La Partie de billard (The Billiard Room)
Provenance
(Possibly) Paul Lehideux (1806–1888), and thence by descent to
Jacques Lehideux (1871–1945) collection, Paris, by 1927
with Maurice Segoura, Paris
Private Collection, Paris
Exhibitions
Paris, Musée Napoléon (Musée du Louvre), Salon of 1808, 14 October 1808, no. 572, as ‘Salle de Billiard où figurant differents personnages’
Bibliography
Bibliothèque nationale, Cabinet des Estampes, Collection Deloynes, t. 43, no. 1136; t. 44, no. 1144 (signed A.P.), no. 1148.
Baron Jean-Baptiste Boutard, ‘Salon de 1808, N. VII’, Journal de l’Empire, 13 November 1808.
Affonso d’Escragnolle Taunay, ‘Documentos sobre a vida e a obra de Nicolau Antonio Taunay (1755–1830)’, in Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico Brasileiro, Volume LXXVIII, 1915 Part II, Rio de Janeiro, 1916, p. 89.
André Girodie, Un peintre de fêtes galantes: Jean-Frédéric Schall, Strasbourg, 1927, p. 17.
Claudine Lebrun Jouve, Nicolas Antoine Taunay (1755–1830), Paris, 2003, pp. 70–71 and cat. P.545, reproduced pp. 70, 253.
Étienne Bréton, Pascal Zuber, Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761–1845): Le peintre de la société parisienne de Louis XVI à Louis-Philippe, vol. I, Paris, 2019, p. 69, reproduced p.67, fig. 22.
Carole Blumenfeld, ‘La Partie de billard de Nicolas Antoine Taunay, miroir raffiné de la vanité humaine’, La Gazette Drouot, Paris, November 2025, no. 40, pp. 23–24.
Related works
The Billiard Room, or Salle de Billard dit le Café des Arts, oil on panel, 16.2 x 21.9 cm, The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1982.60.49
Essay
Michel Benisovitch, in his article on Taunay which appeared in the Figaro artistique [1] of 17 February 1927, wondered at the lack of information on the life and work of the artist, a ‘painter of genre, of landscapes and of battles who is still awaiting a biography’. This was achieved with the appearance in 2003 of the publication by Arthena of the catalogue raisonné on Taunay by Claudine Lebrun Jouve. Nicolas Antoine Taunay was born in Paris on 10 February 1755, his father a chemist, a painter on enamel for the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres. Nicolas began his career in the atelier of Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié. His apprenticeship continued with Nicolas-Guy Brenet and Francesco Casanova, the painter of battle scenes, an education which would be useful to him in the years to come. Taunay exhibited at the Salon de la Jeunesse in 1777, and the author of the Journal des Arts [2] noticed his success: ‘We dare to see Berchem revived in M.Tonnet (Taunay) whose fine and delicate brush has been greatly admired’. In 1784 Taunay was agrée to the Académie Royale de peinture, of which he would never become a member. He took part, for the first time in 1787 in the exhibition of paintings of the Académie Royale in the Salon of the Louvre, where he exhibited eight paintings. This first appearance was noticed by the art critic of the Mercure de France [3] on September 22 who commented on ‘A great intelligence in the views, a beautiful sense of space, of the impact of his compositions, a spiritual and easy touch; such are the qualities of M. Taunay to whom his stay in Italy has given a grand and varied style rare in the modern landscape’.
The majority of Taunay’s larger-scale paintings, be they genre scenes or battle scenes, were painted on canvas. However, this example was painted on a fine panel made by the supplier Malaine, the brother of Joseph Laurent, as can be seen from the ink inscription on the back of the work. We know of several panels bearing similar inscriptions used by artists of the period, including Jean Victor Bertin, Marguerite Gérard, François Gérard, and Louis-Léopold Boilly.
