(Brussels 1754–1829 Battignolles)
Village Fair, oil on panel, 54.6 x 81.9 cm, framed,(Rei)

Provenance:
Collection Émile van Marcke de Lummen (1827-1890) ;
his estate auction, Hôtel Drouot Paris, 29. November 1934;
collection Bernhard Franck;
his auction, Hôtel Drouot Paris, 21st-22nd of March 1935, lot 14;
Maurice Segoura, Paris, 1978;
British Rail Pension Fund, London;
Auction Sotheby’s New York, 30th of January 1997, lot 102;
private collection;
Auction Sotheby’s London, 8th of July 2004; lot 175.

Exhibited:
Hamilton, New York Picker Art Gallery, Golgate University, Leihgabe von 1983–1989

Illustrated in:
J. Watelin, Le peintre J.-L. de Marne (1752-1829), Paris, 1962, cat. no. 243, reproduced p. 243, pl. XXXV

At the age of 12 Jean Louis de Marne left his native Brussels for Paris, where he studied history painting under Gabriel Briard (1729-1777). Thereafter he concentrated on landscape and genre painting, in which he was greatly influenced by such 17th-century Dutch masters as Aelbert Cuyp, Adriaen van de Velde and Karel Dujardin, all artists enjoying a tremendous vogue and high prices in Paris at that time. In reviving their art and transposing it to a contemporary setting de Marne won a strong following among leading connoisseurs and artist-collectors of the time. Arguably his biggest supporter was the Comte de Nape, who owned 31 pictures by the artist and published a short biography of him in 1817. His principle subjects were the village or town fair and road scenes. This picture is a charming and elegant depiction of the daily bustle of village life. The artist presents the viewer with a crowded display of precisely rendered details and numerous subordinate anecdotal incidents combined with a brilliant finish which recalls the Dutch masters de Marne admired so greatly.

from a Bavarian private collection