The perception of the work of Lubin Baugin (1612–1663) for the three centuries that followed his death is a particularly interesting case of historiography. Despite the certain renown he enjoyed during his lifetime, he was quickly denigrated after his death, due to his style considered too faulty and unnatural by the rigorous classicism advocated by the royal academy in France at the end of the 17th century, notably by Félibien in his Entretiens.[1] The 18th century was more lenient towards the artist; although Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694–1774) criticised him for his lack of ‘principles’, he conceded that he had a good, if superficial, idea of the Italian masters.[2] Baugin's work was the subject of renewed interest in the 20th century. His still lifes were ‘rediscovered’ in 1934, during the exhibition Les Peintres de la Réalité at the Musée de l'Orangerie, where two of his works were exhibited, including Nature morte à l'échiquier from the Musée du Louvre (inv. no. RF 3968). However, some art historians, notably Charles Sterling (1901–1991), curator of the 1934 Orangerie exhibition, tended to see two different artists behind Baugin's name, one a painter of still-lives, the other the author of the small religious scenes that once adorned many Parisian churches.[3] However, the study of these two bodies of work, notably through the work of Michel Faré (1913-1985), enables us to bring them together under a single, albeit diverse and eclectic, artistic personality.[4]

Baugin was born in Pithiviers between 1610 and 1613. Although little is known about his early training, an analysis of his works would suggest an early training around the painters of the Fontainebleau School.

On May 23, 1629, shortly after his arrival in Paris, Lubin Baugin was admitted to the Guild of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. There, he came into contact with many Flemish artists, such as Pieter van Boucle (1610–1673) and Jean-Michel Picart (1600–1682) and learned to work on small panels with a grey preparation.[5] This northern European influence extended to his frequent use of panels bearing the monogram of Melchior de Bout (active 1625/26–1658), an Antwerp panel-maker specialising in pre-prepared panels particularly prized by Flemish and Dutch artists working around Saint-Germain-des-Prés, such as Willem Kalf (1619–1693) and Willem van Aelst (1627–1683).[6] Whilst the absence of marks on the reverse of our panel prevents us from asserting with certainty that it came from de Bout, the delicate diffused light, subtle modelling and soft, cool colouring suggest that our painting may have been painted on a panel prepared in the Flemish manner.

Despite the lack of documentary evidence, it is highly probable that Baugin spent time in Italy, a common practice among 17th-century French artists, enabling them to learn from their illustrious Italian predecessors of the 15th and 16th centuries. Baugin's stay in Italy has been estimated to date from after 1630 and before October 1640, and is attested in part by his marriage to a Roman woman (and the birth of two of his children in Italy), but mainly by the existence of copies by Baugin's hand of Italian works that would have been impossible to show in France, unless through engravings.[7] One example is a pair of studies after Correggio's (1489–1534) frescoes in the San Giovanni Evangelista church in Parma (private collection).[8] The exact colour match of Saints Bartholomew and Mathias, and Saints Philip and Thadeus with the originals rule out the possibility of a copy from a drawing or engraving, indicating Baugin’s direct contact with the 16th-century prototypes.

Beyond these copies, Baugin's Holy Families, of which our painting is a charming example, reveal the strong influence of Raphael (1483–1520), notably in the complex arrangement of figures within a pyramidal composition, as well as in the complex, nuanced emotional interplay between the figures and the soft, subtle colouring.

This artistic and stylistic link between Baugin and Italy was quickly noticed. The French painter's work was quickly linked to that of Guido Reni (1575–1642) in the collective imagination, earning him the nickname ‘Le Petit Guide’ (The Little Guido). This link was well established by the 18th century, when his works were often mistaken for those of the Emilian artist, as demonstrated by a letter from the Comte d'Angivillers dated 1778, a link that persists to this day.[9] As a result, many copies of works by Guido Reni have been linked to Baugin in the absence of any real stylistic or bibliographical evidence, such as the copy of Sainte Madeleine en extase dans un paysage in the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans (inv. no. 38 bis).[10]

Our painting is a variation on the subject of the Holy Family, or Rest during the Flight into Egypt, which sees the Virgin and St. Joseph grouped around the Infant Jesus, sometimes accompanied by the infant St. John the Baptist and angels. However, our Infant Jesus is not on his mother's lap, blessing St. John the Baptist or a patron saint, but sleeping peacefully under the tender gaze of the Holy Family and angels. The subject of the sleeping Infant Jesus was particularly common in Italy in the early 16th century. For example, the panel by Giovan Francesco Penni (1488–1528), La Vierge au diadème bleu (fig. 1, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. 603), whose gesture of the Virgin lifting Christ’s veil is reminiscent of our painting and links it to Raphael's La Vierge de Lorette in the Musée Condé (fig. 2, inv. no. PE 40), thus bringing Lubin Baugin's work closer to that of Raphael. The iconography is not unusual in 17th-century France, for example Le Sommeil de l'Enfant Jésus by Charles Le Brun (1619–1690), also in the Louvre (inv. no. 2880), and La Vierge adorant l'Enfant Jésus endormi by Jacques Stella (1596 - 1657) in the Musée départemental d'art ancien et contemporain des Vosges (inv. no. M0536_L.I.66).