On the initiative of the architect Charles de Wailly, the Société des Amis des Arts was founded. It had the goal of giving financial support to contemporary artists and most particularly genre painters. Under the form of subscriptions, the association bought works directly from artists. Two compositions by Taunay with the same title Vue et site d’Italie were thus acquired. In July 1790, the works were exhibited for public viewing at the Louvre and selected by a lottery draw. The experience was repeated in 1791 when he exhibited in the company of Bidault, Boilly, Drolling and Swebach. [4] The following years were those of his arrival as an artist: the state acquired from him La Prise d’une ville (Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. 8118), he was elected member of the literary and artistic class in 1795, and several newspapers, among them La Sentinelle and Le Republique français, mentioned his nomination to the Institut de France. At the salon of 1798, Taunay exhibited for the prix d’encouragement his painting, now in the Louvre, Extérieur d’un hôpital militaire. Boilly also exhibited there his iconic Réunion d’artistes dans l’atelier d’Isabey (fig. 1). Taunay is featured amid his fellow genre painters together with his close friend, the sculptor Chaudet, witness at his marriage. Thirty-one artists are present, among them Baron Gérard, Carle Vernet, Lethière, the flower painter Redouté, the architects Percier and Fontaine, the composer Méhul, and of course the owner of the studio himself, the miniaturist Jean-Baptiste Isabey. Boilly, in representing thus the members of this group, erases any symbol of the hierarchy of genres. One should remember that since the decree of 21 August 1791, the Salon was open to all artists, academicians or not. In Boilly’s painting Taunay sports a tricoleur cockade on his hat which he holds in his right hand. Is it for him a way of declaring in his way, the ‘Liberty of Expression’? Taunay would continue to exhibit regularly at the Salon until 1827.
The Salon of 1808
Painter of historical subjects, landscapes, and genre scenes on a large and small format, Taunay exhibited on only one occasion an interior scene, in the Salon of 1808. It was considered the most important Salon of the Empire; Charles Landon, author of the Annales du Musée, in his introduction promoted it thus: ‘The salon had never been as rich or as well arranged’. Le Journal de Paris of 15 October covered the event, writing ‘The opening of the salon took place this Monday. The crowd arrived punctually and from midday to four o’clock its size was so great that circulation became almost impossible even in the immense rooms of the museum’. David, the head of the École Française, exhibited the Tableau du Sacre. Taunay, for his part, brought seven paintings, among them a Salle de billard où figurent différents personnages, the title given in the livret du Salon. Upon consulting in the national archives, the Registre pour l’inscription des ouvrages des artistes vivants (sic), one notices that the title published is Salle de Billard without any indication of its dimensions.
The critic Jean-Baptiste-Bon Boutard during his visit to the Salon wrote, ‘the scene is perfectly conceived: the figures a bit large for the brush of the author, but of good character and with true movement…this little painting is very attractive and produces a lively effect’. Several days later, on October 22, the Mercure de France [5], reported the visit to the museum by the Emperor accompanied by the Empress and the Queen of Holland. David and the principal painters had been warned of this visit by the director general of the museum Vivant Denon. Girodet, Gros, Meynier, Taunay and some other artists including some sculptors were present. After having visited the Salon, his majesty expressed his satisfaction to the artists present. Another visit was organized for the Empress, again in the presence of Denon. The drawing by Nicolas Monsiau in the Musée du Louvre (fig. 2) bears witness to this visit, which was probably to confirm the purchase of two paintings by Taunay. The author of the review of Salon (signed Q.Z.) in the Gazette de France on November 23 says with regard to Taunay ‘it is difficult to paint figures on a small scale with more freedom, greater movement and style than Taunay… this artist for his rich and animated compositions, for his historic manner and the freedom of his brush merits a rank more distinguished than that of genre painter’.
The great collector of genre paintings, Prince Nikolai Borisovich Youssoupoff visited Paris to see the Salon. He bought from Boilly one of his greatest masterpieces, now in the Hermitage, Un jeu de billard (fig. 3). From Taunay he chose Les Jarretières de la mariée [6]. This period was a moment of great success for Taunay, the commission from the state, the Entrée de sa Majesté l’Empereur dans la ville de Munich for the Galerie de Diane at the Tuileries [7]. Josephine Bonaparte bought from him his S.M. l’Impératrice reçoit le courrier qui lui apprend la nouvelle d’une victoire [8] as well as its pendant S.M. l’Impératrice recueillant les ouvrages des artistes modernes [9].
