FRANQOIS LEMOINE. 1688-1737

50 THE RAPE OF EUROPA. 1725

Oil on canvas. 72 X 60 cm. Inv. No 992 Signed and dated lower left: Lemoyne 1725 The subject is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses (2: 835—877). According to A. C. Caylus, the picture was painted for the Duke Louis de Mortemart. The composition betrays the influence of the Veronese murals in the Doges' Palace in Venice, which Lemoine could have studied during his stay in Italy. The picture was engraved by Cars in 1753.

Provenance: The Collection of Duke de Chevreuse, Paris; 1809 Sale of the Langlier and Paillet collections, Paris; 1827—1924 The Yusupovs Collection, Arkhangelskoye (near Moscow) and St Petersburg — Petrograd; 1924—25 The Hermitage, Leningrad; since 1925 The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow Exhibitions: 1725 Paris (Salon); 1955 Moscow, Cat., p. 41; 1956 Leningrad, Cat., p. 33

Bibliography: Кат. ГМИИ 1948, p. 45; Кат. ГМИИ 1957, p. 80; Кат. ГМИИ 1961, p. 109; D'Argenville, Abrege de la vie des plus fameux peintres, Paris, 1762, p. 428; A. C. Caylus, Vies des premiers peintres du roi depuis M. Lebrun jusqu'a present, vol. 2, Paris, 1772, p. 65; Musee Youssoupoff 1839, No 372; Mantz 1880, pp. 21, 22; А. Прахов 1907, p. 62, ill. 41; Бенуа 1912, p. 324, ill.; Кат. Юсуповской галереи 1920, No 176; Эрнст 1924, p. 26, ill.; Dimier 1928—30, vol. 1, p. 91, No 8; Reau 1929, No 582; Прокофьев 1962, ill. 48; Musee de Moscou 1963, p. 141, ill.; ГМИИ 1966, No 59

50 THE RAPE OF EUROPA. 1725