A remarkable oil painting on wood depicting a table laden with sweets, bread, and wine, attributed to the enigmatic French painter Lubin Baugin (1612-1663), will go up for auction on Saturday, August 16 at Vichy Enchères located at 16 avenue de Lyon in Vichy. The artwork, estimated to sell between €200,000 and €300,000, represents one of only five known still life paintings by the artist.
Before this exceptional discovery in a private Parisian collection, art historians knew of only four still life works by Baugin, including the celebrated "Dessert de gaufrettes" (Wafer Dessert) and "Nature morte à l'échiquier" (Still Life with Chessboard), both housed in the Louvre Museum. The auction, conducted under the hammer of auctioneer Étienne Laurent, promises to attract passionate collectors, art enthusiasts, and curious visitors from around the world.
The painting stands out not only for its extreme rarity but also for its exceptional quality. Painted around 1630, the "Nature morte aux financiers" (Still Life with Financiers) measures 46.5 x 60 cm and celebrates elaborate sweets that were reserved for the privileged elite of the time. The composition features a green-draped table with two pewter plates placed at the center, containing visitandines—the original 17th-century name for what we now call financiers—along with dried fruits and sugar crystals.
The artistic arrangement demonstrates Baugin's masterful technique and innovative approach to still life composition. On the left side of the painting, a crystal goblet sits half-filled with wine, while a loaf of bread is positioned on the right. A knife and one of the plates extend slightly beyond the table's edge into empty space, creating a sense of depth and unstable balance that breaks away from the static nature typical of the genre. This compositional choice recalls Baugin's "Dessert de gaufrettes" (1630-1635) preserved in the Louvre Museum.
According to René Millet, a specialist in ancient paintings and drawings, this bold composition "prefigures certain effects that would be found a century later in Chardin's work." The painting's sophisticated visual elements demonstrate Baugin's advanced understanding of spatial relationships and his ability to create dynamic tension within a seemingly simple domestic scene.
The inclusion of bread in an artwork celebrating luxurious living might initially seem surprising, but when paired with the wine glass on the opposite side of the painting, these elements serve as Christian references, creating a tension between the sacred and the profane. Baugin subtly emphasizes the vanity of worldly pleasures by depicting a partially eaten visitandine and cleverly placing a coin between two of the sweets, serving as a reminder of mortality and the temporary nature of material wealth.
Étienne Laurent, the auction house's auctioneer, discovered the painting by chance in November 2024 during an inventory at a private residence in Paris belonging to someone with close ties to the Auvergne region. Laurent believes "this rare work decisively enriches the still too limited corpus of 17th-century French still lifes." His assessment highlights the painting's significant contribution to art historical scholarship and our understanding of French still life painting during this period.
The discovery carries particular importance for art history because still life paintings, while abundant in Flemish art, were relatively rare in the French artistic landscape of the 17th century. The Royal Academy considered this genre inferior to religious or historical painting, which discouraged many artists from pursuing still life subjects. Consequently, only a few masters like Sébastien Stoskopff and François Desportes dedicated themselves to still life painting, selling their works to private bourgeois clientele and dispersing them among private collections, which further increases their rarity today.
The sale of a Baugin painting represents an extraordinary moment in the art market and is expected to attract collectors, enthusiasts, and likely museums from around the world. The Louvre Museum already houses two still life works by Baugin, and this newly discovered piece could potentially find its way into another prestigious institutional collection or remain in private hands.
To enhance the auction experience, René Millet will give a conference about the painting at Vichy Enchères the day before the sale. The presentation, scheduled for 3 PM on August 15, will be open to the public and will cover the painter's life, his body of work, and detailed analysis of this particular painting. Following the conference, visitors will have the opportunity to taste a "Baugin"—a contemporary interpretation of visitandines created by Vichy pastry chef Julien Meunier—extending the aesthetic experience into a gastronomic tribute to the painter.
The auction is scheduled to take place on Saturday, August 16 at 2 PM at Vichy Enchères, providing art enthusiasts and collectors with a rare opportunity to acquire a work by one of France's most mysterious and talented still life masters of the 17th century.
