Very little is known about Catherine Saint-Ours, except that her father Jean-Pierre was initially opposed to her becoming an artist. She travelled to various places for her training, and seems...
Very little is known about Catherine Saint-Ours, except that her father Jean-Pierre was initially opposed to her becoming an artist. She travelled to various places for her training, and seems to have a style extremely close to that of her father. The Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève holds a few works by her hand, and these three examples are among the few attributed to Catherine Saint-Ours, probably by Anne de Herdt, who was aware of the Gosse-Maillart collection. The sheet shows antique-style male faces, which appear to be based on casts of the Trajan column. The author of this drawing had been identified with Catherine Saint-Ours since the arrival of the Gosse-Maillart collection at the Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève, in all likelihood on the advice of Anne de Herdt, and it is this name that was retained in the inventories of the Gosse-Maillart collection. Having been unable to find any decisive arguments, we have preferred to add a question mark to this sheet and to the previous one.
Geneva, probably collection of Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours' daughter and the artist's sister, Marie-Françoise (Fanny) Saint-Ours (given by her to the following). Geneva, collection Hippolyte Gosse. Geneva, collection of his daughter Elisabeth Maillart. Geneva, collection of her daughter Claire Maillart. Geneva, Musée d'art et d'histoire (on loan from 1985 to 2023). Geneva, collection of the heirs of Claire Marillart.
Literature
Unpublished Further readings: D. Buyssens, Peintures et pastels de l'ancienne école genevoise : XVIIe-début XIXe siècle, Geneva, 1988. A. de Herdt, Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours 1752-1809. Catalogue de l'oeuvre peint et des sujets dessinés mythologiques, historiques et religieux, Geneva, 2019.