- Museum number
- 1857,0228.218
- Description
-
Portrait of Jean Baptiste de Champaigne and his wife, Geneviève; heads in profile to left
Black chalk, with red and white chalk
- Production date
- 1677
- Dimensions
-
Height: 260 millimetres
-
Width: 208 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Plattemontagne and Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne's friendship began in the Parisian studio of the painter Philippe de Champaigne, the latter's uncle, the two having an additional bond due to their shared Flemish ancestry. Plattemontagne's father was an Antwerp-born landscape and marine painter while Jean-Baptiste was born in Brussels and only came to France when at the age of twelve he was apprenticed to his uncle. The present portrait, whose traditional attribution to Plattemontagne was for a long time overlooked at the BM, depicts his fellow artist in profile alongside his wife Geneviève Jehan, a niece of Philippe de Champaigne, who Jean-Baptiste married in 1667. Frédérique Lanoë suggested that the profile format of the two heads was inspired by antique cameoes, like the one in the Pierre Crozat collection copied in a drawing in the BM by Élisabeth Sophie Chéron (1868,0822.7592).
A copy after the present drawing by Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne was acquired by the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe in 1991 (inv. 1991-28; no. 82 in the 20089 exhibition).
Lit.: M. Bénard, 'Cabinet de M. Paignon Dijonval', Paris, 1810, no. 1513, p. 75 (as Philippe de Champaigne); J. Cordey, 'Les dessins français des XVe et XVIIe siècles au British Museum', "Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art Français", 1932, p. 17 (as J.-B. de Champaigne); B. Dorival, 'Philippe de Champaigne, 1602-1674', Paris, 1976, II, no. 1729, p. 316, fig. 1729; F. Lanoë, in exhib. cat., Évreux, Musée d'Évreux, 'A l'école de Philippe de Champaigne', 2007, Paris, p. 50; Idem, in exhib. cat., Paris, Musée national de Port-Royal des Champs, 'Trois maîtres du dessin: Philippe de Champaigne (1602-1674), Jean Baptiste de Champaigne (1631- 1681), Nicolas de Plattemontagne (1631-1706), 2009, no. 46, p. 143 (with further literature).
This drawing was issued as a coloured facsimile by the British Museum in 'Reproductions of Drawings by Old Masters in the British Museum', Part IV, Published by the Trustees, in 1894 where it was number VII and described there as 'Jean Baptiste de Champaigne, Medallion Portraits of the Painter and His Wife.'
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2009 Mar-Jun, Yvelines, Musée Nat de Port-Royal des Champs, Dessins de Philippe de Champaigne
2016-17 Sept-Jan, BM, 'French Portrait Drawings' (no cat)
- Acquisition date
- 1857
- Acquisition notes
- Samuel Woodburn bought Morel de Vindé's collection (grandson of Paignon- Dijonval) en bloc in 1819
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1857,0228.218