Lot 104: * JEAN HUBER GENEVA 1721-1786 BELLEVUE, NEAR LAUSANNE

VOLTAIRE AND HIS APOSTLES

8 1/4 by 7 in.; 209 by 175 mm.

graphite, pen and brown and gray ink and gray wash

London, P. & D. Colnaghi, Exhibition of Old Master Drawings, April-May 1948, cat. no. 30, reproduced

G. Apgar, "Voltaire's 'Abendmahl,'"in Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich, November 22-3, 1986, p. 65, reproduced;
G. Apgar, "La Voltairiade de Jean Huber," in Voltaire chez lui, Geneva 1994, pp. 125 and 134, fig. 20;
G. Apgar, L'Art singulier de Jean Huber, Paris 1995, p. 133;
F. Bessire, La Bible dans la correspondance de Voltaire, Oxford 1999, reproduced as cover illustration

Lord Palmerston;
Thence by descent to Lord and Lady Mountbatten, Broadlands;
Mrs. Georgina Blois;
With P. & D. Colnaghi, London, 1948;
With Herbert Bier, London;
Heinrich Eisemann;
Percy Muir;
Dr. Desmond Flower, London;
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, November 23, 1984, lot 386, reproduced

Jean Huber had no formal training as an artist, and indeed his first career was that of a soldier, fighting for Savoy in the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-48). He then served on Geneva's governing council, later as a magistrate and only turned to art professionally in 1759.

Though he was most famous for his profile silhouettes, in about 1770 Catherine the Great commissioned Huber to paint a series of works depicting scenes from Voltaire's domestic life, nine of which are in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg. Huber made other versions of some of the most famous subjects, and the present drawing is related to a painting formerly belonging to Lytton Strachey and now in the Voltaire Foundation, Oxford, usually known as La Sainte Cène. The painting shows Voltaire in his dining room at Ferney, surrounded by his disciples, raising his hand for silence so that the priest could say Grace.

The present drawing includes many elements of the right side of that composition, but is less formal in style and subject matter. On Voltaire's left is his niece, Mme. Denis, and two of the background figures have disappeared. The figure with the thin sword in the right foreground has been identified as Jean François Marmontel, a philosopher and one of Voltaire's disciples. As he was known to have visited Ferney only once, it is possible to date the composition to May or June of 1760. Voltaire and His Apostles shows every sign of having been done from life. The loose brush work and sparkling contrasts of the wash are balanced by the careful delineation of the faces and Voltaire's iconic gesture.