If in the cafés whist, draughts or checkers were in fashion, there were also at least seventeen billiard rooms around the Palais Royal. Taunay’s painting represents a room where several players gather around the table. The slanting sunlight illuminates the center of the composition where one sees the shadows cast by it etched on the floor. Excluding a chandelier in the center of the piece, the décor is somewhat summary, almost somber. A bas-relief, without doubt a terracotta representing Victory has been placed above the door. Was Taunay inspired by a work by his own brother Charles Auguste, pupil of the sculptor Jean Guillaume Moitte? The La Loi on front of the Palais du Louvre executed in 1806 by Moitte was also a possible inspiration for Taunay (fig. 4).
The art historian Carole Blumenfeld, in her analysis of the painting[10], sees here an interpretation of greater complexity than appears at first sight, ‘the game ceases to be a simple diversion and can be construed as a symbolic field of battle: the ball becomes a bomb, the cues stacked on the wall evoke muskets’. Could the two individuals discreetly placed at the back of the composition be spies? The one, his face hidden, seems to be listening to the conversation of the group sitting on the right. The second, his look fixed on the spectators, seems to be spying on us. Are they part of the secret police? The Palais Royal, its theatres, its cafés and other places of entertainment were known to attract Parisian artists and writers, where political discussions could gather momentum and the hidden dissidence might have given Napoleon reason to send in his secret police to unravel any budding conspiracy. If the official press did not reflect the true state of criticism of the establishment, one can ask if, as in this example by Taunay, certain artists revealed through their works a veiled critique of the politics of the Empire.
Taunay had experienced the turbulence of the French Revolution at first hand. Initially a patriotic republican he painted scenes of the sans-culottes in Paris, and the National army at war against the Austrians and Prussians in the early 1790s. But by 1793 he felt the threat of the Rasoir National as the Terror reached its peak and Taunay retreated with his family to Montmorency in that year. While away he painted an apocalyptic commentary on the excesses of the Terror, Le Triomphe de la guillotine (fig. 5 Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg) which featured David and Marat, among many others, climbing a hellish mountain (the nickname of the Jacobins) topped with a guillotine silhouetted against a flaming hellish sky.
The year 1808 also marks a significant historical moment in European politics and relations with the Americas – with Napoleon’s invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, the Portuguese royal family was forced to flee the occupation of Lisbon across the Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro, transforming the colonial city into the seat of one of the world’s largest empires. The King of Portugal Dom João VI (1767–1826) brought to Brazil his family, government, and three orchestras, establishing his capital in Rio. In 1815, as Napoleon was finally sent into exile at Saint Helena, Brazil was elevated to the status of Kingdom, becoming the Reino Unido do Brasil, Portugal e Algarve. This furthered the need for cultural infrastructure appropriate to a capital of imperial ambitions, which Taunay himself would help establish. After the fall of Napoleon, Taunay went to Brazil with his brother the sculptor Auguste-Marie to help found the Academy of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro. He was made a Baron by King João of Portugal and remained in Rio until 1821 when returned to France with the Portuguese monarch. In 2018, the Museu Nacional – UFRJ Brasil went up in flames, destroying over 90 percent of the museum’s collection, including many significant works by Taunay.
Billiards
Billiards was played in French high society since the 15th century; King Louis XIV played it at Versailles. It developed into a more popular pastime at the beginning of the 18th century as is seen in the appearance of billiard-table makers like the father of the painter Jean Siméon Chardin. Chardin illustrated the practice in La Partie de billard, a painting now in the Musée Carnavalet (fig. 6). In Taunay’s day, it was played in its current form and represented part of the increasing democratization of society. Its success was underlined by the appearance in Paris of several billiard ‘academies’. One could play it at the Palais Royale, the café Lemblin and that of Mille Colonnes, each having their own habitués. On the boulevard du Temple, one could play it at the Jardin Turc, immortalized by Boilly. It was played more rarely in private salons, the cost of the tables and the difficulty of their installation limiting their wider use. Jean-Baptiste Isabey is to our knowledge one of the few artists of the period to have illustrated it in several private settings. He depicts the billiard room of the château de Pontchartrain, home of the duchesse d’Osmond[11] as well as that in the château de Rosny-sur-Seine, owned by the duchesse de Berry. Another drawing by Isabey representing Pierre Pugol[12] as a billiards player is with Galerie Didier Aaron (fig. 7). Regarding a painting by Louis-Léopold Boilly, also Un jeu de billard (fig. 3), we know nothing about the place represented, and the scene could as equally be taking place in a private setting as in an academy.
