Lot 2091 Dα

Jean-Baptiste Pillement, son of the ornament painter Paul Pillement, was initially a cartridge painter at the Manufacture de Gobelin in Paris and then became a celebrated artist who, through his international career, played a major role in spreading the French Rococo taste throughout numerous European countries. After working for the Manufacture de Gobelin in Paris, he spent several years in Madrid, settled in London in 1750, then traveled to Italy, worked at the Imperial Court in Vienna (1763), and was appointed court painter first by King Stanislaus August of Poland in Warsaw and then under Queen Marie Antoinette in Versailles. His enormous influence was not only limited to painting, but he also impacted the decorative arts. His paintings were ordered by the most important rulers of Europe, and his numerous ornamental designs were engraved by himself or by other artists and thus disseminated internationally.
An expertise by Joseph Baillio (Wildenstein Institute, New York) from 1995, which is unfortunately lost today, confirmed the authorship and dated the work in the late 1760s or early 1770s.
A recent expertise by Laurent Félix reaffirms the author of the work to be Jean-Baptiste Pillement.