Pierre Puget

Exhibitions:

• A Cabinet of Curiosities

Essay:

Pierre Puget was the son of a stonemason and served his apprenticeship with a shipbuilder, carving elaborate wooden ornaments for galleys in the Marseille shipyards. By the age of seventeen he had worked his way to Italy and was in Rome in 1640. Exceedingly versatile and talented in wood carving, sculpting, draughtsmanship, and painting, Puget was apprenticed to the painter Pietro da Cortona and as a young man contributed to the decorations in the Palazzo Barberini and the Palazzo Pitti in Florence.

For several years Pierre Puget travelled between Italy and France producing paintings and sculptures in and around Marseilles and Rome, as well as working on decorative carvings for warships for the French fleet. In the latter half of the 1650s he began to work in earnest as a sculptor in Toulon which eventually resulted in commissions from Versailles. Several of his sculptures which were commissioned for the Palace stand today in the Louvre including Milo of Croton and Perseus and Andromeda. In the South of France Puget worked on the design and construction of naval boats and fighting men o'war.

Known for his fiercely independent spirit, as a painter Puget is also unique; his attention to detail is truly remarkable and his draughtsmanship whether in drawing or painting is exceptional. The Musee de la Marine in Paris holds some very fine drawings by Puget in its collection. Often Puget's drawings are imaginary designs for warships and depict the stern of the ship dead on to better see the plans for the ornamentation.

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Typical of Puget, this battle scene shows a man o' war with its bow pointed directly towards the viewer. Few other artists would paint a ship from this unusual angle, but for Puget the desired effect was to describe vessels in such a way as to better show off the design of the hull from all sides.

Provenance:

With Rafael Valls Ltd, London, in 2011;
Private collection, UK.