2007 Catalogue - Colnaghi

Provenance: (Possibly) by descent from Sir William
Ponsonby, (1704-1793), 2nd Earl of Bessborough
(Liotard's patron) to: Claude A. C. Ponsonby, by
whom sold, Christie's, London, 28 March 1908, lot
77, (as J.-E. Liotard); Private collection, Switzerland.
Literature: A. Graves, Art Sales Index from Early in the
Eighteenth Century to Early in the Twentieth Century
(Mostly Old Master and Early English Pictures), vol. I,
Bath, 1973, p. 178; E. Deuber-Pauli and J. D.
Candaux, Voltaire chez lui, Genève et Ferney, Geneva,
1994, pp. 108-110, 132, reproduced p. 110, fig. 5 (as
probably by Liotard after Huber); G. Apgar, L'Art
singulier de Jean Huber, voir Voltaire, Paris, 1995, pp.
94-98, p. 229, no. 101 (as by Huber, or after him,
possibly by Liotard); To be included in Prof. Marcel
Rothlisberger forthcoming book on Liotard as by
Huber.
Our picture relates to Huber’s most important
commission, the Voltairiade, a series of paintings
depicting scenes from Voltaire’s everyday life executed
for Catherine II of Russia circa 1770 to 1775. Huber
was a friend and neighbour of Voltaire, and, perhaps
inspired by the realism that characterised Voltaire’s
philosophy and writings, he depicts the great thinker,
often humorously, in everyday situations. Of the series,
his wife Mary writes: Mon mary [sic] travaille a present
a une Voltairiade...sera une vintaine de petits tableaux
en huille qui representeront diverses scènes de la vie
domestique de Voltaire...Mon mary les a chargé d’un
present pr. Dame Catherine pour la remercier…c’est une
vüe des Alpes où est Voltaire comme hors d’oeuvre avec un
jeste d’entousiasme en voyant un groupe de villageoix. 1
Huber planned in fact to produce four groups of four
paintings, each on a particular theme – domestic life,
the theatre, country life and ‘la vie cavaliere.’ 2 It seems,
however, that the series was never completed and
Huber appears to have stopped working on it in c.
1775. Nine works have survived (the majority c.55 x
20
Jean Huber
(Geneva 1721 – 1786 Bellevue, near Lausanne)
Voltaire narrating a Fable
Oil on panel
13 x 9 in. (33 x 22.7 cm.)
64
45 cm; Hermitage, St. Petersburg), 3 and Huber made
several versions of some from the cycle, the best known
being Voltaire’s Morning Levée. While the Hermitage
pictures are on canvas, our painting is on panel and of
slightly smaller dimensions.
In 1771 Liotard produced a version of Huber’s Voltaire
narrating a Fable in enamel (now lost) which was
almost identical to our panel, with the exception of the
fact that the peasants are shown eating and drinking.
This enamel, which was offered unsuccessfully to the
Comte D’Angiviller for proposed inclusion in the
French Royal collection, was exhibited twice for sale
in London in 1773 and 1785. With the exception of
Liotard’s lost enamel none of the extant versions of this
subject are by Liotard. Rothlisberger4 notes that
previous catalogue citations are incorrect and, in fact,
what was being referred in past literature was
Liotard’s enamel which he copied from our painting. 5
Interestingly, our painting was the only work by Huber
of which Liotard copied – an indication of the
particular esteem in which he held it.
Although Huber was to become an important
founding figure of the Geneva school, he received no
formal training. From a young age, however, he cut out
of paper and card profiles of a kind that later became
known as silhouettes. He also invented what he called
tableaux en découpures, which were depictions of a
range of subjects cut in vellum or parchment. Thanks
to his association from 1759 with Melchior Grimm,
who promoted his art among the readership of his
cultural newsletter the Correspondence litéraire, such
works enjoyed great popularity - George III, for
example, bought a set of découpures. In the 1760s
Huber began to paint landscapes in the style of Philips
Wouwerman, while in the following decade he focused
on the Voltairiade and training his son, Jean-Daniel.