Antoine - François van der Meulen ( 1632 - 1690 )

Equestrian portrait of Cardinal Infante Ferdinand of Austria

Huile sur bois
65 x 46 cm
Villa Vauban – Musée d’ Art de la Ville de Luxembourg

Antoine ( also Adam ) François van der Meulen was born in Brussels in 1632. He completed his artistic studies in Brussels with battle scene painter Pieter Snayers. He later studied in Antwerp, before entering the service of the Spanish archdukes. He was a master of landscape painting and excelled in particular in the depiction of horses. His reputation went beyond the borders of the Spanish Netherlands and upon recommendation of Charles Le Brun, the highest - ranking painter at the court of Louis XIV, he was called to Paris to join the court of the Sun King. This painting shows an equestrian portrait of the archduke of Austria, Don Juan of Austria. During the 17 th century, riding was equated with the ability to govern. From this angle, this portrait, displaying the masterful domination of a horse, acted as propaganda for the ambitious Don Juan of Austria, who had risen to the ranks of military commander of the Spanish monarchy.

Lorenzo Nencini ( 1806 - 1854 )

Bacchus

1830
Marbre blanc
148 x 161,5 x 69 cm
Villa Vauban – Musée d’Art de la Ville de Luxembourg

This Bacchus figure was presented at the first world exhibition in London in 1851, whose landmark emblem was the Crystal Palace by Joseph Paxton. It is a sculpture typical of the Italian Classicism. Nencini hereby stands in the tradition of well - known sculptors like Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen. The strongly idealised marble figure was consciously left white. This was intended to refer to Roman Antiquity as it was falsely assumed since Renaissance that figures were not created in colour at the time.

Pieter Nason ( vers 1612 - vers 1689 )

Portrait of a boy as a hunter

Huile sur toile, vers 1665
130 x 99 cm
Villa Vauban – Musée d’ Art de la Ville de Luxembourg
Collection Léon Lippmann

Pieter Nason was a distinguished portrait and still - life artist, who spent most of his career in The Hague, where he created commissions for aristocratic patrons. His portrait painting style was similar to that of his colleague Bartholomeus van der Helst, who worked in Amsterdam. Not much is known about Nason’s life. His later creative period gave rise to a series of portraits of reputable British personalities, suggesting he spent time in England around 1660. Nason also spent some time at the Berlin court of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, around 1665. The likeness to a painting by Nason that was auctioned in 2011 at Christie’ s in New York, featuring a landscape with a boy dressed as Mars in classical leather armour ( also known as cuirass ) and carrying a halberd, suggests that the boy portrayed here is Willem van Liere. Willem’ s father was a member of the admiralty in Amsterdam. This would also explain the boy’ s clothing, who is seen here as the mythological figure of the god of war Mars rather than a “ hunter ” suggested by the title of the painting.

Inconnu

Half - length portrait of a young lady

Huile sur toile, début du XIXe siècle
79 x 64 cm
Villa Vauban – Musée d’ Art de la Ville de Luxembourg
Collection Léon Lippmann

Not much is known about this portrait. There is no indication regarding either the artist or the person portrayed. The painting is thought to have been for a private context. Judging by her lavish clothing, the woman represented belonged to a higher social class. She is wearing a wraparound dress, revealing a lace-trimmed blouse - like corsage underneath. A woman would not have shown herself in public wearing this type of garment, this was more likely a house dress, a so - called negligee. Her hair is just lightly powdered and loosely gathered at the back of her neck. Highly representative, however, is the staging of the young woman with the piece of fabric draped round her shoulders. Whether this is a scarf or a further item of clothing remains unclear.

Jean - Étienne Chaponnière ( 1801 - 1835 )

Daphnis and Chloé ( Fishing and hunting )

1828
Marbre blanc
76 x 90 x 80 cm
Villa Vauban – Musée d’ Art de la Ville de Luxembourg
Collection Jean - Pierre Pescatore

Despite a short career and early death, the Swiss sculptor Jean - Étienne Chaponnière left behind a work that was significant for the development of Romantic sculpture. This group of marble sculptures is related to a double allegory involving hunting and fishing and is represented by a boy with a dead bird in his hand and a girl with a net. When the sculpture was exhibited in Geneva in 1829, some of the viewers questioned its morality. Two years later, it was presented at the Paris Salon under the title Daphnis and Chloé ( a reference to a Greek coming of age novel ) and was distinguished with a gold medal by the jury.

Inconnu

Portrait of a woman with a white headscarf

Huile sur toile
22 x 18 cm
Villa Vauban – Musée d’ Art de la Ville de Luxembourg
Collection Léon Lippmann

This unknown young lady looks invitingly at the observer. She is wearing a plain low - cut white dress with a veil draped loosely over her head. While this veil covers most of her dark hair, one curly lock has been
allowed to fall loosely onto her naked shoulder. At the neckline, the veil is fastened to the dress with a
diamond brooch, an indication of the girl’ s genteel origin. Of note is the apparent contradiction between the innocent white clothing and the girl’ s coquettish candour, further underlined by her glowing red lips and cheeks. This play between innocence and eroticism is reminiscent of paintings with similar subject themes, such as those by Jean Raoux, who captured young women wanting to portray themselves as vestal virgins. This type of portrait enjoyed great popularity during the 18 th century, since it allowed the subjects to stylise themselves as chaste and virtuous guardians of the family.

École d’Alexis Grimou ( 1678 - 1733 )

Portrait of a couple with pilgrim cloaks

Huile sur toile
100 x 90 cm
Villa Vauban – Musée d’ Art de la Ville de Luxembourg
Collection Léon Lippmann

This genre painting, attributed to a French painter from the circle of Alexis Grimou, shows a couple who – given the multitude of shells – look to be St James pilgrims. The man is wearing a pilgrim cloak with a sumptuous cape collar made of heavy dark velvet, revealing a glimpse of a half - opened shirt with lace - trim collar and cuffs underneath. The woman looking at him invitingly from the side is very casually dressed, wearing an open negligee, a house dress, which reveals a view of her corsage and sweeping cleavage. Of note is the ambivalence of the painting’ s subject, with the couple obviously engaging in a pious activity, namely a pilgrimage. Nevertheless they abandon themselves liberally to the sensual pleasures of life. The representation of frivolous infatuated couples harks back to the late Middle Ages and reached its peak in the Baroque period with the “ shepherd scenes ”.

Claus Cito ( 1882 - 1965 )

Bust of a woman

Moulage en plâtre patiné
47 x 24 cm
Villa Vauban – Musée d’ Art de la Ville de Luxembourg

Cito attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf. One of his teachers there was Peter Behrens. Initially,
Cito wanted to be a painter but later changed to sculpture. He was friends with August Macke, among others.
In 1909, he went to Brussels and finally settled in Bascharage as a sculptor in 1921. Stylistically speaking, his artworks are categorised as Art Déco. His best - known work is the Gëlle Fra ( Golden Lady ) from 1923, which serves as a monument to fallen Luxembourg soldiers of the First and the Second World War as well as the Korean War on the Place de la Constitution in Luxembourg City.

Vue de l'exposition Les Collections en mouvement, photo: Christof Weber

Les Collections en mouvement