PHILIPPE CHAMPAIGNE Brussels, Belgium (1602) / Paris, Franc

Oil on canvas Provenance: France, private collection; Valencia, private collection. Reference bibliography: Gonçalves, José, Philippe de Champaigne: Le patriarche de la peinture 1602-1674, ACR Edition, 1995; J. Guiffrey, 'Les peintres Philippe et Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne. Nouveaux documents et inventaires après décès', Nouvelles Archives de l'Art Français, 1892; B. Dorival, Philippe de Champaigne 1602-1674: La vie, l'oeuvre, et le catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre, Paris, 1976; R. Beresford 'Book Reviews: Supplément au Catalog raisonné de l'oeuvre de Philippe de Champaigne', The Burlington Magazine. This beautiful painting represents one of the most common themes in Baroque painting: the tears of Saint Peter. Its popularity is due to the fact that it connected with the doctrine of the Counter-Reformation that advocated repentance and confession, allowing artists with this subject to create works of great emotion. Its formal and stylistic characteristics have allowed José Gonçalves to attribute it to the painter Philippe de Champaigne and to situate its execution in the period between 1655-1660. The apostle, with his hands joined in a sign of imploring and his face bathed in tears, occupies most of the surface of the canvas, giving the composition a monumental tone. The excellent treatment and modulation that the artist makes of the figure's drapery and his restricted but vibrant chromatic palette, in which the ochre, blue and brown tones stand out, are noteworthy. Gonçalves establishes the dating of the work between 1655 and 1660 by its parallels with other works made by the artist in that chronology such as: the Saint John the Baptist of Grenoble, the Magdalene of Rennes or the Saint Bruno of Stockholm. The chromatic palette of the background, in which olive green tones predominate, is the same as the one that appears in the four Landscapes of the Val-de-Grâce (today preserved in the Louvre, Tours and Mainz), as well as in the Visitation from the Wildenstein collection.
 
José Gonçalves confirmed the authorship of the work by email to the current owner.
Measurements: 70 x 51 cm