Pierre PARROCEL (Avignon 1670-1739 Paris)

Circa 1730

The cycle of Tobias' story: Fishing for fish, Tobias and the grave, Tobias and his wife, Tobias becomes blind, Tobias and the Angel Raphael, Tobias regains his sight

Six oils on canvas, 32 x 39.5 cm

THE ARTIST

        Born in Avignon and belonging to the Parrocel dynasty, Pierre began by being a pupil of his uncle Joseph, then traveled to Rome between 1689 and 1692 where he frequented the Carlo Maratta's workshop. Back in France, he traveled through Languedoc, Provence and Comtat Venaissin, leaving everywhere proof of his talent, making large altarpieces and entire cycles of paintings. He married in Avignon and had eight children, of whom, Pierre Ignace and François Joseph François, were artists. Of all the Parrocel, Pierre is the one who produced the most paintings in the south of France, for individual but also in the service of brotherhoods and churches, he had a considerable influence on the southern artistic movement. He was approved to the Academy as history painter in 1730.

THE PAINTINGS

The cycle of Tobias' story painted by Pierre PARROCEL is an exceptional set which includes sixteen large format oils on canvas (up to 2m x 1.37m for the largest); it was commissioned in 1730 by the Duke of Noailles to adorn his castle of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Delivered and hung in 1739, then sold in 1770 to Mr. Borelly, they have been kept at the Museum of Fine Arts in Marseille since 1869.

The cycle includes: "Captivity of the Israelites", "The Judaic Faith", "Tobit and his companions escape captivity", "Tobit gives a burial to his compatriots", "The departure of young Tobit" , “Fishing” (fig.1), "Arriving at Ragouël's house, Tobie asks him for his daughter", "Tobias presents his wife to his father", "First wedding night", "Tobie's farewell to his father-in-law Ragouël",  "Tobit becomes blind", "Ragouël having a grave dug", "Old Tobie regains his sight" , "The angel Raphael making himself known, rises into the air", "Death of old Tobias".

Our series of preparatory sketches, of which there are six, constitutes the testimony of the artist's first idea, already offering many details which will be developed in the final canvases. The missing compositions will undoubtedly have been dispersed over time,  what it is allowed to imagined for a set of sixteen paintings.

We are indeed in presence of extremely rare and important sketches of Pierre Parrocel's work.

Fig.1. © Marseille, Museum of Fine Arts

PHOTOGRAPHS DETAILS