Charles-Antoine Coypel was the scion of a distinguished family of painters and enjoyed great success in his own right. Admitted to the Académie Royale before the age of twenty, he received his first major commission the following year for a series of tapestry designs. After his father's death in 1722, he took over his post as painter to Philippe II, Duc d'Orléans and subsequently became the queen's favorite painter. In 1747, he was appointed Director of the Académie and Premier Peintre to King Louis XV.

This supremely elegant depiction of Joseph Accused by Potiphar’s Wife was painted by Coypel in 1737. It was among his handful of entries for the Paris Salon in that same year, and comes with a distinguished history and provenance dating back to the 18th century.

From at least 1753 until 1778, this picture formed part of the illustrious Marin collects ion, most of which hung at the distinguished Hôtel Lambert, a grand mansion that sits at the eastern tip of the Ile Saint-Louis on the river Seine in Paris (fig. 1). Built between 1640 and 1644, it was designed by architect Louis Le Vau for the financier Jean-Baptiste Lambert. After Lambert's death in December 1644, only about eight months after moving into the residence, his younger brother Nicolas Lambert de Thorigny inherited the property and continued with the construction. It was Nicolas who commissioned most of the magnificent interior decoration, executed by the most famous French painters of the t.mes including Charles Le Brun and Eustache Le Sueur (see, for example, the Allegory of Poetry by Le Sueur sold in these rooms 28 January 2016, lot 37). Nicolas Lambert de Thorigny died in 1692 and the residence passed by descent in his family until 1729. Thereafter it belonged to various owners, including the Marquise du Châtelet, Voltaire’s mistress, who sold it in 1745 to Marin Delahaye, the earliest known owner of this Coypel. Upon Marin Delahaye’s death in 1753, his brother Marc-Antoine Delahaye de Bazinville inherited the residence, but the painting passed into the ownership of de la Haye’s wife. It first appears in a posthumous inventory of Marin de la Haye at the Hôtel Lambert in October 1753, where it is listed as a pendant to a Susannah and the Elders by François de Troy. Later, this painting, along with Madame de la Haye’s collects ion, was sold in her posthumous auction, at the Hôtel Lambert no less, in 1778.

The story of Joseph and Potiphar's Wife is taken from the Book of Genesis, Chapter 39. It recounts the story of the son of Jacob and Rachel, who was enslaved and sold to an Egyptian named Potiphar, a captain of the Pharoah's guard. Joseph was favored by Potiphar and became the steward of his household, where Joseph caught the eye of Potiphar's wife. Joseph resisted temptation from Potiphar's wife, who thence accused him of trying to seduce her and ordered Potiphar's imprisonment. Coypel’s dramatic rendering of the scene occurs at the very moment of accusation and subsequent sentencing. Potiphar’s wife, in her shimmering white and pink silk dress and pearl headpiece, feigns distress as she takes comfort in the lap of her enraged husband. His flowing leopard cape is a clear allusion to the animalistic rage of his perceived betrayal by Joseph. The couple dramatically gestures to the defenseless Joseph who stands wrongly accused before them. His face is beautifully rendered in profile, with elongated facial features that seem to enhance his strong stoicism.

Detailed preliminary drawings of the present composition and its protagonists are extant testify to the care Coypel took in composing the painting (see literature, Lefrançois 1994, cat. nos. D73-76). Among these is a signed sheet which sold at Christie’s New York, 30 January 1997, lot 158 (fig. 2). That preparatory drawing is closest to the final painting, with only minor differences, such as a slightly modified disposition of the foreground drapery.