The Threatening Love - 18th century French school, entourage of Carle van Loo (1705-1765)

Entourage of Carle van LOO
(Nice 1705 - Paris 1765)
The Threatening Love
Oil on canvas
H. 111 cm ; L. 65 cm
H. 148 cm; W. 82 cm including frame

Related works:
- Original made by van Loo, presented at the 1761 Salon de l'Académie.

Without needing to retrace the career of Carle van Loo, master of the rococo, we must explain the history of the original, now preserved in the Russian collections of the Pavlovsk Palace (south of Saint Petersburg).

Presented at the Salon de l'Académie in the Louvre in 1761, this painting was greatly praised by the critics who praised a strong composition in the taste of the time. It was owned by the Duke of Choiseul-Praslin, as attested by an engraving by Christian de Mechel, on which we observe some variants with the painting kept in Pavlovsk (including the wick on the forehead).

Our painting, made in the painter's entourage, also has many variants with the original and with the engraving. From a purely stylistic point of view, the material is less smooth, more paste-like and marked than in van Loo's. As for the subject itself, in addition to the more stretched framing, variants are visible in the softer coloring, the gray sky, deleted roses, modified color of the quiver, as well as modifications in the arrangement of the arrows on the ground. The wick on the forehead, present on the engraving is also visible here.

Large Louis XVI frame.