Lot 75: Pierre-Antoine Patel (Paris 1648-1708)

A capriccio of classical ruins with figures dancing in the foreground oil canvas 46 x 35 3/8 in. (117 x 90 cm.) PROVENANCE Anon. Sale, Fischer, Lucerne, 4-6 November 1986, lot 1157, as 'dans la maniŠre de G.P. Panini'. Anon. Sale, Semenzato, Venice, 13 December 1987, lot 18, as 'attribuito a P. Patel' (to the present owner). LITERATURE N. Coural, Les Patel. Pierre Patel (1605-1676) et ses fils. Le paysage de ruines … Paris au XVII e siŠcle, Paris, p. 207, no. PAP5, illustrated. NOTES In her monograph on the Patel family of painters, Natalie Coural attributes this picture to Pierre-Antoine, Pierre Patel's son. She suggests an early date in the oeuvre of the artist of circa 1667-70 and points out the great similarity between the architectural backdrops employed by father and son; compare, for example, the ruins in this picture to those in Pierre Patel's Landscape (Coural, op. cit., no. PP44, illustrated). According to Coural, the treatment of the landscape and the architecture also recall the style of Jacques Patel, the second son of Pierre, whose only known work is a Landscape in the Speed Art Museum, Louisville ( ibid., no. JP1). However, this one picture does not provide enough support to confirm an attribution to him.