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25038

COUPIN DE LA COUPERIE (French), o/c

Currency:USD Category:Art Start Price:19,000.00 USD Estimated At:25,000.00 - 35,000.00 USD
COUPIN DE LA COUPERIE (French), o/c
<B>MARIE-PHILIPPE COUPIN DE LA COUPERIE</B></I> (French 1773-1851)<BR><I>Woman At The organ Before A Statue Of The Virgin And Child (Saint Cecilia?)</B></I><BR>Oil on canvas<BR>65 x 51 inches (165.1 x 129.5 cm)<BR>Unsigned<BR><BR>French painter and lithographer Marie-Philippe Coupin de la Couperie was born at Versailles and trained under the celebrated French romantic painter, Girodet. He was employed by the Sèvres porcelain manufactory and, in 1815, was named professor of drawing at the military college of La Fleche, and six months later at the Ecole de Saint-Cyr. In 1832, he received the <I>croix de chevalier</B></I> of the Legion of Honor. He exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1812 to 1833. Paintings by Coupin de la Couperie are in the collections of the Louvre, Paris; the Napoleon Museum, Arenberg; and the Musée national du château, Pau. <BR><BR>This ambitious painting is characteristic of the type of large-scale works with literary or historical themes Coupin de la Couperie produced for his greatest patron, the Duchess de Berry--Marie-<I>Caroline</B></I>-Ferdinande-Louise de Bourbon (1798-1870). She was the eldest daughter of King Francis I of the Two Sicilies and his first wife, Marie-Clementine of Austria, daughter of Emperor Leopold II and the niece of Marie-Antoinette . Thus she was from a generation younger than her husband, Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry (1778-1820), the younger son of Charles, Count of Artois, later Charles X of France (1757-1836), whom she married at the age of seventeen in 1816, and with whom she had four children. She was one of the leading collectors and patrons of her day, as well as the owner of important old masters including a Vermeer now in The Frick Collection, New York. Following the collapse of Charles X's government and his cousin Louis-Philippe 's betrayal of a solemn undertaking to sustain the Duchess's son Henri as King, she became the standard bearer for legitimist resistance. Leading the uprising in the Vendée she was captured by Louis-Philippe 's troops and imprisoned. There she was found to be pregnant and this scandalous discovery, although she had actually secretly married the father of the child, Count don Ettore Lucchesi-Palli, in Rome in December 1831, quickly led to the end of royalist resistance. The Duchess of Berry went on to have a number of children by Lucchesi-Palli, whose descendants ultimately inherited much of her splendid collection.<BR><BR>The large-scale dimensions of this work, as well as its arched top, suggest it may have been commissioned as an altarpiece. Indeed, the figure of the well-attired woman seated at the organ is probably intended to represent Saint Cecilia, who is a patron saint of church music, musicians, and singers and is generally portrayed at the organ.<BR><BR><BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Requires 3rd Party Shipping (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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