Lot 73: Gabriel-Jacques de Saint-Aubin (Paris 1724-1780)

A group of designs for the engraved panels of gold and silver boxes: 1. A woman in a landscape looking into a mirror ; signed and dated 'G. de S taubin inv. 1751.'; 69 x 90 mm. 2. Musical instruments in a landscape ; signed 'de S t aubin inv.'; 27 x 54 mm. 3. idem ; 26 x 65 mm. 4. idem ; 29 x 65 mm. 5. idem ; 29 x 54 mm. 6. A shepherdess by a watermill ; signed and dated 'de S t aubin 1761'; 59 x 81 mm. 7. A seated putto ; 62 x 82 mm. 8. A putto crowning another ; inscribed 'devant'; 40 x 63 mm. 9. Putti drawing arrows from a quiver ; 39 x 85 mm. 10. Putti sharpening arrows ; inscribed 'derier'; 38 x 85 mm. 11. Putti drawing arrows from a quiver ; 40 x 64 mm. 12. A sleeping putto ; 63 x 83 mm. 13. A gentleman declaring his love to a shepherdess ; in an inscribed circle; 80 x 75 mm. 14. A woman at a harpsichord in a landscape ; 54 x 63 mm. 15. Apollo crowning a seated woman reading a book ; signed 'gabriel de S t aubin inv.'; 53 x 64 mm. 16. A woman at a harpsichord ; signed 'gabriel de S t aubin inv.'; 54 x 63 mm. 17. Putto playing in a landscape ; signed 'g de S t aubin inv.'; in an inscribed oval; 63 x 79 mm. 18. Two river goddesses by a river ; 63 x 85 mm. 19. A woman writing at a table in a landscape ; 34 x 59 mm. 20. A woman reading in a landscape ; 33 x 78 mm. 21. A woman reading in a landscape ; 34 x 80 mm. 22. A woman doing embroidery in a landscape ; 34 x 59 mm. 23. A woman writing a letter on the breasts of another ; 65 x 84 mm. 24. A figure dancing in a Turkish building ; 65 x 85 mm. 25. A putto in a laboratory ; 41 x 55 mm. 26. Figures playing music (possibly by a different hand); 38 x 59 mm. 27. A woman giving fruit to a boy (possibly by a different hand); 38 x 53 mm. 28. A man by a cottage, with a woman feeding peacocks at which a putto is aiming his bow ; 40 x 53 mm. 29. A couple hunting deer ; 59 x 80 mm. with inscription 'Dessins de G. de S t. Aubin pour la d‚coration de bo‰tes d'orfŠvrerie' in a cartouche on the mount pen and grey ink, grey wash, heightened with white (25, 28 and 29) (mount) 23 1/8 x 30 1/8 in. (588 x 766 mm.) in an 18th Century French frame (29) PROVENANCE with Marius Paulme. G. Dormeuil (L. 1146a). LITERATURE E. Dacier, Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, Paris and Brussels, 1931, nos. 847-858. EXHIBITION Paris, Hotel Charpentier, Exposition des Saint-Aubin, 1925, no. 56. NOTES Having failed to win the Prix de Rome three times, Saint-Aubin turned away from the Academy and in addition to larger paintings began to produce designs for the decorative arts at the direction of marchands-merciers. His almost manic desire to draw was famous - Greuze refered to it as the 'priapism of draughtsmanship' - and the constant invention required to feed the Parisian market for fashionable baubles provided a ready outlet. The designs in the present lot, a remarkable survival given the rough treatment that transferring the designs onto an engraved surface necessarily entailed, show Saint-Aubin's enjoyment of subtle and not so subtle play with images. Three of the columns of drawings show complete designs for the top, four sides and base of a complete box. Five other drawings for boxes were in the sale of the collection of the Marquis de Biron in 1914, E. Dacier, op. cit., nos. 842-6.