Lot 58: PIERRE BRÉBIETTE

PIERRE BRÉBIETTE MANTES-LA-JOLIE 1598 - 1650 PARIS RECTO: THETIS ATTENDED BY NEREIDS; VERSO : AN ALTERNATIVE STUDY OF THE COMPOSITION AND THE INTERIOR OF A CUPOLA AND A NUDE FIGURE Red chalk, pen and brown ink and grey wash heightened with white (slightly oxidised), on light brown paper, the lower left corner made up ( recto ); red and black chalk ( verso ) 153 by 219 mm

Sale, London, Christie's, 9 July 2002, lot 49, where bought by the present owner

This is a study in reverse for the printυ of Thetis attended by Nereids (fig. 1), engraved by Brébiette in Rome in 1625,υ1 shortly before his return to France. In his pioneering article on Brébiette's drawings, Jacques Thuillier points out the influence the artist's prints must have had on the young Poussin, who arrived in Rome in 1624.υ2 Pierre-Jean Mariette described Brébiette in his Abécédario as more of a draughtsman and engraver of his own compositions than a painter, a reputation that endured until relatively recently, but he has now also been rediscovered as a painter. Although he engraved more than three hundred plates, Brébiette's drawings are rare, as a great number of them were lost in August 1730, when they burned with the collection of the furniture maker Charles-André Boulle.

1. Le Blanc 102, Weigert 92
2. J. Thuillier, 'Brébiette dessinateur', Homage au dessin, Rimini 1996, p. 283, note 43, fig. 20