Rouen’s Musée des Beaux-Arts Acquires a Rare and Dramatic 17th Century French Painting

Lot 29. ADRIEN SACQUESPEE (CAUDEBEC-EN-CAUX 1629-1692)
Christ en croix
signé et daté ‘Sacquespe pinxit./.1656’ (sur le pied de la croix)
huile sur toile: 83 x 49 cm.
Estimate: €15,000-20,000 ($20,642-27,523). This lot sold for a hammer price of €14,000 (or €17,500 with the buyer’s premium – $24,091).
Rouen’s Musée des Beaux-Arts today purchased Adrien Sacquespee’s Mannerist Christ on the Cross at Christie’s sale of Old Master paintings in Paris, according to the Art Tribune. It’s a striking and dramatic work, believed to be one of the artist’s earliest 20 or so known works (some signed). In the 1640’s he was a pupil of François Garnier, but he returned to Normandy and made his career in Rouen. Most of his work is found in Norman churches and the museum.
This work joins six others in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, including the Martyrdom of St. Adrian (below), The Apparition of Christ to St. Peter (1667), Christ mourned by the Virgin and St. John (formerly known Descent from the Cross – c.1670-80), Chartreux buried under the snow (c.1670-75), Saint Bruno in prayer (1671), and Eternal Father (before 1692).
Although he’s considered “provincial” he does have a flair for the dramatic – just look at Saint Mathurin exorcising the Empress Theodora, Abbey Saint-Ouen in Rouen (below) – who doesn’t like a good exorcism?