An extremely interesting discovery in 2007 was a drawing by Claudine Bouzonnet Stella (Lyon 1636?-1697 Paris), 294 x 376 mm. after a Poussin painting that may well have been painted for her uncle Jacques Stella (Lyon 1596-1657 Paris), Venus Giving Arms to Aeneas. This painting, now in the collection of the Musee des Beaux-Arts at Rouen was fully described in Claudine's legacy (Sylvain Laveissiere, exhibition catalogue Jacques Stella, Lyon/Toulouse, 2006/7, Mickael Szanto, Les Poussin de Jacques Stella, 'Venus presentant ses armes a Enee', page 260). The Poussin painting was with the Bouzonnet Stellas, Antoine and Claudine at least from 1658 (Felibien) to 1697. Antoine died in 1682 at the Louvre where both succeeded to the living quarters given to Jacques Stella by Louis XIV. In 1658 all of Jacques Stella's possessions were given by document to his nephew and niece. So it is possible that even if Antoine bought the painting from Poussin (he kept collecting Poussins), it was with them for at least some 15 years. Both Antoine and Claudine engraved Jacques Stella's paintings as well as those of Poussin. The drawing does not look like Antoine's work, but it much resembles that of Claudine who was the most prolific in making engravings (cf op cit. page 233, Fig. XV.1, Claudine Bouzonnet Stella, La naissance de la Vierge, a drawing in the Fogg art museum). Felibien according to Christopher Wright mentions that the Poussin painting was done for Stella in 1639 (Wright, Poussin , 1985, p. 191, no. 112) and Philippe Malgouyres in the Rouen museum catalogue of 2000 clearly states that the painting was made for Stella in 1639 (p. 151). In 1697 it was left by Claudine to her niece Anne-Marie Molandier, sold in 1742 from the inheritance of the prince de Carignan, again in 1777, etc., till Rouen bought it in 1866. There are two drawings after the painting listed and illustrated in Nicolas Poussin, 1594-1665 : catalogue raisonné des dessins / Pierre Rosenberg, Louis-Antoine Prat, Vol. II, r 652 and r 958, one of which is now in the Lyman Allyn museum in New London, Connecticut and the other a partial image of the composition, both of inferior quality to this drawing. Our drawing is obviously meant for an engraving because of the contemporary squaring. As the date that Claudine died is 1697, it is highly likely that she would be the engraver of a major Poussin, long in her and her brother's possession, painted for her uncle in 1639 (or bought by her brother before he died in 1682) and that she valued it so highly that she put a price on it of 4,000 pounds in 1693, while sadly in fact after her death the Poussin Venus and Aeneas was estimated at only 500 pounds.

A wonderfully lighthearted and charming Zephyr Crowning Flora in a heavily wooded setting with a frolicking cherub carrying an overflowing flower basket and with turtle doves hovering over another overturned basket of more flowers, in the best of the late Rococo manner circa 1790 by the Alsatian artist Jean-Frederic Schall (Strasbourg 1752-1825 Paris). This large oil on canvas (96.5 x 137.5 cms), belongs to the still less well known architectural decorative works by the artist as indicated by the French scholar Dr. Brigitte Gallini and it may possibly be of real allegorical portraits of the painter's clients. In fact the dimensions, 96.5 by 137.8 cms (our painting has been reduced slightly at both sides and is horizontal rather than vertical in format) correspond exactly to those of the set of four large upright decorative paintings by Schall in the former Prince Anatole Demidoff collection at the Villa San Donato in Florence, all described by Girodie in his book of 1927 on Schall as a decorator and one of which appeared in a Didier-Aaron catalogue of 1989. One can therefore safely assume that our painting formed part of the same decorative scheme for a private residence in the Chausee d'Antin in Paris and whose theme was mythological Love. The residence was reputed to belong to a successful horizontale, the mistress of a wealthy Swiss banker. Schall who was a pupil of Jollain and Lepicie became a painter of the so-called gallant subject matter in the manner of Fragonard and Debucourt and his works were highly desirable (there are examples represented in the Musee Nissim de Camondo in Paris). Even during Napoleon’s Empire and the Bourbon restoration his works displayed a retardaire charm and retained a clientele for the traces of a vanished douceur de vivre which flourished among the elite during the ancien regime in France. Few artists were less influenced by the stern new neo-classicism prevalent in France during that time and as such this is a valuable and incomparably enticing document of an already then vanished way of life.

