attributed to Jacques SABLET (1749-1803) Portrait... Lot 30

attributed to Jacques SABLET (1749-1803) Portrait of Mathurin Crucy Canvas 62 x 50 cm Our painting is a reproduction of the signed and dated painting by Jacques Sablet in a private collection. Mathurin Crucy began his architectural training in Jean-Baptiste Ceineray's studio in his native Nantes, and later entered the Académie d'Architecture in Paris as a pupil of Etienne-Louis Boullée. In 1774, he won the "premier prix de l'Académie" - which later became the Prix de Rome - for a project for "Bains publics d'eau minérale". In 1780, he was appointed architecte-voyer, in charge of public roads in Nantes, replacing his former master, Ceineray, and in 1809 architecte départemental. Between 1780 and 1820, the city of the Dukes doubled in size and population. Trade flourished and, in the midst of economic growth, the city became a vast construction site. The architect designed public buildings, squares and new streets. Among his works was the Place Graslin - Crucy drew his inspiration from the Place de l'Odéon in Paris - which was to house the Théâtre Graslin, completed in 1788. Crucy also built neoclassical townhouses such as the Hôtel Montaudouin in 1783 (today on Place du Maréchal-Foch) and the Palais de la Bourse (1790 - 1815), in which Palladian reminiscences are clearly visible. The Crucy family and the two Sablet brothers had made friends in Rome as early as 1779-1780. Our model's younger brother, Louis Crucy, went to Rome where his elder brother was a boarder at the Académie de France. They met again on their respective returns to Nantes. It was at this time that Jacques Sablet painted "Portrait de Louis Crucy sur les chantiers navals de Paimboeuf" (La Baule, private collection, see exhibition catalog by Anne Van de Sandt "Les frères Sablet (1775-1815) : Peintures, dessins et gravures", Nantes, Lausanne, Rome, 1985, ed. Carte Segrete, p.77-78, n°37). Later, François Sablet painted ''Mathurin Crucy dans un intérieur'' in 1815 (Nantes, family collection of Mathurin Crucy's descendants). The architect remained in constant contact with the Sablet brothers. Jacques Sablet granted him substantial loans for his family's shipbuilding business, and François joined him in Nantes in 1805. Jacques Sablet had died a few years earlier, in 1803, in Paris. In 1808, Mathurin Crucy proposed a plan for a pyramidal lighthouse for the city of Nantes, inspired by Napoleon Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt. As such, he was the only non-Parisian architect included in the body of the text of the "Rapport sur la situation et le progrès des arts en France depuis 1789" presented to the Emperor that same year. Like all artists (and of course architects) of their time, Mathurin Crucy and his brother were Masons. In our painting, we see several Masonic elements: in the foreground, the column, and in the background, the lighthouse, but also the pyramidal tripod on which the architect has placed his documents, or the compass in the center of the composition, or the tripod. Jacques Sablet's painting L'Elégie Romaine (Musée de Brest) is often analyzed in terms of Masonic symbolism. The hemicycle and series of busts are reminiscent of Roman models, perhaps the Casino of Pius IV or the Janiculum. The column may evoke the one Grucy planned to build in Rome in 1789, to celebrate the start of the Revolution. Expert: Cabinet Turquin