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French SchoolFrench School Courting Pastoral Scenes, 18th CenturyCirca 1750
Circa 1750
About the Item
French School
18th Century
Pastoral Scenes
Oil on canvas
A delightful pair of 18th-century pastoral scenes, this charming set of oil paintings depicts two quintessential tableaus of whimsical countryside life. The mirroring monumental compositions each show shepherdess damsels indulging the romantic advances of would-be casanovas, with one romancer wooing his lady with a white dove and the other charming his paramour with the sweet sounds of music. Painted by a talented artist of the French school, these stunning works are rendered in the rococo tradition of pastoral lovers championed by painters like Boucher and Fragonard.
Beautifully preserved and deftly executed, the paintings display the creamy brushwork, airy atmosphere and evocative Italianate setting typical of the finest French school works of the 1750s. The impressive paintings are further distinguished by their monumental size – measuring nearly 5 ½ feet high – and their storied provenance.
For much of the twentieth century, these paintings decorated the drawing room of Casa Encantada, an opulent 60-room mansion in Bel Air designed in 1939 by T. J. Robsjohn-Gibbings. The home was such a spectacle that Architectural Digest dedicated a full issue to the mansion in 1941, which included photos of these two paintings hanging in the drawing rooms. When legendary hotel magnate Conrad Hilton acquired the property in 1950, he also acquired all of the opulent furnishings and fine art that had been carefully curated and designed for the home. Hilton described the property as “one of the fabulous houses of the world,” and the home was certainly elevated by the monumental 18th-century French paintings flanking the drawing room. The paintings thus remained in the possession of Conrad Hilton's son, Mr. Barron Hilton, for the next 40 years until his death in 2019.
Circa 1750
Canvases: 53 1/4" high by 39" wide
Frames: 65 7/8" high by 51" wide by 3 1/8"
Provenance:
Oskar Guhl, Zürich, 1870-1937
Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, 26 August-3 September 1938, lot 1630
Galerie Fischer and A. Seligmann
Hilda Boldt Weber, Bel Air, CA, by 1941
Conrad Nicholson Hilton, Bel Air, CA, acquired in 1949
By descent to Barron Hilton, Bel Air, CA, from whose estate acquired by the present owner
Private Collector, Laguna Nigel, CA
- Creator:French School
- Creation Year:Circa 1750
- Dimensions:Height: 65.88 in (167.34 cm)Width: 51 in (129.54 cm)Depth: 3.13 in (7.96 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New Orleans, LA
- Reference Number:
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