AFTER CHARLES LEBRUN (PARIS 1619-1690) AND FRANÇOIS GIRARDON (TROYES 1628-1715 PARIS)
Design for the decoration of the stern of the Dauphin-Royal
inscribed (upper center) ‘POUPE DU VAISSEAU LE DAUPHIN-ROYAL/ Premier Rang.’; (lower right) ‘Derrière de la Poupe d[u]/ vaisseau le dauphin Ro[yal]/ desinéz après le Modèlle [...]/ Monsieur girardon en [...]’, ‘Eschelle des Pieds.’, and ‘Poulces’
graphite, pen and black ink, brown and gray wash, on multiple pieces of paper assembled together
50 x 39¹⁄₄ in. (127 x 100 cm.)

Baron Isidore Justin Séverin Taylor (1789-1879), Paris.
with Bernard Quaritch, London (Catalogue of Valuable Books, forming the stock of Bernard Quaritch, Bookseller, 15 & 16, Castle Street, Leicester Square, London, 1859, p. 135, part of no. 2531 ‘Naval architecture of France. A collection of 25 large drawings of French Frigates. (…) La Poupe et la Bouteille du Vaisseau ‘Le Dauphin Royal’ premier rang, designed after the model by Girardon, measuring 49 inches by 42, and 48 by 48’).
Sir Bruce Stirling Ingram (1877-1963), London.
Christopher Powney, 1969.
Lodewijk Houthakker (1926-2008), Amsterdam (L. 3893) (Master Drawings, exhibited by Bernard Houthakker, Amsterdam, 1970, p. 42).

P. Fuhring, Design Into Art. Drawings for Architecture and Ornament. The Lodewijk Houthakker Collection, London, 1989, no. 731, ill.
M. Théron, ‘La décoration navale en France entre 1660 et 1830’, in Les Génies de la mer. Chefs-d’œuvre de la sculpture navale du Musée national de la Marine à Paris, exhib. cat., Musée du Québec, Paris, Musée de la Marine, 2002, p. 46, fig. 24.

Conditions of Sale
FAQs
This lot is offered by Christie's Inc

Brought to you by

Lot Essay

In 1668, under Louis XIV (1661-1715), the painter Charles Le Brun and the sculptor François Girardon, together with the latter’s pupil Pierre Turreau (1638-1676) are sent to the port city of Toulon to work on the designs for the sculpted decoration and execution of the 100-gun ship the Dauphin Royal (Fuhring, op. cit., p. 444). As this design for the stern of the ship attests, Le Brun and Girardon proposed an abundant decoration in relief and in the round. At center of the design, the Dauphin (literally ‘dolphin’, but meaning the crown prince) is seen seated; he is flanked by Neptune and possibly a river God, who offer crowns. The drawing in lot 27 is a design for one of the sides, or ‘bouteilles’, of the same ship of which the stern is depicted in this lot, and more precisely the side where the general headquarters were lodged. Following the recommendation of minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, no effort or expense was spared to ‘make shine the magnificence of His Majesty at sea’ (‘esclatter sur mer, la magnificence de sa Majesté’; quoted in Théron, op. cit., p. 46).

The drawings offered here appear to be period repetitions after the original drawings, which presumably are lost. The sculptors involved in the decoration of these ships often moved from port to port and would take with them accurate records of the designs they had worked on. Other repetitions were meant for official approval, and the inscription on the sheets under discussion may indicate they were the versions sent to Versailles in October 1669. Later in the century, responding to the necessity of war ships to become more agile, Colbert ordered the decoration to become lighter. The two works offered here, impressive in detail as well as in size, bear witness to the heyday of French naval decoration preceding this new period of simpler designs.