May 06, 2021 - Sale 2566

Sale 2566 - Lot 62

Price Realized: $ 1,875
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
CLAUDE GELLÉE, LE LORRAIN
Le Départ pour les Champs.

Etching, circa 1638-41. 130x181 mm; 5 1/8x7 1/8 inches, thread margins. Third state C (of 4), with the curving scratch across the mountain lower center. Ex-collection Jules Michelin (Lugt 1490; acquired from the D. G. de Arozarena collection, see Lugt 109, his sale Clement, Paris, 1861, according to an inscription in ink, verso). A very good impression of this scarce etching with strong contrasts and little to no sign of wear.

With—Le Troupeau à l'abreuvoir, etching, 1635 (1665 ?). 108x172 mm; 4 1/4x6 3/4 inches, narrow margins. Second state (of 3). Ex-collection Roger Passeron (Lugt 4096, verso). A superb, richly-inked impression.

Mannocci catalogues this print with the date 1635 (there is an illegible date scratched in the plate lower left to the right of the artist's signature), though he disputes the dating and explains that all the first state impressions he has seen of this plate "were printed on the thicker paper that Claude was using in the 1660s and not on the thin paper typical of the 30s" (Mannocci, page 126). It therefore appears that the correct date for the etching should be closer to 1665. Mannocci 34.