A remarkable discovery has emerged from a routine estate inventory in Paris, where a rare 17th-century still life painting by French master Lubin Baugin was found in a family apartment. The artwork, titled "Still Life with Financiers," will be auctioned by Vichy Enchères on Saturday, August 16, with an estimated value between €200,000 and €300,000.
The oil-on-wood painting, created around 1630 by Lubin Baugin (1612-1663), was discovered on November 5, 2024, during an estate inventory in a Parisian apartment. The artwork depicts a table draped in green cloth, featuring two pewter plates filled with visitandines (ancestors of modern financier pastries), dried fruits, and sugar crystals, accompanied by a glass of red wine and a loaf of bread. According to auctioneer Étienne Laurent, who will conduct the sale, "the family had no awareness of its value" despite the painting being well-displayed in the apartment's office.
This discovery is particularly significant as it joins an extremely limited corpus of known works by Lubin Baugin. Only four other still life paintings by the artist are currently documented, including two housed in the Louvre Museum: "The Wafer Dessert" and "Still Life with Chess Board." The remaining two works are "Still Life with Candle" at the Galleria Spada in Rome and "Still Life with Apricot Bowl" at the Museum of Fine Arts in Rennes. The newly discovered painting had remained with an Auvergne family passionate about heritage for several generations before following one branch to Paris, where it was eventually forgotten.
Since November, the painting has been studied in the workshop of expert René Millet, where it underwent examination by leading international art dealers and curators from Parisian museums. Comparisons with other rare Baugin still lifes, particularly "The Wafer Dessert" at the Louvre, revealed identical compositional balance and a characteristic signature in block letters punctuated by two dots. Most remarkably, Laurent notes that "the work is painted on a very fine oak panel, composed of two planks joined by a clasp system identical to that observed on 'The Wafer Dessert.'" This technical evidence further supports the attribution.
Baugin's still life production was brief but significant in French art history. Born in Pithiviers, Loire Valley, in 1610, he arrived in Paris in 1629 and obtained his master's degree at Saint-Germain-des-Prés. During this period, young painters not affiliated with the powerful corporation of painters and sculptors were prohibited from creating large religious or decorative compositions within the city. Consequently, Baugin turned to still life painting, a genre gaining popularity among the Parisian bourgeoisie and influenced by Flemish painters present in the capital. However, this artistic production, already limited in volume, ceased abruptly when he departed for Italy in 1632.
After Baugin's death in 1663, his work fell into obscurity until the 20th century, when art historians Charles Sterling and Michel Faré rediscovered and identified his still life paintings through their research. The upcoming auction represents a rare opportunity for collectors and museums to acquire a work by this rediscovered master. On Friday, August 15, the evening before the sale, expert René Millet will deliver a conference at Vichy Enchères about Baugin's life and work, providing additional context for this exceptional discovery.
