Pierre-François-Joseph De Glimes ou Deglim (1744... Lot 324

Pierre-François-Joseph De Glimes ou Deglim (1744 - 1800) Bathers Oil on canvas 61 x 81.5 cm Signature: on a brown rock, at right, signature "P. De Glimes" Distinguishing elements: on verso, on upper axis of frame, printed label "106137/3"; chalk marks and numbering, probably relating to auction passages Provenance: Hampel, München, 06/30/2016, l. 836 ("P. DE GLIMES (XVIII)") Constraints: the work has free circulationPreservation status. Support: 70% (rintelo, water gore) Conservation status. Surface: 80% (color falls; retouches and pictorial revivals, especially on the left side) Pierre-François-Joseph De Glimes or Deglim was born in 1744 in Brussels, at the time included in the Austrian Netherlands and heavily influenced by Central European painting. He completed his artistic training in Paris where, in 1768, he undertook academic studies under the tutelage of the painter Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809). Much in demand as a portrait painter-as evidenced by numerous transpositions in engravings-he also established himself in landscape painting, as evidenced by the popularity of one of his earliest works, "The Shepherdess in the Storm," now in the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery (inv. FA000208). Also in the Brighton painting appears a tree with a broken trunk very similar to the one in the canvas under consideration; equally, comparing the two images, the close affinity of the landscape details emerges, whether related to the vegetation in its various forms, or to the atmospheric datum, with particular attention to the rendering of the clouds, alternating dark and light hues, and to the rendering of light. Further confirmation is provided by the analysis of the figures, the anatomies and positions, or as, according to classicist artistic theory, the acts. Even more similar-including the correspondence of the theme-is a painting with "Bathers in a Forest," kept at the Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Ghent (1902-E), whose measurements (67x89.6 cm) are also almost identical: the canvas at auction is certainly superior in quality, also aided by the darkening of the surface of the Ghent painting. The work at auction-whose author had never before been exactly identified-is thus confirmed as a fundamental addition to the corpus of Pierre de Glimes, a rare but valuable figure in French and Central European painting of the 18th century, whose works are also preserved at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, the British Museum and the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, in Brussels.