BP-catalogue2023#Final - Flipbook - Page 30
vers 1655. De toutes les suites ou livres entrepris par
Stella à destination de la gravure, les Pastorales
constituent certainement la plus originale, aussi bien
dans l’art que pour Stella même. Dans le catalogue
de l’exposition Stella de 2007-2008, Sylvain
Laveissière les considère comme “ sans conteste
un des chefs-d’œuvre de la scène de genre et du
paysage français du XVIIe siècle ”. Selon Sylvain
Kerspern, “ elles forment également sans doute la
suite de Stella qui a connu le plus grand succès. On
rencontre volontiers des tapisseries qui en sont tirées
ou des copies plus ou moins anciennes, plus ou moins
fidèles, peintes, dessinées mais aussi gravées ”.
These two drawings are preparatory to etchings
by Claudine Bouzonnet-Stella (1636-1697), Jacques
Stella’s niece (Fig. 1 and 2). The engravings are part
of a series of seventeen (including a frontispiece),
entitled Les Pastorales and published in 1667, ten
years after the death of Jacques Stella. The plates
Fig. 1
Claudine Bouzonnet-Stella d’après Jacques Stella,
La Fenaison, eau-forte
Fig. 2
Claudine Bouzonnet-Stella d’après Jacques Stella,
Le Repas champêtre, eau-forte
all bear the inscription “ J. Stella p. ”, which suggests
that the artist painted these subjects, which seems to
be confirmed by the artist’s first biographer, Félibien :
“ He had previously done sixteen small paintings of
country pleasures. ”1 Three of these paintings have
recently reappeared2, but the few differences between
the paintings and the engravings, while the latter
reproduce exactly the drawings whose outlines are,
moreover, reproduced in black chalk on the versi, show
that it was the latter that the engraver used.
The authors of the 2007-2008 Stella exhibition
catalogue consider the drawings for the Pastorales
as “ definitely original ”, an attribution questioned by
Jamie Mulherron in a 2008 article. More recently,
Sylvain Kerspern has reaffirmed the attribution of
these drawings to Stella, comparing them with the
artist’s sheets for the Life of the Virgin and the Rest
during the Flight to Egypt recently on the Parisian art
market, and emphasizes “ the authority and economy
of the touch, in the wash as well as in the pen ” which
“ also testifies to the power of the style in its evocative
evocation of forms, masterly ”.
The drawings for the Pastorales, like those for the
other series engraved by Claudine Bouzonnet-Stella,
date from the latter part of Stella’s career, around
1655. Of all the suites or books undertaken by Stella
for engraving, the Pastorales are certainly the most
original, both in art and for Stella himself. In the
catalogue of the 2007-2008 Stella exhibition, Sylvain
Laveissière considers them to be “ without question one
of the masterpieces of 17th-century French genre scenes
and landscapes ”. According to Sylvain Kerspern, “ they
also form without doubt the suite of Stella which knew
the greatest success. One readily encounters tapestries
that are drawn from them or more or less ancient
copies, more or less faithful, painted, drawn but also
engraved ”.
Fig. 3
Jacques Stella, La Repas champêtre, collection particulière