FRENCH SCHOOL circa 1700, attributed to Louis de Silvestre L - Lot 539

FRENCH SCHOOL circa 1700, attributed to Louis de Silvestre Le Jeune (1675-1760) Presumed portrait of Antoine Coypel (1661-1722) in his studio Oil on canvas. H_52 cm L_45 cm Faded. Provenance : - Carter Collection (Christie's Melbourne sale, March 20, 2001, as "école French school") Son of Israël Silvestre and Henriette Sélincart, Louis Silvestre le Jeune came from a dynasty of artists from a dynasty of artists in which he was the only history painter. He learnt to draw in his father's studio, before becoming a pupil of Charles Le Brun and Bon Boullogne. From 1693 to 1699, he traveled to Italy Italy, where he met Carlo Maratta. Back in Paris, in 1702 he was admitted to the Académie Royale - to which Antoine Coypel had belonged since 1681 - and carried out commissions commissions for Louis XIV. He also undertook several commissions for Parisian churches, exhibited at the Salon and painted a number of portraits. When he married Marie-Catherine Hérault, daughter of the painter Charles Hérault, the Prince Philippe d'Orléans and Princess Marie-Anne de Bourbon were among the the contract. In 1716, he left for the court of King August II of Poland, who made him his first painter. his first painter. During his stay, which lasted no less than 32 years, he was director of the Dresden Academy, helping to spread French taste taste across the Rhine. One of his daughters even became a drawing teacher, friend and confidante of Marie-Josèphe de Saxe. In 1741, Louis Silvestre was ennobled by Augustus III and added a particle to his name. At the end of the 1740s, he returned to France and took over the Académie Royale on the death of Charles Antoine Coypel. He died in the galleries of the Louvre in 1760.