Jean-Baptiste Pillement (Lyon 1728-1808 Lyon) - Lot 36

Jean-Baptiste Pillement (Lyon 1728-1808 Lyon) Shipwreck survivors stranded on a rock Oil on canvas 23 x 33.5 cm. Pre-Romantic subjects, emphasizing the omnipotence of the raging elements and the fragility of the lives of seafarers, "shipwrecks" were very popular with Pillement's public. An admired landscape painter, he also painted several "naufrages" in Pézenas, the village where he spent his last years. His depiction of the catastrophe may have been influenced by the sinking of the Spanish ship San Pedro de Alcántara at Peniche, near Lisbon, which he recorded in a 1786 painting (private collection). Several institutional collections preserve "shipwrecks" very similar to our own: Florence, Uffizi Museum (pastel, 57x89 cm., inv. 1890, no. 1007); Madrid, Museo del Prado (oil on canvas, 56 x 80 cm., inv. P007021); New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (pastel, 62.9 x 91.4 cm, inv. 56.7); Quimper, Musée des Beaux-Arts (oil on canvas, 24 x 34.5 cm., inv. 873-1-390). Our "shipwreck" may be particularly related to the one sold at Christie's London (December 3, 2014, lot 41, oil on canvas, 63.7 x 95.4 cm., sold for £32,500), which features the same composition, the same figures, in a larger format. Expert: Pierre-Antoine MARTENET