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拍品专文
This rare depiction of an Old Testament subject from the earliest years of Boucher’s career depicts an episode in the story of Joseph, son of the patriarch Jacob and his wife Rachel, and a foundational figure in the history of the Israelite people. His story recounts how the Israelites came to live in Egypt, with their eventual deliverance to the land of Israel told in the subsequent book of Exodus.
The Bible (Genesis 47: 1-10) recounts the moment that Joseph introduces his brothers and aged father to Pharaoh. Having arrived in Egypt after fleeing famine in Canaan, his brothers joined Joseph in Goshen seeking fertile pasture land for their flocks. 'Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Your father and your brothers have come to you, and the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen."' Then Joseph presented his father before Pharaoh. 'After Jacob blessed Pharaoh, Pharaoh asked him, "How old are you?" And Jacob said to pharaoh, "The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty."' Boucher’s painting depicts the seated and crowned Egyptian Pharaoh reaching out his hand to welcome the elderly, bearded Jacob, who is being introduced by the youthful, turbaned Joseph who stands between them; the brothers and their wives witness the meeting, their calling as herdsman indicated by their staffs.
Boucher’s painting can, based on its distinctive manner and handling, be situated among his first works as an independent artist, datable to before 1728, when he set off for Italy to study at the French Academy in Rome. The composition, setting and disposition of the numerous figures Boucher orchestrates within it are reminiscent of the artist’s drawings illustrating the Histoire de France, made between 1727-28, and bear strong similarities to his first documented painting, The Judgment of Susannah (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa), executed in 1721, when the young Boucher was still training in François Lemoyne’s studio. Its light and bright palette of salmon pinks, emerald greens and sapphire blues, as well as its fluid, creamy application of paint reveal the influence of Lemoyne, whose own pictures employed the brilliant palette of Veronese and the early Venetian masters. The broad, fluid paint handling and high-keyed coloring of the present lot can be found in another episode of the story of Joseph, The Dream of Joseph (private collection), which Boucher painted perhaps even before Joseph Presenting His Father and Brothers to Pharaoh, while he may still have been training with Lemoyne.
Another autograph version of the present composition is known and was acquired by the Kress Collection in 1956 and given to The Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina the following year. It has a somewhat rougher, more textured surface that reflects a familiarity with the works of Nicolas Vleughels, soon to be Boucher’s master in Rome. It is nearly identical to the present lot but for a few minor differences – notably, a shift in the position of the shepherd’s staff held by Joseph’s eldest brother in the center foreground and a repositioning of the way his knee rests upon the carpeted steps. As Alastair Laing noted (in correspondence, 8 April 1999), these small changes made in the present version are improvements that clarify and solidify the elder brother’s placement in the composition, suggesting that the present work is a somewhat reconsidered, autograph replica of Boucher’s original rendering of it in South Carolina. Laing praised the quality of the present version, which he regards as surely autograph and observes (as did J. Patrice Marandel in correspondence, 24 November 1994) that Boucher frequently replicated his most successful compositions – especially early in his career – and almost certainly did not have at this time either pupils or workshop assistants to produce replicas: he painted them himself.
The Bible (Genesis 47: 1-10) recounts the moment that Joseph introduces his brothers and aged father to Pharaoh. Having arrived in Egypt after fleeing famine in Canaan, his brothers joined Joseph in Goshen seeking fertile pasture land for their flocks. 'Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Your father and your brothers have come to you, and the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen."' Then Joseph presented his father before Pharaoh. 'After Jacob blessed Pharaoh, Pharaoh asked him, "How old are you?" And Jacob said to pharaoh, "The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty."' Boucher’s painting depicts the seated and crowned Egyptian Pharaoh reaching out his hand to welcome the elderly, bearded Jacob, who is being introduced by the youthful, turbaned Joseph who stands between them; the brothers and their wives witness the meeting, their calling as herdsman indicated by their staffs.
Boucher’s painting can, based on its distinctive manner and handling, be situated among his first works as an independent artist, datable to before 1728, when he set off for Italy to study at the French Academy in Rome. The composition, setting and disposition of the numerous figures Boucher orchestrates within it are reminiscent of the artist’s drawings illustrating the Histoire de France, made between 1727-28, and bear strong similarities to his first documented painting, The Judgment of Susannah (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa), executed in 1721, when the young Boucher was still training in François Lemoyne’s studio. Its light and bright palette of salmon pinks, emerald greens and sapphire blues, as well as its fluid, creamy application of paint reveal the influence of Lemoyne, whose own pictures employed the brilliant palette of Veronese and the early Venetian masters. The broad, fluid paint handling and high-keyed coloring of the present lot can be found in another episode of the story of Joseph, The Dream of Joseph (private collection), which Boucher painted perhaps even before Joseph Presenting His Father and Brothers to Pharaoh, while he may still have been training with Lemoyne.
Another autograph version of the present composition is known and was acquired by the Kress Collection in 1956 and given to The Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina the following year. It has a somewhat rougher, more textured surface that reflects a familiarity with the works of Nicolas Vleughels, soon to be Boucher’s master in Rome. It is nearly identical to the present lot but for a few minor differences – notably, a shift in the position of the shepherd’s staff held by Joseph’s eldest brother in the center foreground and a repositioning of the way his knee rests upon the carpeted steps. As Alastair Laing noted (in correspondence, 8 April 1999), these small changes made in the present version are improvements that clarify and solidify the elder brother’s placement in the composition, suggesting that the present work is a somewhat reconsidered, autograph replica of Boucher’s original rendering of it in South Carolina. Laing praised the quality of the present version, which he regards as surely autograph and observes (as did J. Patrice Marandel in correspondence, 24 November 1994) that Boucher frequently replicated his most successful compositions – especially early in his career – and almost certainly did not have at this time either pupils or workshop assistants to produce replicas: he painted them himself.