Yves Saint Laurent Pierre Bergé - Christie's

166
Les Anciennes Indes
Tapestry
This magnificent tapestry originally formed part of a set of eight tapestries
depicting the exotic nature and inhabitants of the Dutch colony in Brazil.
Count John Maurice of Nassau-Siegen, the Dutch governor in Brazil
between 1637 and 1644 and an official of the Dutch East India Company,
was particularly interested in recording the ‘wonders of the New World’
and commissioned various artists, botanists and doctors to record the local
flora, fauna and inhabitants. He invited Albert Eckhout and Frans Post to
travel through Brazil between 1637 and 1644 on an expedition with him
and collect sketches and make oil paintings of their views of the country.
Eckhout focused on the figures and vegetation and Post on the landscapes.
On his return to Europe in 1644, Count John Maurice asked the artists to
prepare cartoons for a tapestry series from their sketches which they
completed before 1652.
In 1679, Count John Maurice presented 34 paintings and eight cartoons
for the series of Les Anciennes Indes to King Louis XIV of France. An
inventory of 1681 lists them as ‘huit grand tableaux […] représentant des
figures d’hommes et de bêtes de grandeur naturelle, plusieurs plantes, fruits,
oyseaux, animaux, poisons et paysages de Brésil’.
Louis XIV was so impressed by the cartoons that in 1687 he commissioned
the Royal Gobelins workshops to produce tapestries to the designs but
not before he had Jean-Baptiste Belin de Fontenay, François Bonnemer,
René-Antoine Houasse and Jean Baptiste Monnoyer retouch them.
The series met with great success and was officially woven at Gobelins eight
times between 1687 and 1730. The first five sets were made as the Grandes
Indes, woven up to 1723, which possibly also included this tapestry as part of
a set made for the Garde Meuble between 1718 and 1720 and later given by
Louis XV to Etienne Michel Bouret, fermier général.
– Stefan Kist
International Tapestry Specialist, New York
A Louis XIV exotic tapestry, Gobelins, after a painting by A. Eckhout and F. Post. Estimate: 3100,000–150,000