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Catalog
Premium Francesco BARBIERI, known as the GUERCHIN (Cento, 1591 - Bol…
See original version (French)
Francesco BARBIERI, known as the GUERCHIN (Cento, 1591 - Bol…
See original version (French)
Lot no. 8
Description
Francesco BARBIERI, known as the GUERCHIN (Cento, 1591 - Bologna, 1666)
The Samaritan Woman at the Well
Oil on canvas
(Restorations)
The Samaritan woman at the well, oil on canvas, by F. Barbieri called Guercino
32.48 x 27.16 in.
82.5 x 69 cm
Provenance: Collection of Louis Guiguer, Baron de Prangins (1675-1747), founder of the Tourton and Guiguer bank;
Then by descent;
Acquired from the great-great-grandson of the Baron de Prangins in 2015 by the current collector;
Private collection, Switzerland
Bibliography: Nicholas Turner, The painting of Guercino, A revised and expanded catalogue raisonné, Rome, 2017, p. 337, no. 80.I
Three centuries have passed since our painting entered the collection of the banker Louis Guiguer, most probably in Paris, and most probably with the painter and collector Nicolas de Largillierre, from whom the Swiss banker acquired many paintings. The passion of French collectors, led by King Louis XIV, for early 17th-century Bolognese painting is well known, and our painting is part of this trend. Louis Guiguer, from a family originally from the canton of Thurgau in north-eastern Switzerland, was born in Lyon, where his father had emigrated and made his fortune in the textile trade. He himself made a number of commercial investments in the East India Company, mining and textiles, and is best known for having founded the Tourton et Guiguer bank around 1703. His financial activities were closely linked to those of the Tronchin and Thellusson families of Geneva, and it was naturally in this region that he looked to buy a fiefdom capable of consolidating his position and his fortune. He built a magnificent property at Prangins, which is still the most beautiful and most important on the Swiss side of Lake Geneva. A caricature of a wealthy banker who profited from the calamitous management delegated by the crown to private individuals during the difficult times of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1715), Louis Guiguer chose Largillierre's brush1 to showcase his success (Fig.1) in this golden age of fermiers généraux, bankers and army suppliers.
In his catalogue raisonné, Nicholas Turner hesitates about the status of our Samaritan woman. He had probably not examined it in person at the time of publication and does not establish with certainty the chronology of our painting in relation to the definitive composition known from two versions, one kept in Detroit2 and the other in the Kimbel Art Museum in Forth Worth3 (fig.2). He wonders whether our painting is a study, a fragment of a third complete version or just a reworking of the motif. Close examination of the decropped painting now makes it possible to rule out the idea of a fragment. The restorations noted by Nicholas Turner in his catalogue raisonné allow us to conclude that it was a study preceding the final composition.
The evanescent rendering, the deep palette and the sfumati used are those of the painter's finest years, around 1620, when he painted his most moving pictures to satisfy the appetites of eminent collectors in Rome. Not least of these was Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, a fellow Bolognese and nephew of Pope Gregory XV, who commissioned him to paint the famous ceiling of the Casino de l'Aurore. Here, Guerchin painted with his highly original technique, marked by crimson reds, slate blues and extremely nuanced skin tones, inspired by the work of Ludovico Carracci. A compulsive draughtsman, Guerchin obviously gave a great deal of thought to the development of his model, and the drawing conserved in Munich4 (Fig.3) illustrates the changes of position adopted in the final composition.
The subject of the Samaritan woman at the well is a key theme of the Counter-Reformation, reflecting its 'expansionist' ambitions. At the beginning of the first century, the people of Samaria (in the north of Judea) were in conflict with the Jews. Christ's openness in asking the Samaritan woman for water - just like the illustration of the generosity of the Good Samaritan that Christ evokes before the priests - is intended to bring people together. The tension in the Samaritan woman's body, which is entirely focused on the figure of Christ in our painting, illustrates that Christ's vocation is to gather people together and give them something to drink: "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again" (John 4:13).
1- Swiss National Museum, Zurich
2- Guerchino, Christ and the Samaritan Woman, oil on canvas, 100.5 x 137.2 cm. Detroit Institute of Art, inv. no. 26.108.
3- Guerchin, Christ and the Samaritan Woman, oil on canvas, 97,2 x 124,8 cm. Fort Worth, Kimbell art Museum, inv. n°AP 2010.01
4- Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, inv. no. 424502, referenced in Turner, 2017, no. 80.II.a
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Francesco BARBIERI, known as the GUERCHIN (Cento, 1591 - Bologna, 1666)
82.5 x 69 cm
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
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