Enfilade

Pierre-Denis Martin, The Château de Juvisy,
165cm x 265cm, ca. 1700

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From the V&A:

We need your help to raise £500,000 to make this significant acquisition in time for the opening of the Europe 1600–1800 galleries.

The next stage of the V&A’s FuturePlan sees the opening of our redeveloped Europe 1600–1800 galleries. To complete these galleries we need your help to make one of our most ambitious acquisitions to date—a major Baroque oil painting of the Château de Juvisy, by Pierre-Denis Martin, court painter to Louis XIV. An accurate depiction of a French château and gardens from the 17th century is very rare, and unusually for an architectural portrait of this kind, the scene is bursting with human activity. Martin provides an extraordinary and vivid insight into the many aspects of château life and there are currently no paintings like it in any museum in the UK.

The painting will play a pivotal role in Gallery 5 of our seven redeveloped Europe 1600–1800 galleries, which will focus on the rise of France during 1660–1720. The painting will be displayed in a prominent position and the vast panorama, measuring 165cm x 265cm, will be the first thing you will see as you enter the space, setting the tone for the whole gallery. The arrival of Louis XIV is believed to be depicted in the foreground, and the gallery will explore the tastes and styles of his regency.

With the design of the new galleries complete and the building work now under way, we urgently need your support to ensure that we can purchase this significant centrepiece. The V&A has already managed to secure a large proportion of the £1,300,000 it will cost to purchase the painting, but we are not there yet. We urgently need your support to help raise £500,000 for this important painting to become a part of our collection. Your contribution towards this appeal, however large or small, will be vital to ensuring that we can make this ambitious acquisition in time.

Donate here»

The painting was only recently recognized as the work of Pierre-Denis Martin by Alan Rubin of Pelham Galleries; more information is available in this article, “Going Dutch: Buyers Aplenty at the Maastricht Art Fair,” The Economist (17 March 2010).