Beschreibung:

Mignard, Nicolas 1606-1608 French (Attributed to), The Annunciation with Saint Charles Borromeo. 49 x 54 ins., (124.5 x 139.25 cms.), Oil on Canvas This painting was offered for sale by Christie's King Street Old Masters and 19th Century Sale on April 30th 2010 with the following comment, 'This relates to a signed and dated Mignard (N.Mignard pinxit Avenione 1652) in the museum at Villeneuve-les-Avignon (See A. Schnapper, Nicolas Mignard d'Avignon, exhibition catalogue, Avignon 1979, no. 49, with mention of several copies.' The Christies Old Masters Department thought the painting was in fact by Mignard, hence the comment 'attributed to'. The estimate for the sale was ﾣ15,000 to ﾣ20,000. The painting was withdrawn by the vendor from the Christies' sale. Unfortunately Mr Schnapper, the expert on Nicolas Mignard, died. Mr JC Boyer is attempting to fill the void and was shown an image of the painting by Christie's. He claimed that he was not sure about the painting, as he had not seen it. He was not able to be contacted by us after we made several attempts. We would like to thank the Christie's Old Masters department for their kind assistance in cataloguing this painting. The painting has been seen by Mr Eric Turquin, a senior expert in Paris of paintings of this period. He spoke to us on several occasions and came to the conclusion the painting was one of the studio copies mentioned by Mr Schnapper dating to 1652. As such we simply do not know how much of our picture was painted by Mignard and how much by his studio assistants. Studio paintings continue to this day, Damien Hirst employs over a hundred people. It is a magnificent large painting from the mid seventeenth century by or after Nicolas Mignard. A copy of the Christie's Catalogue for April 30th , 2010 sale is available for viewing.