60 - Jean-Baptiste DESHAYS (1729–1765)

Jean-Baptiste DESHAYS (1729–1765) Tobit Restoring His Father’s Sight Canvas. Height: 110 cm; Width: 143 cm Provenance: - Deshays posthumous sale, March 26, 1765, no. 104 (unsold): “A painting of rich composition, painted on canvas by Mr. Deshays before he went to Rome. It measures three and a half feet high by four and a half feet wide.” Bibliography: - Marc SANDOZ, Jean-Baptiste Deshays 1729–1765, Paris, Editart – Quatre Chemins, 1977, p. 66, no. 12 (work lost); - André BANCEL, Jean-Baptiste Deshays 1729–1765, Paris, Arthena, 2008, p. 92, cat. P7 and p. 8 (work lost). It was with this painting that Jean-Baptiste Deshays, barely twenty-two years old, won the Grand Prix for painting in 1751. Its rediscovery helps clarify certain hypotheses regarding the young artist’s participation in this competition (it conforms to the standard format required by the Academy for this competition). In the 1751 competition, two subjects were assigned to the candidates in order to win the coveted training stay in Rome: Job on His Muck and The Miraculous Healing of Tobias. Several scholars have long suggested that Deshays painted the first subject (Guiffrey, Vollmer, and Sandoz [1]). However, André Bancel discovered a note in the National Archives by Lépicié, secretary of the Academy, stating that the painting entered in the competition was *The Miraculous Healing of Tobias* [2]. However, he complicates the history by creating a second entry in his catalog with the identical subject, the same dimensions, and one that is also lost, suggesting that an autograph replica once existed—a notion that is likely an exaggeration. The author is misled into creating two versions with different histories, when there was likely only a single canvas. The subject is taken from the Book of Tobit in the Bible [3]. Sent by his father to collect a debt from Gabelus in Rages, Tobit is accompanied by the angel Raphael. Upon his return, following the angel’s advice, he heals his blind father by applying fish bile to his eyes. Then, revealing his divine nature, Raphael disappears, flying away. Deshays was born on April 25, 1700, in Rouen, Normandy, to a painter father who decided to send him to Paris to study, first with Jean Restout around 1743, then with François Boucher in 1749. He won second prize in painting in 1750, a success that earned him admission to the school for protégés then directed by Carle van Loo. A year later, he won the competition with this painting, beating out Jean Corrège and Nicolas-René Jollain. This dual influence is evident: that of Boucher, his future father-in-law, is evident in the physical types and the color scheme—pale pink and blue for the hero, bright red and ocean blue for the kneeling figure, and in the vivid attention to detail in the small child clinging to the angel or the barking dog. The group of two women, one of whom is leaning on a metal vase, seems taken directly from a painting by his master. The more moderate influence of Carle van Loo is evident in the structure of the scene, punctuated by vertical lines, and in the muted tones of the stone walls in the background [4]. [1] Jules-Joseph GUIFFREY, with the assistance of J. BARTHELEMY, *List of Residents of the French Academy in Rome, Giving the Names of All Artists Awarded the Prix de Rome from 1663 to 1907*, Paris, 1908, p. 34 (identifies Job on his dungheap). Hans VOLLMER in Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler ..., vol. IX, 1913, p. 128 (idem). Marc SANDOZ, Jean-Baptiste Deshays 1729–1765, Paris, Editart – Quatre Chemins, 1977, p. 62, no. 4. On these issues regarding the interpretation of the minutes, see also: Annie VERGER, “Jean-Baptiste DESHAYS (1729–1765),” online journal Histara, 2009. [2] Certificate dated October 19, 1651, AN O 1 1927 1. [3] This subject, The Healing of Tobias, had already been assigned in 1741. [4] For example, Saint Gregory Dictating His Sermons (private collection) or The Guardhouse (idem). Expert: Stéphane PINTA | TURQUIN Firm