A pair of Sèvres (Napoleon III) bleu céleste two-handled ovoid vases étrusques, 1854

Her Imperial Majesty the late Empress Eugenie of the Farnborough Hill Properties;

Sold Christie's, London, 7th July 1927, lot 41.

Eustache Le Sueur (1616-1655) painted a series of decorations with Muses for the famous Hôtel Lambert, a mansion that Jean-Baptiste Lambert de Thorigny had built on the Île Saint-Louis in Paris by Louis Le Vau between 1641 and 1644. Le Sueur received his first commissions from Jean-Baptiste Lambert for a painting with Ganymede Abducted by the Eagle (see INV. 8062). Then, after the hotel was inherited by Jean-Baptiste's brother, Nicolas Lambert de Thorigny, Le Sueur executed his most important decorations: the paintings of the Cabinet de l'Amour (around 1645-1647) and the Cabinet des Muses (between 1652 and 1655). In the Cabinet des Muses were found depictions of Calliope (inv. INV 8061), Terpsícore (INV 8060), Urania (INV 8059) and Thalia (INV 8057), all of which are painted on the present pair of vases.

Le Sueur's paintings decorating the Cabinet de l'Amour and the Cabinet des Muses were subsequently engraved after drawings by Bernard Picart for a collection published by Gaspard Duchange in 1740. Two of these engravings, by Bernard Picart, give an idea of how the paintings were arranged in the panelling and ceilings: one copy of the engraving with the view of the Cabinet des Muses is in the Musée d'art et d'histoire in Geneva (inv. E 2016-2520-003). Le Sueur's paintings remained in the hotel's décor until 1776, when the heirs of the owner at the time, decided to sell them. At the instigation of the Count of Angiviller, Controller General of the King's Buildings, the paintings were purchased by Louis XVI for 50,000 livres in the third quarter 18th century.