Lot 162: PIERRE QUESNEL

PIERRE QUESNEL 16TH CENTURY VIEW OF THE BISHOP'S PALACE, SÉES, NORMANDY inscribed in pen and brown ink: ....en Normandie Chasteau a/ evesques/de Sez and signed Pierre Quesnel pen and brown ink on paper 3 1/4 by 5 1/8 in. 8.3 by 13 cm

François Desmarais (his collector's mark not in Lugt)
His sale, Paris, Hubert Le Blanc, Nouveau Drouot, 2 March 1984, lot 21
Richard Day, Ltd., London
Acquired from the above, 1984

Pierre Quesnel was the father of the famous François, as well as of two other painter sons. The family was of Scottish origin and Pierre, although born in France, worked at Holyrood for James V and married a Scot. He moved back to France after the birth of his second son. He presented a stained glass design for the Augustinian church in Paris in 1557, but otherwise little is known of his work. There seems no reason not to accept the attribution of this very charming and rather rare view.

Sées is a town in Normandy, west of Paris. It has a Gothic cathedral but the old bishop's palace may no longer exist as a later one was built by the tutor of Louis XVII when he became bishop.