JEAN-JOSEPH DUMONS, ambito

JEAN-JOSEPH DUMONS circle ADAM AND EVE IN PARADISE JEAN-JOSEPH DUMONS Tulle 1687 – 1779 Paris Oil on canvas Canvas dimensions: 58 × 70 cm Dimensions with frame: 66 × 81 cm French neoclassical frame from the 18th century, decorated with pearls and ovolo motifs PROVENANCE France, private collection The painting Adam and Eve in Paradise recently caught my attention during an auction in France. Although the surface was obscured by dirt and oxidized varnish, the quality of execution was immediately apparent. Attributed to the circle of Jean-Joseph Dumons, the work was framed in a refined 18th-century neoclassical frame, bearing a plaque with the name of Charles-Antoine Coypel (1694–1752) — a probably later association, but indicative of the prestige attributed to the composition. Jean-Joseph Dumons (Tulle, 1687 – Paris, 1779) was a painter, draftsman, and celebrated author of cartoons for tapestries. A pupil of François de Troy, he distinguished himself for his decorative compositions, particularly those that combined landscape, floral motifs, animals, and classical narratives — subjects particularly suited to the medium of tapestry. Appointed in 1731 painter to the Royal Tapestry Manufactory of Aubusson, he provided cartoons for over two decades, before moving to the Beauvais Manufactory in 1756. In 1735 he was admitted to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture as a history painter, presenting as his reception piece a large composition depicting Adam and Eve. The final version is now kept at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, while the preparatory sketch is located at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris. The painting currently exhibited in our gallery can be identified as a small-format variant of Dumons' reception piece, adapted into a horizontal format that suggests a decorative function — perhaps part of a dessus-de-porte. The precise drawing, the careful observation of details, and the chromatic harmony indicate that the author had direct access to the original composition. These characteristics allow us to date the work to the 1740s, a period when Dumons was still active in the production of easel paintings and tapestry cartoons. The dating is further confirmed by the style of the figures: the female figure, elongated and with delicate features, corresponds to the canons of beauty typical of the 1730s and 1740s. In the 1750s, under the influence of François Boucher, the dominant taste shifted towards rounder forms, more expressive poses, and a lighter, more coquettish aesthetic. Our painting, on the other hand, reflects the composed grace of early Rococo classicism. To fully understand Dumons' role in 18th-century French painting, it is necessary to consider his stylistic debt to the master François de Troy. In the 1730s and 1740s, de Troy created a series of pastoral elegies, often inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses and set in broad, lyrical landscapes — works such as Clytia Turning into a Sunflower (Meaux, Musée Bossuet), Zephyr and Flora (formerly in the collection of the Chevalier Lambert in the 18th century, and seen in New York in the 1990s in a private collection), and especially Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, once part of the collection of Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski and known thanks to the print by Jean Daullé. Like these compositions, Dumons' Adam and Eve also adopts a pastoral and placid register, rather than tragic or moralizing. The moment of the Fall is here reinterpreted as a contemplative tableau — a transformation of the narrative tone that owes much to de Troy's model. This reinterpretation subtly alters the meaning of the scene: the drama of expulsion is softened into a bucolic and serene vision, closer to courtly tastes and decorative refinement than to doctrinal rigor.