"rare Ideal Landscape", 17th Century Attributed To Louis Licherie (1642-1687) In Its Period Gilded Frame

A rare museum piece for sale is this large-scale “Ideal Landscape” oil on canvas attributed to Louis Licherie (1642-1687). We do not always have the discernment to buy an important painting, but an intuition, and I can say that in my career I rarely have a crush, but sensible purchases, this is the case here for this very beautiful painting in good condition, an oil on canvas on its sturdy frame remarkably framed in a sumptuous Bérain frame with a well-sculpted ear and a beautiful and frank gilding with leaf which underlines and accompanies this Work, a synthesis of the Artist on his work, as did his contemporary Nicolas Poussin: the exercise of the Ideal Landscape... Executed in the second half of the 17th century, the accomplished Painter executed this Work in the same approach as his colleague and rival Nicolas Poussin whose flair made me previously buy an old reduction of his Work, where nature, architecture marry in a sublime landscape, animated by happy beings, an idealistic approach and in the pure spirit of the time. Everything in this painting seduces me, the fine and remarkably interpreted architecture in an ethereal nature, or the perspective as the grandiose composition of a circus of a hilly landscape, wooded with effects of light and ethereal mists from the distance, the characters in groups between bathers in the masterful fountain against the light, the women talking at the foot of a monument composed of stacked rocks, surmounted by a statuary; the valley where the water of the river punctuates the winding landscape, a detailed painting with striking contrasts in a magnificent panel of colors, the treatment of the trees in the foreground sets the tone and underlines the soft, elegant, majestic scene of an "Ideal Landscape" in short a work to look at carefully teeming with details and executed by the hand of a "Great Master". I repeat myself and can affirm that the following photos will give an idea of this work, however imperfect they may be .... A little history: Louis Licherie (Dreux 1642-Paris 1687) is a very little known artist and relegated among the "Followers" of the Great Painter of the Sun King: Charles Le Brun, he had an unusual path. Unlike his colleagues at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, he was not integrated into the "Grands Chantiers Royaux" of the time, although he was endowed with an excellent sense of observation. This is evidenced by his functions as Professor of drawing at the Royal Gobelins Manufactory, assured from 1666, as well as his simultaneous approval and reception at the Royal Academy in 1679; which almost never happened at the time. Louis Licherie painted a majority of religious works, but the most surprising thing remains the extent of his skills. In addition to his large decorations for wealthy individuals, he was the Author