Beschreibung:

Details
ADAM FRANS VAN DER MEULEN (BRUXELLES 1632-1690 PARIS)
Étude pour le Siège de Douai, 1667
avec numérotation ‘386’ (sur une étiquette, verso)
sanguine
11,1 x 14,7 cm (4 3/8 x 5 3/4 in.)
Provenance
J. Du Pan (1785-1838), Genève, (L. 1440).
Alfred Beurdeley (1847-1919), Paris, (L. 421) ; sa vente Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 8-10 juin 1920, lot 234.
Possiblement M. F. Van der Zande ; sa vente Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 30 avril 1855, lot 3016 ‘Episode d'une bataille. Morceau très spirituellement exécuté’ (selon Beurdeley).
Possiblement Jules Michelin ; sa vente Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 21-23 avril 1898, lot 308.
Post lot text
ADAM FRANS VAN DER MEULEN, STUDY FOR THE SIEGE OF DOUAI, RED CHALK, 1667
This red chalk drawing represents one of the episodes of the campaign in Flanders led by Louis XIV, which began in May 1667. After laying siege to Tournai, the King went to the city of Douai, which was captured on 1 July and taken on 6th of the same month. The event depicted here took place on July 4: the king comes out of the trench he has just inspected and the duke of Noailles, hat down, presents him his men.
The lost related painting is known thanks to the tapestry from the Gobelins manufacture (Paris, Mobilier national, inv. GMTT 95/9; A la Gloire du Roi. Van der Meulen, peintre des conquêtes de Louis XIV, exhib. cat., Dijon, Musée des Beaux-arts, and Luxembourg, Musée d’Histoire de la Ville, 1988, p. 130, no. 26D, ill.). This tapestry was part of the four-piece Histoire du Roy devoted to the War of Devolution undertaken by Louis XIV to safeguard the ‘rights of the Queen’, i.e. her presumed inheritance rights.
The Château de Versailles also owns a more detailed study in black chalk for the tapestry by Charles Le Brun (inv. MV 7876), which was probably preceded by the drawing presented here.