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Lot Essay
Louis de Boullogne II was born into a prolific family of artists. He was a pupil of his father, as was his brother Bon de Boullogne (1649-1719), and would prove to be one of the most talented and decorated painters of his generation. His precocity was recognised when he was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1673, and he would spend five years in the Italian capital from 1675-80. On his return to France, he was employed at Versailles and was received into the French Academy in 1681, going on to become its director in 1722. In 1724 he received the rare honour of being ennobled by Louis XV, before being appointed Chief Painter to the King in 1725.
Boullogne was a highly skilled draughtsman: over two hundred of his drawings are held at the Louvre, where an exhibition was held in 2011, dedicated to his draughtsmanship. As a painter, he helped to usher in the new taste of the eighteenth century, together with artists such as Nicolas Bertin, Antoine Coypel and Michel Corneille, foreshadowing the flowering of Rococo style in the work of Boucher. This composition of The Judgement of Solomon is known in different versions, including one dated to 1696 in the Musée d'Art in Troyes, and another in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. The present lot differs, however, from the latter, with the inclusion here of an extra bearded figure in centre background and the depiction of a sculptural relief on the plinth below Solomon.
Boullogne was a highly skilled draughtsman: over two hundred of his drawings are held at the Louvre, where an exhibition was held in 2011, dedicated to his draughtsmanship. As a painter, he helped to usher in the new taste of the eighteenth century, together with artists such as Nicolas Bertin, Antoine Coypel and Michel Corneille, foreshadowing the flowering of Rococo style in the work of Boucher. This composition of The Judgement of Solomon is known in different versions, including one dated to 1696 in the Musée d'Art in Troyes, and another in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. The present lot differs, however, from the latter, with the inclusion here of an extra bearded figure in centre background and the depiction of a sculptural relief on the plinth below Solomon.