Provenance and Related Works
Following his success at the 1808 Salon, Taunay painted for the banker Perregaux a second version of smaller dimensions (16 x 22 cm) paired with a pendant the Concert à la Concorde[13]. At the Perregaux sale the two works were sold separately. The Salle de Billiard dit le Café des Arts, thus named, is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (fig. 8). Of interest is the fact that when this was exhibited in 1874 the catalogue describes it thus, ‘the Café was, at the end of the preceding century, much frequented by artists. David is represented in a red cloak, Girodet gets ready to play with his left hand, Gros offers a ball to a person seen from behind’. Meanwhile, in 1929, Girodie claims to recognize Schall among the crowd. Claudine Jouve, in her monograph does not, however, endorse these enticing identifications.
There are several differences between the two versions. The floor patterned with diamonds of black marble is replaced in the ricordo with simple tiles and the cues have disappeared from the wall. The number of people is roughly the same but the bicornes in vogue in 1808 are no longer there, which leads us to suppose that the ricordo was executed after 1812 when the Empire was already in decline.
In 1927, La Partie de billard was in the collection of Jacques Lehideux, descendant of a family of bankers. His grandfather Paul (1806–1888) after receiving high honors at the Ecole supérieur de commerce graduated top of his class in Paris in 1825. He married Clarisse Lefébre (1810–1854) in 1830. Several years later, he founded the bank Lehideux et Cie. We know a portrait of Clarisse with her family painted by Boilly in 1824[14]. One may wonder how ownership of La Partie de billard was transmitted. There is no provenance before 1927. The painting does not feature in either the inventory of the estate of Taunay or in the sales after the decease of the artist. There is no mention of the painting as having been in any exhibition after the Salon of 1808. Might the painting have been owned by the ancestors of Jacques Lehideux? André Girodie in his research on the artist Schall visited Jacques Lehideux and saw La Partie de billard which he mentioned in his monograph along with Le Bouquet impromptu by Schall. The historian made a significant observation concerning the provenance of the Schall and its pendant Le Nid decouvert. These two paintings which made a pair were separated at some point but always belonged to the same family. The first belonged then to Jacques Lehideux but the pendant was in the collection of his cousin Raymond Lehideux Vernimmen; both were descendants of Paul Lehideux who was their grandfather. These two provenances were mentioned again in the catalogue of the Schall exhibition organized by the galerie Charpentier in 1929. It is highly probable that this pair before being separated as part of inheritance arrangements once belonged to the same ancestor, most likely Paul Lehideux. The same may be true for La Partie de billard formerly owned by the Jacques’s branch of the Lehideux family. The authors of the Boilly catalogue raisonné posed the same question concerning the provenance of the painting L’Interieur de la boutique d’un marchand de vinexhibited in the Salon of 1819. There was no provenance before 1930, the date when Georges Lehideux Vernimmen lent his painting to the galerie Jacques Seligmann for the first retrospective of Boilly. A curious coincidence. Could both La Partie de billard and the painting by Boilly have been originally acquired by Paul Lehideux in the 1830s?
After his death in 1830, covered with honors, a member of the Institut and decorated with the Legion of Honor, with many of his Napoleonic paintings installed in Versailles, Taunay fell rapidly out of fashion. However, towards the end of the 19th century his reputation was revived by the influential Goncourt brothers who owned his original gouache illustrations for Diderot’s translation of Racine’s Les Plaideurs. Another critic of the period, Auguste Jal [15] (1795–1873) took up his cause, writing, ‘Taunay was a man of a highly distinguished talent, that the modern French school counts among its best subjects. He showed, in the good things which we know by him, charm, taste, color, brilliant and solid execution and a touch that was lively and firm’. A hundred years later, in the French Painting 1774–1830: The Age of Revolution catalogue, Jean-Pierre Cuzin wrote of him, ‘Taunay is more than a charming entertainer; he deserves to be recognized as one of the great painters of his time’.