Samuel MASSÉ (Tours 1672-1753 Paris)

Hercules and Deianira

Oil on paper mounted on canvas, 35.5 x 46.5 cm

THE ARTIST

         The work of Samuel Massé, recently rediscovered, had been forgotten since the 18th century. The artist's work remains essentially influenced by Noël and Noël-Nicolas Coypel. A student at the Royal Academy between 1690 and 1698, Massé was approved in 1701, the year he became the godfather of the daughter of the famous architect of the Louvre colonnade, Charles Perrault, then received a history painter in 1705. In 1725 he appeared at the Exhibitions of the Youth, where he presented two subjects from Cupid and Psyche. In 1727, Massé had the honour of taking part in the famous competition between the twelve best history painters of the Royal Academy, in which he presented Juno Orders Aeolus to Destroy Aeneas' Fleet (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy). Participating in the Salons de l'Académie, from 1737 to 1745, he illustrated mythology more willingly than Sacred History. Samuel Massé's paintings are rare, twenty-seven works have already been identified; nine of them are kept in museums, churches or institutions, one pair in Warsaw, another pair in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux, an oval in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Caen, another in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nançy, one in the church of Toury (Eure-et-Loire), a painting that recently joined the collection of the Musée du Luxembourg and a last one at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.  The artist who was one of the most misunderstood of his generation was nevertheless one of the best. His work is dominated by themes of seduction and episodes celebrating the loves of the gods.

THE WORK 

        Our beautifully crafted work, a fine example of Massé's production, is the first sketch identified. A beautiful repentance can be seen in the presence of two legs in the centre and below the vegetation. The composition is typical of what we know about the artist, vo , see the continuation of three unlocated paintings (fig.1, 2 & 3) , published in 2012 by François Marandet  [i].

FIG. 3. Samuel MASSÉ

Around 1730-1735 (?)

The Alliance of Bacchus and Love

Oil on canvas 97 x 131 cm

Unknown location

FIG. 2. Samuel MASSÉ

Around 1730-1735 (?)

Satyr discovering a nymph

Oil on canvas 92 x 120 cm

Unknown location

FIG. 1. Samuel MASSÉ

Around 1730-1735 (?)

Apollo

Oil on canvas 92 x 120 cm

[i] François Marandet, “New additions to the corpus of Samuel Massé (1672-1753)”, The notebooks of the Museum of Fine Arts of Caen and the Friends of the Museums of Lower Normandy, no. 10, Caen: 2012, p. 16-21

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