Lot 124: s - Attributed to Thomas Germain Joseph Duvivier Paris 1735 - 1814 , A still life with a plaster head, a bottle, a candle and several other objects on a wooden shelf oil on canvas, unlined

oil on canvas, unlined

64.5 by 75.8 cm.

Sale, London, Sotheby's, 20 April 1994, lot 40.

A pupil of Chardin, Thomas Germain Duvivier appears to have specialised in rigorously constructed still life paintings, often incorporating statuettes, busts, and antique bas-reliefs, but he does not appear to have attempted to emulate his master's subtle effects of light and colour. The present picture, hitherto unpublished, which is exceptionally well preserved on its original stretcher is notable above all for its carefully modulated design, with the objects seen against the wall or on a narrow shelf, in clear focus and within a severely restricted space. It has been compared with Duvivier's L'architecture démontrée par ses attributs, dated 1772, in a private collection. New York (for this picture and an account of the artist's career see M. & F. Faré La Vie Silencieuse en France, La Nature Morte au XVIII Siècle, Paris 1976, pp. 175-181, reproduced plate 268). A similar arrangement of objects including an antique head, on a narrow plinth, is found in Duvivier's Les attributs des arts in the Stein collection, Paris (Faré op. cit. plate 263).