(AUCTION CATALOGUE: NOGARET, Armand Frédéric Ernest).

Catalogue d’une belle Collection de Tableaux, des Ecoles d’Italie, de Flandre, de Hollande, et de France; Dessins de différens Maîtres, beaux Bronzes, Pendule dorée, Meubles, Tabatieres d’ancien Laque, & autres Objets de curiosité; Provenans du Cabinet de M. *** [written in cont. ms]: “Nogaret.” Par J.B.P Le Brun, Peintre. La Vente en sera faite le Lundi 18 Mars 1782, & jours suivans…

44 pp. Small 4to (185 x 130 mm.), late 19th-cent. brown half-morocco signed “Knecht,” spine gilt. Paris: Lebrun, 1782.

An important and rare sale catalogue, fully priced throughout and with nearly all buyers’ names in a contemporary hand. This was the third and final portion of Nogaret’s collection to be sold during his lifetime (1st: Lugt 2791; 2nd: 3153); his estate sale in 1807 (Lugt 7210) offered the inferior leftovers. In the avertissement, Lebrun, this auction’s expert, declares that this catalogue offers an unparalleled selection of Italian paintings.

“[Joseph Hyacinthe François de Paule de Rigaud, comte de] Vaudreuil, whom Alexandre de Tilly remembered as the most magnificent courtier of Louis XVI’s reign, now emerged as the principal figure among a group of ambitious officeholders in the entourages of the queen and the comte d’Artois whose expenditure on luxury objects functioned, at one level, to legitimize their recent appointments to positions of power…Nogaret (1734-1806)… quickly assembled collections of paintings and furniture through the offices of the dealer Lebrun, who was also responsible for guiding Vaudreuil’s purchases…”–C. Bailey, Patriotic Taste: Collecting Modern Art in Pre-Revolutionary Paris (2002), pp. 174.

The present catalogue describes 116 painting lots (by Guercino; Ludovico, Agostino, and Antonio Carracci; Correggio; Pietro da Cortona; Giorgione; Titian; Murillo; Maratta; Panini; Rubens; Rembrandt; A. Brouwer; Metsu; Cuyp; Ruysdael; van der Neer; I. van Ostade; Vouet; Poussin; S. Bourdon; Le Nain; Watteau; Lancret; Natoire; F. Boucher; Greuze; Fragonard; etc., etc.); nine sculptures; and 17 drawings and miscellaneous group lots.

This copy is profusely annotated with several layers of contemporary notes. The great collectors and dealers of the time are noted as buyers in the margins — e.g. Lebrun, Donjeux, De Vouge, Langlier, Lebrun jeune, Paillet, Dulac, Quesnay, Hamon, “[Nicolas] Lenoir, arch. de l’Opera,” etc. In addition to these, in what looks like a different hand, a connoisseur has recorded the earlier auction history for a number of lots.

A fine copy, with plentiful information on provenance. Engraved bookplate of G[eorges] P[annier] (1853-1944), the Parisian art dealer, and stamp of the Bibliothèque Heim on verso of title.

❧ Lugt 3392. See Blanc, Trésor de la Curiosité, Vol. II, pp. 60-62. P. Michel, Peinture et Plaisir: Les Goûts Picturaux des Collectionneurs Parisiens au XVIIIe Siècle (2010), pp. 62, 303, 307, & 312.

Price: $8,500.00

Item ID: 6643