From the Library of Alexandre Brongniart, Director of the Manufacture Royale de Sèvres

(LOUVRE).

Notice des Dessins, des Peintures, des Bas-Reliefs et des Bronzes, Exposés au Musée Napoléon, dans la Galerie d’Apollon. Notice des Tableaux anciens, des Trois Ecoles, mis dans le Salon d’Exposition de Peinture moderne, en Juin de l’An 1811.

140 pp. 12mo (150 x 95 mm.), cont. gray wrappers, label in manuscript on spine, stitched as issued. Paris: L. P. Dubray, 1811.

First and only edition of the uncommon catalogue of the two-part exhibition of paintings, drawings, and sculpture held in the Musée Napoléon (the name of the Louvre from 1804 to 1815). The first portion lists 681 drawings, paintings, and sculptures. It included the work of artists such as Albani, del Sarto, Botticelli, Canaletto, the Carracci, da Vinci, Mantegna, Michelangelo, Murillo, Veronese, Raphael, Tintoretto, Vasari, Dürer, van Dyck, A. van Ostade, Joshua Reynolds, Rubens, Bouchardon, Le Brun, Claude Lorrain, Poussin, Watteau, etc., etc. The catalogue of the first portion ends with sculpture in enamel and bronze, along with productions from the Florentine manufactory.

The second exhibition, held concurrently and much smaller (14 nos.), but not lacking in quality, is devoted to Old Masters, including Le Brun, L. Carracci, Guercino, Guido Reni, Veronese, and Rubens. The paintings are thoroughly described, with useful scholarly notes. This display was held in the Galerie d’Apollon, and pages 129-32 document the design and decoration of the gallery since its reconstruction after a tragic fire in 1661. Louis XIV had it rebuilt and embellished by Le Brun; various artists renovated the space around a century later.

Nice copy, despite minor dampstaining to the last half-dozen leaves. From the library of Alexandre Brongniart (1770-1847), the celebrated director of the Manufacture Royale (later Nationale) de Sèvres.

❧ Marquet de Vasselot, Répertoire des catalogues du Musée du Louvre (1793-1926) (1927), 135.

Price: $550.00

Item ID: 6784