(Montauban 1710–1777)
A still life with peaches, walnuts, a silver verseuse and a beaker,
oil on canvas, 57 x 46 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 15 October 2013, lot 612;
Private collection, Germany

We are grateful to Claudia Salvi for identifying this still life as a work by the artist. A report accompanies the present lot.

The intimate little dessert assembled in this work by Jean Valette-Penot depicts a gentleman’s meal, which is not overly luxurious but still exudes an air of subtle comfort, with almost trompe-l’oeuil qualities. From a stylistic point of view, the painting can be dated to circa 1760. This is suggested when we consider that Penot, living in Toulouse and not in Paris, would probably not have depicted a coffee pot of the latest fashion, and that the verseuse can most probably be dated to the late 1750s, the date also makes sense from an iconographical point of view. Whilst many theories have been published explaining the moralising symbols in French eighteenth-century still life painting, the present example is most probably just a glimpse into a display of a pleasant, quietly luxurious solitary moment of repose (for just one beaker is depicted, and the coffee pot is a ‘verseuse egoiste’, intended for one person). Penot received his training as a pupil of Antoine Rivalz at the Académie de Peinture de Toulouse and, apart from one stint in Rome, spent his whole career in his native city. Small still lifes in the ‘goût’ of Chardin were in increasingly high demand at the closing years of the ‘Ancient Régime’ and Penot was able to meet this demand. The Marquis de Robien was one of his important patrons. However, only a small number of comparable works have resurfaced; one of these is an equally small-scale still life with peaches and nuts, now at the Musée Ingres in Montauban.