Jean-Baptiste Claudot ( 1733 - 1805 )

An elegant family by a Mediterranean shore; & Travellers in an Italiante landscape


An elegant family by a Mediterranean shore; & Travellers in an Italiante landscape


(a pair)
oil on canvas,

with fine French neo-Classical antique frames, stamped by the framemaker Claude Pepin

Sold 2013

item sold

Born at Badonvillier (Vosges) in 1733, Claudot began his apprenticeship in assisting to decorate the Capucine church at nearby Blamont. Soon after, he moved to Luneville, birthplace of Georges de la Tour. His early work in Luneville attracted the attention of the Jesuits who appointed the twenty year old painter as peintre-en-chef to their establishment at Pont- à-Mousson. Claudot stayed with them until 1759 and then married and moved to Nancy where he won a commission to work on theatre designs alongside his teacher, Jean Girardet (1709 – 1778) also from Nancy.

In 1766 the death of Stanislaus meant the Duchy reverted to France and that local artists had lost a great patron. No doubt concerned for his future, Claudot decided to venture to Paris and study under the great artist Joseph Vernet. They became friends as well as a successful teacher and pupil duo and Claudot became fully established under Vernet’s guidance. After two years Claudot wanted, nonetheless, to be back in Nancy and many commissions and new patrons awaited him there both privately and on a municipal level. Most of the dozen or so works in the Nancy museums date from this period.

In the present pair, the influence of Vernet is immediately obvious. They have never been relined and are still on the original stretchers and in the original frames signed by the frame maker, Pépin.

Jean-Baptiste Claudot