Abraham, tete de vieillard chauve et barbu (Tete d'Expression), une etude pour 'l'Accordee du village' d'apres Greuze (size 55 by 46.5 cm) by Pierre-Alexandre Wille also named Wille Fils (Paris 1748-1821 Paris), the pupil at a young age of Jean-Baptiste Greuze, an influence he never quite escaped. This marvellous and large painterly oil sketch on fine linen went through the renowned Galerie Sedelmeyer in Paris as by Jean-Honore Fragonard and through the equally well-known Spencer Samuels Gallery in New York as by Jean-Baptiste Greuze (seal and label on the reverse). It carries the full written approval as a portrait study by Wille Fils of the Greuze expert Dr. Edgar Munhall, curator emeritus of The Frick Collection in New York, who calls it a strong and moving work (letter of April 24, 2000) . Wille Fils was also an experienced engraver, clearly visible in his many drawings of Parisian street types and here in the sure brush strokes of this portrait sketch. A study of the same sitter, seen from a different angle went through the Galerie Sainte Gudule in Brussels in 1926 with as provenance the Goudstikker private collection. A closely comparable study in pen and brown ink was sold at Sotheby's, New York on January 14, 1992 as lot 167 and both the Royal Museums of Fine Art in Brussels and the Royal Museum of Fine Art in Copenhagen keep similar striking drawings of old men in their collections. Wille Fils who exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1771-1819 often tried to capture the pathos of the life of the non-aristocratic lower classes in France before the 1789 social changes and he was in fact actively engaged in the French Revolution. This remarkable and touching portrait study is in homage to the wonderful Accordee du village by Greuze, kept at the Louvre museum, where one finds the inspiration for this head in the face of the old father.

Une Paysage avec Fontaine by Jean-Francois (Francisque) Millet II (1666-1723) also named Francisque Fils , oil on paper, size 34.2 by 43.8 cm, signed on the masonry J. Millet D. Francisque and inscribed with the Latin sentence Divae reverere soporem (Respect the Sleep of the Goddess). This very charming classical landscape was sold from the collection of J.K. Schneider, Royal Oak, Michigan at Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York on February 14, 1949. Prof. Martin Eidelberg fully attributed this painting and described and illustrated it in La Revue du Louvre, October 1978, vol. 28, no.1, pages 12-19, illus. Fig. 4, page 15 as La déesse de la fontaine dans le tableau anciennement dans la collection Schneider s’inspirait probablement de la charmante figure qui orne le couvercle du sarcophage d’un enfant défunct. Malgré ces données archéologiques contradictoires, le tableau constitue un apport important dans l’oeuvre de Francisque Fils. (The Goddess of the Fountain in the painting previously in the Schneider collection was inspired probably by the charming figure that adorns the cover of the sarcophagus of a deceased child. Despite these contradictory archeological givens, the painting forms an important contribution to the work of Francisque Fils). The painting is again discussed and illustrated by Dr. Bernard Biard in the art publication L’Objet d’Art, October 1999, no. 340, pages 58-65, illus. page 60 in his article Francisque Millet II, paysagiste à la fin du XVIIe siècle in which he describes it as follows LE SENTIMENT BUCOLIQUE ET LE GOUT POUR L’ANTIQUE, Une inscription latine: DIVAE REVERERE SOPOREM (Respecter le Sommeil de la Déesse) se retrouve également dans le "Paysage avec une Fontaine". Mis à part les fragments de monuments détruits au premier plan qui pourraient symboliser le temps passé, la nature est davantage présentée mais elle est domestiquée par l’homme. C’est plutôt un parc aux buissons taillés et au sol bien aplani qui nous est montré, qu’un paysage de campagne. L’atmosphère est calme, en rapport avec l’inscription gravée sur le monument. Martin Eidelberg se posait la question de l’attribution à Francisque Millet II, après avoir d’ailleurs répondu par l’affirmative, d’un dessin "Fontaine et Nymphe Endormie" du musée Condé à Chantilly (THE BUCOLIC FEELING AND THE TASTE FOR THE ANTIQUE, A Latin inscription: DIVAE REVERERE SOPOREM (Respect the Sleep of the Goddess) is equally found back in "Landscape with a Fountain". Aside from the fragments of destroyed monuments in the foreground which could symbolize past times, nature is more presented here, but she is domesticated by man. It is rather a park with pruned bushes and a well evened out ground that is shown to us, than a country landscape. The atmosphere is calm, in line with the inscription engraved on the monument. Martin Eidelberg poses himself the question of the attribution to Francisque Millet II, after having responded elsewhere in the affirmative about a drawing "Fountain and Sleeping Nymph" in the Condé Museum in Chantilly).