Live Auction 2675Old Master & Early British Drawings & Watercolors Including an Important Canadian Collection and a Distinguished Private Collection
Michel-Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié (Paris 1735-1784)
Lot 22

Michel-Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié (Paris 1735-1784)

Portrait of the cellist Martin Bertaud

Closed31 January 2013

Price Realised

USD 18,750

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Michel-Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié (Paris 1735-1784)
Portrait of the cellist Martin Bertaud
red chalk, watermark device, circular
10 7/8 x 10¾ in. (27.6 x 27.4 cm.)

E. Norblin; Delbergue, Paris, 30 January 1863, lot 30 ('Vieillard coiffé d'un bonnet, il tient son instrument d'une main, de l'autre appuie son archet sur un cahier de musique.').
Alphonse de Rothschild.
with Charles E. Slatkin Galleries, New York.

Specialist note

Bertaud (circa 1700-1771; also spelled Berthault and Berteau) was the founder of the French school of cello playing although he began his career studying the bass viol. Very few works by him survive. Lépicié also painted this composition, on panel and in an oval format (Gaston, op. cit., p. 55, no. 92). This drawing was later engraved by Frédéric Désiré Hillemacher (1811-1886).