Charles MEYNIER (Paris, 1763-1832). Telemachus,... - Lot 361 - Métayer-Mermoz Maison de Ventes aux Enchères Nevers

Charles MEYNIER (Paris, 1763-1832). Telemachus, urged on by Mentor, leaves Calypso's island. About 1800. Oil on canvas. H_46 cm L_60.5 cm. Signed and dated lower left: meynier ft [date illegible]. H_46 cm W_60.5 cm. Provenance: France, private collection. Expert : M. Stéphane Pinta, cabinet Turquin To bid on this painting, please contact the auction house in advance. A pupil of François-André Vincent, Charles Meynier shared with Anne-Louis Girodet the Grand Prix de l'Académie royale de 1789 with Joseph recognized by his brothers (Paris, École des Beaux-Arts) and stayed at the Académie de France in Rome from 1790 to 1793. Driven out by by the anti-French riots, he then spent a year in Florence, where he was one of the first artists of his generation to copy the Renaissance masters. On his return to Paris, he exhibited regularly at the Salon from 1795 to 1827, mainly painting paintings. He worked for private patrons during the Directoire and Consulate periods, and from the the beginning of the Empire, he received official commissions illustrating important Napoleonic campaigns (numerous works at the Château de Versailles). Versailles). He supplied the designs for the sculptural decor of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (Paris, Musée du Louvre), for the Manufacture de Sèvres and for medals. medals. Elected a member of the Institut during the Cent-Jours, Meynier was appointed professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1819, and ran a studio for girls until his death. girls until his death. As a decorative painter, he executed five ceilings in the Louvre and the Tuileries between 1801 and 1827, becoming one of the leading exponents of this genre which he helped to renew. His last major commission, in 1826, was for the of the Salle de la Corbeille in the Palais Brongniart, executed in collaboration with Abel de Pujol. A renowned painter and prolific draughtsman, he died in Paris cholera epidemic in September 1832. At the Salon of 1800, Charles Meynier presented Télémaque pressé par Mentor quitte l'île de Calypso's island. Hailed by the critics as a masterpiece, the painting won him a first class. Presented again at the Louvre for the decennial prizes in 1810, it disappeared for more than two centuries before appearing at a public sale in in Nantes in spring 2018, where it was acquired by a British gallery (fig. 1)1. Very documented, the painting was previously known from two prints that testified to the final the final composition, a line engraving by Normand (fig. 2) and an etching by by Châtaigner and Bovinet (fig. 3), and by two very fine preparatory drawings with many variations on the final work (Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art Museum of Art, dated 1800 (fig. 4), and France, private collection)2. No painted sketch for the painting appears in the artist's after-death sale, whose catalog does, however, mention several drawn studies, "Six pièces, diverses études, pour le Télémaque et autres". In addition to the works known today, the artist also produced eight studies in black stone for figures, mentioned by Danish collector Tønne Bruun-Neergaard in 1801, which were included in his after-death sale in 1819. Today's reappearance sheds significant light on the creative process of this of this major painting in the painter's career. Modest in size, but not small not small, signed and dated - even if the date is difficult to read - the work is rather a modello than a sketch. Very accomplished, it could be the canvas that Meynier Meynier submitted to his patron for approval of the overall composition. The booklet of the Salon of 1800 indicates that the painting belonged to "C[itoyen]. Fulchiron", i.e. banker Joseph Fulchiron (1744-1831), who had already acquired works by the artist at the the artist at the Salon in 1795 and 1796. Only one painted sketch for Télémaque is documented: it appears in 1803 in a of the collection of medal engraver Augustin Dupré (1748-1833), drawn up at the time of his second marriage, on Frimaire 1, Year XII (November 23, 1803): "n° 5 : Télémaque dans l'Isle de Calypso. Sketch by Menier, in its gilded border... 150F "3. In the absence of dimensions and detailed description, there's no way of telling that this is our our canvas, even if it is possible. Did Meynier first keep it and then offer it offered or rather sold it to Dupré? It is also possible that the modello belonged to Fulchiron himself, or that Meynier sold this beautiful sketch to another collector sketch to some other collector in connection with a major Salon success. In the absence of archives and provenance we are reduced to hypotheses. For such an important important composition, it is certain that Meynier, in his usual