?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 15,000 - $ 20,000
LAURENT DE LA HYRE (Paris 1606-1656 Paris) St. Peter Healing the Sick.
Black chalk and pencil on light gray laid paper, circa 1635. 505x382 mm; 20x15 1/4 inches.
Ex-collection G. Mühlbacher (Lugt 1180, lower left recto); Jean-Baptiste-Florentin-Gabriel de Meryan, Marquis de Lagoy (Lugt 1710, lower right recto); and private collection, Paris.
The current work is preparatory to de la Hyre's painting for the May de Nôtre-Dame of 1635. The Mays were a series of paintings in 17th and early 18th century Paris. They were commissioned by the Goldsmiths' Guild of Paris to offer to the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris in the early days of the month of May. The tradition began in 1630 and one painting was offered each year between then and 1707, with the exception of 1683 and 1694. De la Hyre contributed his painting of St. Peter to the May of 1635 as well as the May painting of the Conversion of St. Paul in 1637. QL>The story of St. Peter healing the sick with his shadow occurs immediately after the story of Ananias, Acts 5:15-16, "People brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed." De la Hyre set the scene among classical architecture, with the sick and dying strewn around the steps of what appears to be a temple and St. Peter passing by the stricken figures in the foreground casting his shadow on them.
