JEAN BAPTISTE CORNEILLE (PARIS, 1649-1695) ALEXANDER MAKING HIS SOLDIERS DRINK Canvas Old restorations Alexander making his soldiers drink, canvas, with restorations 301 x 431 CM - 118 x 169,6 IN. Provenance Most probably the collection of Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683), a painting of this subject is mentioned in the Great Hall of the Château de Sceaux, in his after-death inventory drawn up by Charles Le Brun after September 1683 (see Bibliography, J.-C. Boyer, op. supra., 2014); Probably the collection of Louis-Philippe I; sold in 1848 to the Marquis de Courtilloles (bought for 1,000 gold francs), according to family tradition; Collection of the Marquis de Courtilloles, Château de Courtilloles, Sarthes ; Sale of the entire furniture of the château de Courtilloles, L'Isle-Adam (Me Elkaïm), June 20, 1993, no. 172 (Attributed to Charles Le Brun, 2 million francs); Galerie Jean Pierre Gros, Paris, Carré Rive Gauche in 2014. Bibliography F. de P. and A.S., Découvert - Un tableau de Le Brun reste en France, in Le Figaro, June 22, 1993 ; C. Lebrun-Jouve, Deux têtes pour un seul Corneille : Jean-Baptiste, in Album amicorum. Œuvres choisies pour Arnauld Bréjon de Lavergnée, Trouville, 2012, quoted p. 114-115, reproduction of detail fig. 2 (Jean-Baptiste Corneille) ; E. Coquery, Charles Errard ca.1601-1689. La noblesse du décor, Paris, 2013, no. PcE. 3, quoted p. 192, reproduced in color p. 194 (Jean Baptiste Corneille sous la direction de Charles Errard) ; J. C. Boyer, Some identifications of paintings in the collection of 'le grand Colbert in The Burlington Magazine, April 2014, quoted p. 214, reproduced fig. 6. This sumptuous composition fits in well with the series of large-scale history paintings produced during the reign of Louis XIV, in the tradition of the tapestry cartoons for Charles Le Brun's La Vie d'Alexandre le Grand (Musée du Louvre) destined for the Manufacture des Gobelins. Our canvas was discovered at a 1993 sale, then offered under the name of Charles Le Brun, then returned to Jean-Baptiste Corneille by Jean-Claude Boyer in 1994, then by Jean-Pierre Cuzin, and matched with a preparatory drawing by Claudine Lebrun-Jouve. Emmanuel Coquery has proposed that it was produced during the artist's stay in Rome, under the direction of Charles Errard, but no archival document has come to support this hypothesis based on stylistic considerations. Another large-format work, its possible counterpart, Dinocrate présente à Alexandre son projet pour le mont Athos (collection Louis-Phiippe), was sold in our galleries in 2008 (Tajan sale June 26, 2008, no. 60. The two works would have belonged to Louis Philippe's collection, but were separated in 1848. They were reunited by the Marquis de Courtilloles and separated again in 1993). To set himself apart from Le Brun, Jean-Baptiste Corneille chose a little-represented episode from Quinte-Curce's History of Alexander the Great (Book VII). After spending eleven days riding in pursuit of Bessos, the satrap of Bactria under the reign of Darius III, Alexander and his men run out of water. On their way, they meet two courtiers who have come to bring water for their sons in the Macedonian army. Seeing the sovereign overwhelmed by thirst, they offered him their water. Unable to bring himself to drink it alone, and knowing that such a small quantity would not be enough for all, he refuses. Struck by his greatness of spirit, the soldiers regained their courage and swore to follow him wherever he went. The subject highlights the self-sacrifice of the war leader. With a symbolic gesture, he pushes away the filled cup and points with the other hand to his army, in whose name he must sacrifice himself. Jean-Baptiste Corneille belonged to a dynasty of artists. Like his elder brother Michel II (1642-1708), he trained under his father Michel I Corneille (1602-1664), who was for a time a collaborator of Simon Vouet. In 1665, he completed his training in Rome, becoming one of the Academy's first boarders in Italy. During his long stay, from 1665 to 1671, Charles Errard commissioned him to copy the frescoes in the Galerie Farnèse, to decorate the Galerie des Ambassadeurs in the Palais des Tuileries. A few years after his return to France, in 1675, he delivered his reception piece La Punition de Busiris par Hercule, now conserved at the Beaux-Arts de Paris. In 1679, he painted La Libération de Saint-Pierre for the May de Notre-Dame. The end of his short life was marked by considerable activity and an evolution in his style, which became freer and more tormented. He was appointed assistant professor in 1684, the year in which he completed a Saint Roch for the Grand Commun de Versailles, now in the church at Mouriès. He became professor in 1692. Influenced by Le Brun and Giulio Roma