Lot 125: NICOLAS PIERRE LOIR

NICOLAS PIERRE LOIR PARIS 1624 - 1679 A DESIGN FOR A FRONTISPIECE, WITH KING LOUIS XIV SEATED ON A THRONE BESIDE ABUNDANCE AND OTHER ALLEGORICAL FIGURES Pen and brown ink and wash over black chalk; signed with monogram, lower right: NL; bears old attribution at lower right margin, on linen edging: Nicolas Loir 1624-79. 740 by 553 mm

C.-P. de Chennevières, 'Une collection de dessins d'artistes français', 22 articles in L'artiste, Paris 1894-97, chap. XV, p. 29 (date unknown);
L.-A. Prat and L. Lhinares, La collection Chennevières: Quatre siècles de dessins français, Paris 2007, p. 397, no. 684, reproduced

Charles-Philippe, Marquis de Chennevières (L.2073);
by whose estate sold, Paris, P. Roblin, 4-7 April 1900, part of lot 313, 17FF, to Broutet;
sale, Sotheby's, London, 8 July 2004, lot 65

Despite its large scale, this drawings appears to be a design for the frontispiece of an Almanach, dated by Chennevières in his article in L'artiste to 1670.υ1

Nicolas Loir was in Italy from 1647 to 1649, and met Poussin while in Rome. This encounter had a profound influence on his style. He became an Academician in 1633 on the recommendation of Louis XIV and Charles Lebrun.

1. See Literature