A 17 Century painting representing «St Peter's Denial», which surprisingly sold for 8.3 million FF (US $ 1,222,400) (Not inclusive of buyer premium) on March 19th 2000 in Nancy, eastern France, was in fact a lost painting by French artist Louis Le Nain. The buyer was Charles Bailly, a Parisian dealer who struck gold several times in the past ten years with the discoveries of works by Dutch artist Frans Post, Flemish master Pieter Paul Rubens or French great painter Nicolas Poussin.
Before the sale, several newspapers suggested that the painting offered for sale in Nancy was reminiscent of the works produced by Georges de La Tour or the Le Nain brothers, Mathieu, Louis and Antoine but no museum curator came up with a clear suggestion.
Bidding for the «St Peter's Denial» 92 x 118 cm painting only started at 100 000 FF ($ 14,925) as the vendor had chosen not to call on an expert for a strong attribution. After an intense battle, the final bid was made on the telephone and it was suggested that the buyer was American.
In fact, it was Charles Bailly who had been the winner of such contest. He explained that he had gone to Nancy the day before the sale to examine the painting and that he had felt an intense emotion before this work.
«It had a great pictural quality whereas the subject appeared much ambitious.
I notice the superb lapis-lazuli blue robe worn by St Peter and the perfect condition of the canvas without any accident or restoration beside the fact that this work had been relined at the end of the 17th or the beginning of the 18th Century. This was a French painting masterpiece of the 1630s», he said.
«I sensed that this was a very important work but I was not the only one to have such feeling, thus the price it fetched. I took an enormous financial risk especially as I had no idea of its provenance the day of the sale after being left with little time to carry out some researches», he added.
He however sifted through his books on the Le Nain brothers in his huge library and found in a catalogue that a painting titled «St Peter's Denial» had disappeared during the 17th Century. All the more, Bailly discovered that a similar painting with the almost exact dimensions had been in the collection of cardinal Mazarin.
The Royal Academy of Painting offered on March 4th 1656 two paintings to the cardinal, one a fruit still life by Lemoyne and the other of St Peter by the defunct Le Nain.
In the 1661 inventory of the cardinal's collection the St Peter painting was described as being on canvas showing St Peter between two soliders and a maid with an attribution to either Louis or Antoine Le Nain.
There was only a quarter inch difference in the size mentionned in the inventory and that of the painting sold in Nancy. Charles Bailly immediately thought that this work had been executed by Louis as Mathieu had died in 1677 whereas Antoine had never have had Louis' genius to paint Caravagesque scenes regarding the chiarusco effects on the faces of the subjects and the armours worn by the soldiers produced by a fire not seen on the canvas. All the more, Antoine would not have been able to create the emotional atmosphere expressed in this spectacular work.
« I cannot understand why the curators of our museums, who asked for photographs of that painting and even went to see it in Nancy, did not try to pre-empt it. They probably decided to let the buyer take a financial risk in acquring it with the additional risk of being wrong », Bailly suggested.
Now, Bailly hopes that he will be permitted by the French State to sell his discovery abroad as several collectors and U.S museums are quite eager to buy it though he might try to strike a deal with the Louvre Museum first.
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