(Paris 1605–1665)
A still life of grapes, peaches and a melon on a stone ledge
oil on canvas, 68.6 x 61 cm, framed

We are grateful to Claudia Salvi for confirming the attribution (written certificate).

Lemoine was one of the still life painters of the Grand Siècle (see C. Salvi, D’après nature, la nature morte en France au XVIIe siècle, Tournai, 2000) and he was held in high esteem by his contemporaries. (see D.-P.-J. Papillon de la Ferté, Extrait des différents ouvrages publiés sur la vie des peintres par M.P.D.L.F, Paris, 1776, II, p. 692-693:‘Pierre Antoine Le Moine de Paris peignit les fruits avec beaucoup de finesse & de légèreté.’). His oeuvre was unknown to modern art history until the rediscovery, in 1992, of his reception piece for his admission into the Académie Royale de Peinture et de sculpture (Still life of grapes, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 10 April 1992, lot 39; Paris, Tajan, 17 December 1997, lot 315). Lemoine was also a gifted musician, as Claudia Salvi demonstrated with her research in the archives (see C. Salvi, ibid., 2000, pp. 112-113). The present painting, previously unpublished is therefore a welcome re-addition to his corpus of works.

We only know of the date of Lemoine´s death and his then position by the official documents regarding his funeral in 1665: ‘Vous estes prié d’assister au Convoy, Service et Enterrement de Monsieur le Moine, vivant Peintre du Roy en son Académie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture, ordinaire de la musique de la Chambre de Sa Majesté et de Monsieur; décédé en sa maison, rue des Déchargeurs, qui se fera Jeudy, 20 Aoust 1665, à dix heures du matin, en l’église de St Germain l’Auxerrois, sa Paroisse, où il sera inhumé; les Dames s’y trouveront s’il leur plaist’. Against the advice of Charles Le Brun and Eustache Le Sueur he was received into the academy in 1654, were he became one of the most prominent members of the next decade, no doubt owing to the fact that he not only obtained the prestigious title of ‘peintre du roi’, but also became a member of the king´s musical ensemble. In 1657 he is known to have been ordered to ‘orner le logis’ of Chancellor Pierre Séguier, a prestigious commission, of which no trace survives. Another example of the special positon his rare oeuvre held among his fellow artists is attested to by the fact that in 1656 one of his paintings was chosen as a present by the academy for the powerful Cardinal Marzarin, at that time the de-facto ruler of France. Félibien included him in his ‘list of most famous and best known artists.

His painterly, very elegant and yet precise style shows that he is a faithful heir of the French tradition, a school principally represented in his generation by Pierre Dupuis He was, nevertheless, also able to incorporate some of the influences of contemporary Italian still life painting.