Carle van Loo (Nice, 1705-Paris, 1765)
God the father blessing
Black stone on laid paper, fixed on a picture mount; fixed on paper.
19.4 x 17.3 cm.
signed bottom right "C. van Loo".
price on request
Charles André van Loo (1705-1765), known as Carle van Loo (or Vanloo), was an important French painter and the most famous of his family of artists. His grandfather, Jacob van...
Charles André van Loo (1705-1765), known as Carle van Loo (or Vanloo), was an important French painter and the most famous of his family of artists. His grandfather, Jacob van Loo, was a Dutch painter who came to France. His father, Louis-Abraham van Loo, specialized in religious and mythological paintings. Carle van Loo studied with his brother, Jean-Baptiste van Loo, in Turin and Rome before joining the Académie Royale de peinture et de sculpture in Paris, where he won the Prix de Rome in 1724. Carle van Loo had a brilliant career, being professor at the Académie Royale, where the famous Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) was one of his pupils, and being, from 1762 until his death, the painter to the French king Louis XV. Signed lower right, this small drawing is a fine example of Carle van Loo's confident pencil stroke. The treatment of God the father's drapery, wide and puffy, is highly decorative. Also worthy of mention is the way the shadows are depicted, with parallel hatching in black stone, giving the drawing a sketchy, modern look.
Provenance
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
UnpublishedFurther reading:
Carle Vanloo: premier peintre du roi (Nice, 1705-Paris, 1765), exhibition catalogue (Nice, Musée Chéret, January 21-March 13, 1977, Clermont-Ferrand, Musée Bargoin, April 1-May 30, 1977 & Nancy, Musée des beaux-arts, June 18-August 15, 1977), dir. P. Rosenberg & M.-C. Sahut, Ivry, 1977.