain to Stanislaw Leszczynski (1677-1766), the former King of Poland and the last duke of Lorraine, who established a court in Lunéville from 1735-1766.

A signed version of A young boy with a pipe in the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum is presumed by several authorities to be autograph, though not necessarily La Tour's prime version of the subject. The present painting is one of several workshop copies: Besançon, Musée des Beaux-Arts (oil on canvas, 30 3/8 x 23¼ in.); Nancy, Musée Historique Lorrain (oil on canvas, 30 3/8 x 26¾ in.); New York, art market, Sotheby's, 29 January 2009 (oil on canvas, 27 5/8 x 23¾ in.); France, Private collection (oil on canvas, 29½ x 24 in.); Paris, previously Jean Néger collection (oil on canvas, 21¼ x 22 7/8 in.); USA, Private collection (oil on canvas, dimensions unknown); and France, Private collection 'M' (in November 1972) (oil on canvas, 26 3/8 x 22 in.). Georges de La Tour's son, Etienne, has sometimes been proposed as the author of the workshop replicas, including the present version.

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