Lot 167: - Nicolas Chaperon , Châteaudun 1612 - before 1656 Rome (?) The Great Flood oil on canvas

oil on canvas

measurements note 100 by 138 cm.; 39 3/8 by 54 1/4 in.

P. Malgouyres, Peintures françaises du XVII siècle. La collection du musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, Paris 2000, p. 31, under no. 21.

Anonymous sale, Zurich, Koller, 1-2 November 1975, lot 5425, as 'Studio of Domenichino'.

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR
Another version of this composition, with some differences but of identical dimensions, is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen and has been recently attributed to Nicolas Chaperon by Pierre Rosenberg and Philippe Malgouyres.υ1 The principal difference between the two versions is in the Ark, which in the Rouen picture resembles the preparatory drawing in the Louvre, Paris, far more closely than it does in the present work (see fig. 1).υ2 This may suggest that the present work was executed subsequent to the Rouen version.




1. See G. Tosatto et al., Nicolas Chaperon: Du graveur au peintre retrouvé, Nîmes 1999, p. 182, cat. no. 49, reproduced in colour p. 181.
2. Idem, p. 179, cat. no. 48, reproduced in colour p. 180.