(Paris 1745–1811) A pastoral scene by a palace in a vast landscape, oil on canvas, 304 x 234 cm, framed

There is no doubt that present pair of extraordinarily charming landscapes once formed part of one of Huet’s numerous interior decorations, such as the one he executed together with Boucher for the engraver Dumarteau’s drawing room or the one at the Château de Chantilly, for which he collaborated with his uncle, Christophe. A very similar pair, though somewhat smaller in size, was sold at Christie’s, New York, on 26 October 2001 (lot 324). Jean-Baptiste Huet was one of the most outstanding practitioners of French genre painting on the eve of the French Revolution. The offspring of a family of artists, he was trained by Charles Dagomer, a member of the Académie Saint-Luc. Besides painting, he was also introduced to the technique of copper engraving, into which he further immersed himself under the guidance of his subsequent teacher, Jean-Baptiste Le Prince. He was admitted to the Academy in 1769 and started to exhibit at the Salon that same year. His compositions, committed to the buoyant works by Boucher, soon became very popular. His strengths lay in this very discipline, as is also evidenced by the present pictures, whereas his history paintings fall short to his serene genre scenes in terms of quality. Huet also knew how to cleverly market his painted inventions in the textile industry; he had some of his compositions realized by the Oberkampf manufacture of printed cottons (toile de Jouy) and until 1789 designed several tapestry series for the Gobelins and Beauvais factories. In the present painting it becomes obvious why Huet was held in such high esteem by his contemporaries. The group of the flirting shepherds in the foreground, although based on Boucher’s gallant scenes, is an autonomous composition, and in the precisely observed landscape background Huet clearly emancipated himself from his model. This is also where the influence of his former master, Le Prince, a specialist in the rendering of natural scenery, distinctly manifests itself. The paints are generously and confidently applied in a liberal manner, which makes the present two paintings excellent examples of buoyant Rococo painting, with its sketchiness and uninhibited inventiveness, which was to perish in the French Revolution. pendant to the previous lot.

The present pair of extremely decorative landscapes belong most probably to a decorative scheme, similar to that painted by Huet, together with Francois Boucher, for the salon of the engraver Dumarteau, and also to the scheme for the Chateau de Chantilly