Our painting is a variant of Lubin Baugin's painting in the Louvre (fig. 3, inv. no. 2436). Both are painted on panel, the one in the Louvre bearing the mark of Melchior de Bout on the reverse (fig. 4), and their dimensions are almost identical (36 x 26 cm for the Louvre version, and 32 x 25 cm for ours). The four-centimetre difference in the height of the panels could explain the difference in the grass in the foreground, which is much less present in our composition, suggesting that the lower part of our painting was very slightly trimmed at some point in its history. However, it's important to note the difference between the cradles in the two paintings; the cradle in the present painting has scrolled feet that are not found in the Louvre painting, thus raising the cradles by a few millimetres and accentuating the shadow underneath. This modification, and the resulting impact on the composition, testifies to an artistic intent that goes beyond mere copying.

Repetitions of Lubin Baugin's most popular compositions are not uncommon in his work. A particularly striking example is the Holy Family with St. Elizabeth and St. John the Baptist Adoring Jesus (seven figures), of which there are three iterations (one in the Archdiocese of Parma, one in a private collection in Paris, and one whose current location is unknown) as well as two early copies.[11] Another example of the popularity of some of Baugin's compositions is La Vierge à l'Enfant (nude, standing, with a landscape), repeated no less than four times (one in a private collection, known as the Chrysler copy, one in a private collection in Paris, and the other two whose current location is unknown).[12]

Lubin Baugin is a timeless, eccentric artist who nonetheless remains deeply rooted in the practices of his time; his work thus presents itself today as a balanced synthesis between the 16th-century Italy of Raphael and the current practices of French and Flemish painters working in Paris in the 17th century. The ongoing investigation of his work over the last three centuries has revealed a fertile and delicate artistic temperament, but has also been particularly revealing of the difficulty posed by artists who do not fully conform either to their milieu or to their era.

Fig. 1: Giovanni Francesco Penni, La Vierge au diadème bleu, Musée du Louvre, 1512/18, inv. 603.

Fig. 2: Raphael, La Vierge de Lorette, Musée Condé, inv. PE 40

Fig. 3: Lubin Baugin, Le Sommeil de l'Enfant Jésus, 1640/42, Musée du Louvre, inv. 2436

Fig. 4: Lubin Baugin, Le Sommeil de l'Enfant Jésus (reverse), Musée du Louvre

[1] Félibien, Entretiens sur les vies et sur les ouvrages des plus excellens peintres anciens et modernes, II, 1688, p. 661.

[2] P.J Mariette, Abecedario de P. J. Mariette et autres notes inédites de cet amateur sur les arts et les artistes, Paris, 1853, pp. 85-86.

[3] Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans, Orléans, Artistes orléanais du XVIIe siècle, June-September 1958, exhibition catalogue, p. 10.

[4] See for example, M. Faré, ‘Baugin, peintre de natures mortes’, Bulletin de la société d’histoire de l’Art français, 1955, pp. 15-26.

[5] E. Coatalem, N. Delosme, Lubin Baugin ; Œuvres religieuses et mythologiques provenant de collections privées présentée à la galerie Eric Coatalem du 30 septembre au 28 octobre 1994, Paris, 1994, p. 8.

[6] For Meclchior de Bout’s panels, see A. Koopstra, ‘De Antwerpse ‘witter ende paneelmaker’ Melchior de Bout

(werkzaam 1625/26-1658) : leverancier van ‘ready-made- panelen voor de Parijse markt’, Oud-Holland, vol. 123, no. 2, pp. 108-124, for an account of Willem Kalf’s time in Paris, see R. van Luttervelt, ‘Aanteekeningen over de Ontwikkeling van Willem Kalf’, Oud-Holland, 60, 1943, pp. 60-68.

[7] Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans, Orléans, Musée des augustin, Toulouse, Lubin Baugin, 21 February– 19 May 2002, 8 June – 9 September 2002, exhibition catalogue, p. 94.

[8] Ibid, pp. 94-95.

[9] M. Furcy-Raynaud, ‘Correspondance de M. d’Angiviller avec Pierre’, Nouvelles Archives de l’Art français, 22ème année, III, 21, 1905, p. 174.

[10] Musée Pétrarque, Fontaine de Vaucluse, Marie-Madeleine, figure inspiratrice dans la Mystique, les Arts et les Lettres, June 1988, no. 15.

[11] Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans, Lubin Baugin, 2002, pp. 96-98.

[12] Ibid, pp. 125-138.