- Museum number
- 1846,0509.153
- Description
-
Study for the infant Christ
Black and white chalk, on grey-brown paper
Verso: Drapery study
Black and white chalk, on grey-brown paper
- Production date
- 1602-1674
- Dimensions
-
Height: 191 millimetres
-
Width: 290 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- The recto is a study for the Infant Christ in the painting of the 'Presentation' of 1648 commissioned for the high altar of the church of Saint-Honoré in Paris, and now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (Dorival 1976, no. 46, fig. 36a).
The drapery study on the verso was identified by Bernard Dorival in 1972 (letter in file) as a study for a lost painting of 'The Magdalene at the foot of the Cross', recorded in an etching by Jean Morin used in the 'Heures de Port Royal' published in 1650 (Dorival no. 264). Later the same study was re-used for the sinful woman (often identified as the Magdalene) washing Christ's feet with her hair in the Musée du Louvre, Paris painting of 'The Supper in the House of Simon the Pharisee' of c. 1656 (Dorival no. 53). In neither of these works does the drapery conform exactly to the drawing, while it matches much more closely the kneeling Magdalene at the foot of the cross in a recently discovered painting of the 'Crucifixion' in a private collection attributed to Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne (fig. 64a on p. 86 in 2009 catalogue). On the strength of this connection Frédérique Lanoë attributes the verso to Jean-Baptiste, but although this cannot be ruled out it seems unlikely as stylistically it is so close to the study by Philippe on the other side. It is possible that Jean-Baptiste used a drapery study by his uncle for a kneeling Magdalen as a starting point for the same figure in his own work.
Lit.: 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; P. Rosenberg, 'Philippe de Champaigne', Milan 1966, p. 5, fig. 4; B. Dorival, 'Philippe de Champaigne, la vie, l'oeuvre et le catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre', Paris 1976, II, nos. 47, pp. 31-32 (recto), fig. 47 and no. 72, p. 47, fig. 72; H. Kurita and M. Koshikawa, in exhib. cat., Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art and Tokyo, National Museum of Western Art, 'French drawings from the British Museum: from Fontainebleau to Versailles', 2002, no. 36; P. Stein, in exhib. cat., New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and London, BM, 'French Drawings from Clouet to Seurat', 2005, no. 20; F. Lanoë, 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. 26, p. 49 (recto) and no. 64, p. 86 (verso as Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne) 143 (with further literature).
Flemish by birth and early training, Philippe de Champaigne travelled to Paris in 1621 where he worked in the studio of Georges Lallemant (c. 1580-1636) before being hired to participate in the decoration of Marie de Medicis' apartments in the Palais du Luxembourg under the supervision of Nicolas Duchesne (died 1628), whose daughter he married in 1627. Merging the realism of his native Flanders with the restrained Baroque idiom of Simon Vouet (1590-1649) and his generation, Champaigne developed a manner marked by elegant sobriety. His ability to find committed and highly placed patronage with the French court and religious institutions in and around Paris continued unbroken through a number of regime changes from Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu, through the regency of Anne of Austria, to Louis XIV and Cardinal Mazarin.
We can only assume that Champaigne's drawings were little appreciated by his contemporaries, for the surviving sheets surely constitute a mere fraction of what must have been a considerable graphic oeuvre. The extant examples suggest that Champaigne employed a methodical and extensive preparatory process for his major commissions. His drawings can be divided into three principal types, corresponding to distinct stages of preparation: initial, broadly treated studies of the overall composition in pen and wash, studies of details - figures and drapery - drawn from life in black chalk heightened with white, and finally large, carefully rendered presentation drawings in ink and wash.(n.1)
The BM`s study of a baby and the hands of the figure holding it is among the most engaging and naturalistic of Champaigne's studies from life. It is used, with minor adjustments to the position of the head and legs, for the figure of the infant Christ and the hands of the high priest Simeon in the `Presentation in the Temple` (fig.1). Commissioned for the high altar in the church of Saint-Honoré in Paris, the painting is dated to 1648 by Félibien and Guillet de Saint-Georges.(n.2) Given its preparatory function, the present sheet would presumably have been made around the same time.(n.3)
The drapery study on the verso presents a more difficult problem. Dorival related the study to two compositions by Champaigne: a lost canvas of `The Magdalene at the Foot of the Cross`, known through an etching by Jean Morin, and a painting, `Supper in the House of Simon` (Musée du Louvre, Paris), which he dated to c.1656.(n.4) In the case of the former there is some similarity in the fall of the drapery, although the figure is cropped in the print, limiting the areas for comparison; moreover, one would expect the drawing to be in reverse to the print like the landscape view of Jerusalem in the background, which also appears in a related painting and preparatory drawing.(n.5) In the case of the latter the drapery of the kneeling woman washing the feet of Christ in the Louvre canvas bears no relation to the BM study.
Text by P. Stein, 2005 as cited above.
Fig.1 PHILIPPE DE CHAMPAIGNE, `Presentation in the Temple`, 1648, oil on canvas, 257 x 197 cm, Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.
Notes
1 E. Brugerolles, exhib.cat., Paris, Geneva and New York, `Le Dessin en France au XVIIe siècle dans les collections de l'École des Beaux-Arts`, Paris, 2001, pp.279-80.
2 Dorival, 1976, op.cit., 1, p.31.
3 Not c.1642, the date assigned to it by Dorival (ibid.). This was corrected in 2000 by N. Sainte Fare Garnot, `Philippe de Champaigne (1602 - 1674), Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne (1631 - 1681), Nicolas de Plattemontagne (1631- 1706)`, Paris, (p.14, no.14).
4 Dorival, 1976, op.cit., II, p.143, no.264 and pp.34-5, no.53.
5 Ibid., II, p.412, nos 67 and 68.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2002 Apr-Jun, Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Mus of Art, 'French Drawings from the British Museum'
2002 Jul-Sep, Tokyo, NM of Western Art, 'French Drawings from the British Museum'
2005/6 Nov-Jan, New York, Met Mus of Art, Clouet to Seurat/BM, no. 20
2006 Jun-Oct, BM, Clouet to Seurat/BM, no. 20
2009 Mar-Jun, Yvelines, Musée Nat Port-Royal des Champs, Dessins de Philippe de Champaigne
- Acquisition date
- 1846
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1846,0509.153