Jean-Baptiste OUDRY - Lot 55

Jean-Baptiste OUDRY (Paris 1686-Beauvais 1755) Io transformed into a heifer, design for a Beauvais tapestry Black stone and white highlights on blue paper. 30 x 47.5 cm Bears lower left the stamp of the collection E. R. Lamponi - Léopardi (Lugt n° 1760). Provenance : - Sale of the Lamponi collection, Florence, Jules Sambon, November 10-19, 1902, n°s 968 to 980, Thirteen leaves representing country scenes and inventive landscapes populated with animals of all species and even ferocious animals.... These charming creations served as models for tapestries for the famous Gobelins factory, where J. B. Oudry was director; - Anonymous sale, Paris, Artcurial, April 9 2008, no. 83, reproduced. Our drawing is preparatory to a series of eight tapestries based on Ovid's Metamorphoses. In 1728, Jean-Baptiste Oudry was commissioned by the king to create the famous tapestry ensemble Les chasses royales at Les Gobelins. From this date on, the artist's work focused on the creation of tapestry cartoons. In 1734, he was appointed co-director of the Manufacture de Beauvais. He modernized the company, employing contemporary artists, notably Boucher. He himself created three series of tapestry cartoons between 1728 and 1735: Les amusements champêtres, Les Comédies de Molière and Les Métamorphoses d'Ovide. The Métamorphoses tapestries, of which there appear to be eight, were woven only once, and seem to have long since disappeared. long since disappeared. The series is known only from a few preparatory drawings, dated 1732, and sketches (see Jupiter changé en taureau, Hippomène et Atalante changés en lions, Sotheby's sale, Paris, June 23, 2011, no. 56, reproduced).