Thomas BLANCHET (Paris vers 1614 - Lyon 1689)

The Visitation Sanguine and white highlights on beige paper, laid down in red chalk 26.5 x 33 cm Bears traces of an illegible collection stamp in the lower left-hand corner Provenance: - Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 18 April 1994, No. 169, (attributed to Nicolas Loir, reproduced). Exhibition : - Drawings from the Christian and Isabelle Adrien collection, Rennes, Musée des Beaux - Arts, 2012, n° 39, reproduced, (Aude Henry Gobet). Note: We can probably link our drawing to a series of seven paintings on the theme of the life of the Virgin, which Blanchet executed for the church of Notre Dame de la Platière in Lyon, not located. Or perhaps to the cycle of twelve paintings on the same subject that he executed in 1693 for the Collège de la Trinité in Lyon. Our Visitation is very close to the drawing preserved in Stockholm, differing only in architectural details or in the penciled tiling (see L. Galactéros de Boissier, op. cit. supra, no. D63, reproduced in fig. 334).