<div class="description">
<p>Birth of Adonis //	Bolton Museum and Archive Service
</p><p>Current Accession Number	BOLMG:1963.P.37
Subject	mythology (Adonis)
Measurements	121.7 x 150 cm.0 cm (estimate)
Material	oil on canvas (laid on panel)
Acquisition Details	Purchased in 1954.
Notes	
On back: marker pen: 'French School 17th C - 18th C The Finding of Oedipus BOLMG:1963.P.37'; pencil on support: 'French School.'
</p>
This is a very difficult painting to attribute, as shown by the previous attempts that range from Charles le Brun to David. The French Academic style, based on renaissance and classical art, is clearly the major influence on this painting. Probably the most we can say is that it may be an early 18th century follower of Antoine Coypel, as it has all the hall-marks of his style, but not the quality. If we compare it to similar works of his, such as his Le Bain de Diane, Musée des Vosges, (Garnier, N., Antoine Coypel 1661 - 1722, Paris, 1989, cat. no. 65, p. 132, ill. pl. XIII.), we may recognise the graceful, exaggerated gestures, the heads turning aimlessly this way and that. The attendant nymph to the right of Diana is extremely similar in pose to the woman holding up Adonis on the right of the Bolton painting. The hairstyles and costume of the Bolton picture are similar to those in Coypel's Eliézer et Rébecca, in the Louvre, inv. 3505, (Garnier, N., Antoine Coypel 1661 - 1722, Paris, 1989, cat. no. 81, p. 144, ill. pl. XV), and it is these stylistic elements that differentiate the work from earlier 17th century artists (like le Brun) and suggest a date of early to mid 18th century. The style of painting developed by Coypel and the various members of his family was widely disseminated through his etchings and drawings, forming part of the basis of French Academic painting in the 1700s. He had many followers, including Dutch painters like Nicolaes Verkolje (1673 - 1746); the distribution of his prints making it a truly international style. In fact there is a close analogy to this painting in Verkolje's The Finding of Moses, in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection (no. 1977.63). The painting has a similar composition, analogous landscape, and very similar ‘types' of figure; one may notice the motif of the old crone setting-off the beauty of her young charges in both paintings. So we have to accept that there is a chance that the artist may not be French, but may even be Dutch. At this stage an appropriately vague, yet helpful, attribution might be ‘follower of' Coypel.</div>
<div class="fn value">
<p>School of Coypel, Antoine (French painter, 1661-1722) 
Previously attributed to David, Jacques-Louis (French painter and draftsman, 1748-1825) 
</p>
Previously attributed to Le Brun, Charles (French designer, painter, and draftsman, 1619-1690)</div>
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