7 June 2026

This week, we are delighted to present, as our Private View of the Week, a rare and historically important oil sketch by Alexandre Ubelesqui, painter to the King and one of the most intriguing history painters active in France under Louis XIV. Identified by François Marandet as the preparatory sketch for Ubelesqui’s reception piece at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, this luminous modello is assuredly the composition presented to the Académie on 11 January 1681, when it was approved and initialled. Recently cleaned, the painting has recovered a remarkable freshness and luminosity, standing as a rediscovery of true institutional significance.