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| Philippe de Champaigne, Saint Augustine in his Study Trampling the Heretics, about 1642. 39-3/16 × 31-11/16 in. J. Paul Getty Museum |
The Getty Museum has acquired
Philippe de Champaigne's Saint Augustine in his Study Trampling the Heretics, a rediscovery that has been in French private collections for all of its known history. Éric Coatalem showed the painting at TEFAF 2023, and his Paris gallery sold it to the Getty.
The painting may look familiar. It's a larger version of
Champaigne's Saint Augustine in his Study, a picture in LACMA's collection. Both paintings present Augustine holding a flaming heart as he receives divine truth. The Getty version shows the saint trampling four heretics caught in the coils of Satan. In the LACMA version Augustine merely tramples books.
The heretics in the Getty painting have a portrait-like quality and were likely studied from life models. At right, the wide-eyed man pulling his hair anticipates Courbet's The Desperate Man.
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| Philippe de Champaigne, Saint Augustine, about 1645. 31 × 24-1/2 in. LACMA |
At age 19 Philippe de Champaigne (1602–1674) took a job assisting Poussin. He matured into a very different sort of artist. Champaigne's psychologically astute portraits have a severity that has been linked to his involvement with the Jansenist sect. The Jansenists admired Saint Augustine, an ascetic theologian from the late Roman empire. Augustine sparred with Pelagius, a monk of Celtic origin, on original sin (Pelagius denied it). It's likely that Pelagius is one of the four figures at the bottom of the Getty picture. In the LACMA version three books are labeled with the names of Pelagius and followers Caelestius and Julian of Eclanum.
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| Flaming heart in Getty (left) and LACMA versions |
Neither Saint Augustine is dated, and there has been debate over which came first and why there are two. The original owner of the Getty picture is unknown. The LACMA painting was in the artist's possession at the time of his death. There are subtle differences between the two pictures throughout, as in the fingers holding the flaming heart and its flames.
The Getty site now gives "about 1642" for its version, which would likely make it the original. The LACMA painting is dated about 1645.
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| Philippe de Champaigne, Antoine Singlin, about 1646. Getty Museum |
The Getty buy helps balance the museum's small representation of Champaigne, which included two portraits (one a drawing) but no religious picture. The Getty's other painting by Champaigne portrays Antoine Singlin, a fellow Jansenist and confessor to Louis XIV and Pascal. Also in shades of gray is an ink drawing of Dame Étiennette, a "caretaker" so identified by an inscription on her bodice. Portraits of working-class women were rare at the time, but Étiennette's gaze is one for the ages.
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| Philippe de Champaigne, Portrait of Dame Étiennette, 1647. Getty Museum |
The Getty Saint Augustine is now on view in gallery E202 of the newly installed East Pavilion. The LACMA painting is in the Geffen Galleries installation "Mediterranean Crossings."  |
| Detail of Getty Saint Augustine |
Comments
I hope both are shown soon side by side.
Has the attribution changed since then as autograph? Has it been published with additional evidence?
Incidentally, there's a third version going to auction next month. It replaces the burning heart with a crucifix, and the heretics/books with a red cushion! It's much sketchier and is assigned to circle of Champaigne.
https://www.coronariauctions.com/en/auction-autumn-2024-asian-european-and-islamic-arts/17194-philippe-de-champaigne-1602-1674-circle-of-saint-augustine-oil-on-canvas-17th-c
> provide this key information
> on their website,
Images on their website that show "front," "back" and "framed" stood out to me. I've never seen that before, particularly a photo of the back of an artwork. Something about the Getty posting that aspect of an object (eg, wood frame behind the canvas) made me think of tech-bros/Star-Wars/video-game-type nerds drawn to the Lucas Museum.
The entry level gallery of the place has caused a few visitors to say they're unsure about its largely projected, reproduced images. I wonder if the Lucas in the future will ever try to acquire older works like a French painting from the 1600s?
Peter Sciretta on X: "This is one of my biggest frustrations with the Lucas Museum... Some people might argue that reproductions do not belong in a reputable art museum at all. It seems weird to me that Lucas Archives has so many cool things...but the museum is displaying reproductions. It’s odd.
But at the same time Lucas got Banksy to reproduce some of his most famous street art creations... ...presented like they removed the piece of wall where he made the art and transplanted it to the museum. They are original Banksys because Banksy made them (so I think it’s cool regardless) but they are created specifically for the museum. It’s weird, no?"
Getty, do you take calls?
> in storage since the Geffen Galleries
> opened
They have the space for it too, which I why the director and staffers of LACMA are strangely incompetent or unprofessional. Not just because they allow too many walls to be blank or floor space to be barren, but because they don't even get the visual or aesthetics down right.
There are various areas of the Geffen where objects aren't arranged impressively. It's just the opposite of, "whoa, how did they do that?!"
If the Louvre built a parking garage for its collection, the overseers would have presumably been able to display more objects and lay them out in a more sophisticated manner.
And the riders on bikes and skateboards will hopefully come to an end ASAP, and the gallery space they've been hogging will be turned over to more of LACMA's collection. SMH.