Singerie: The Painter
Christophe Huet·c. 1739
Historical Context
The Painter panel from Huet's Singerie suite places a monkey at an easel, brush in hand, mimicking the self-important studio manner of academic portraitists. This is the most self-referential of the series: Huet, himself a painter employed to create decorative panels, essentially mocks his own profession through the image of a primate imitating art. The conceit had philosophical undertones familiar to eighteenth-century viewers versed in debates about art versus nature and the boundaries of mimicry. Executed around 1739 for an aristocratic interior, the panel would have been understood as both witty decoration and sly commentary. Huet's Singerie suite remains one of the clearest surviving expressions of the Rococo tendency to blend luxury, humor, and subtle intellectual content.
Technical Analysis
Composition centers on the monkey-artist and canvas, with studio props — palette, drapery, a sketched figure — arranged around the central conceit. The paint handling is assured and economical, using light glazes to suggest texture without laboring detail. A warm golden ground unifies the panel with the rest of the suite.
Provenance
Commissioned by François Jules Duvaucel [1672-1739] for a salon in the Château de La Norville, France; remained in the château through successive owners until sometime between 1901 and 1906; (Fauché, Paris), by 1907;[1] purchased 1922 through (André Carlhian, Paris) by Dr. Alexander Hamilton Rice [1875-1956] and his wife, Eleanor Elkins Widener Rice [1861-1937], for the dining room of their Fifth Avenue manion, New York;[2] by inheritance 1956 to Mrs. Rice's children, George D. Widener, Jr. [1889-1971] and Eleanor Widener Dixon [1891-1966, Mrs. Fitz Eugene Dixon]; gift 1957 to NGA. [1] The history of the decoration of the Château de La Norville is thoroughly described by Bruno Pons, _Grands décors français, 1650-1800: reconstitués en Angleterre, aux Etats-Unis, en Amérique du Sud et en France_, Dijon, 1995: 221-426. See also Abbé A.E. Genty, _Histoire de la Norville et de sa seigneurie_, Brussels and Geneva, 1885: 112-129. [2] Mrs. Rice was born Eleonor Elkins in Philadelphia. Her first husband was George Dunton Widener, who perished with their elder son, Harry, in the sinking of the _Titanic_ in 1912. She married Dr. Alexander Hamilton Rice in 1915. Her two other children with Widener inherited the New York residence after Dr. Rice's death. Records of the Carlhian firm are in the Special Collections of the Research Library at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, accession no. 930092. Copies of documents referring to the wall paneling are in the NGA curatorial files; see in particular the letter of 6 July 1923, from André Carlhian to Mrs. Rice, in which he tells her that "the Pineau boiserie which you bought from Fauché comes from the Chateau de la Norville, near Arpajon - about 20 miles from Paris." Both the six Huet paintings (NGA 1957.7.1-6) and the paneling (_boiserie_) by Pineau were given to the National Gallery of Art; the latter is NGA 1957.7.7.
