Rousselet, Gilles (1610-86; French), after Valentin de Boulogne (1591-1632; French)
The Four Evangelists (1671-2)
4 engravings, each c.28.5 x 31.5 cm (plate)
Gift of George Collins Levey 1879
National Gallery of Victoria (p.183.26-1 to p.183.29-1)
= Levey gift, cat.21-24
[photo: St John (NGV p.183.29-1)]
Valentin’s four canvases, painted in the mid 1620s, were acquired by Louis XIV in 1670 and installed in his private Chambre at Versailles, where they remain. Annick Lemoine, in the 2016-17 Valentin exhibition catalogue (Metropolitan Museum/Louvre), draws attention to the prestige these paintings enjoyed in Louis XIV’s France, and suggests that Valentin’s restrained drama, exemplified here, may have been especially to the king’s personal taste.
Duplessis (1869) notes payments to Rousselet in 1671 and 1672.
See also Baudet after Valentin Tribute Money {1879} NGV [PR] [Levey gift, cat.11].
Refs.
Not listed in NGV 1894 or 1905
For the NGV impressions, see online catalogue, listed as by an unknown engraver (not reproduced); author’s ID photo shown here
Cf. Suite et Arrangement (1727), p.1; Duplessis Cabinet du roi (1869), p.6, nos.15-18 (noting the payments to Rousselet, on 17 Aug.1671 and 9 May 1672); see also http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb42019524h (etc.)
For Valentin’s paintings (Versailles Inv.MV 7272-4 and 7277), see http://collections.chateauversailles.fr/#19e9b2ad-5900-40e1-b223-7ee64b2cad26; and Annick Lemoine & others, Valentin de Boulogne: Beyond Caravaggio, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016, pp.156-61, cat.nos.28-29 (Sts Matthew & Mark), noting that they were in the collection of the banker François Oursel prior to their purchase by Louis XIV