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Nicolas Bertin (1668-1736)

The Building of Noah's Ark

French, 1685

Oil on canvas, 37 1/2 x 50 7/8 inches (95.2 x 129.2 cm)

Literature:
  • A.-J. Dezalier d'Argenville, Abrege de la vie des plus fameux peintres, 1762, II, p. 346
  • J.-D. Fiorillo, Geschichte der Zeichnenden Kunste von ihrer Wiederauflebung bis auf die neuesten Zeiten, Gottingen, 1805, p. 287
  • L. Dussieux et al. Memoirs inedits sur les vies et les ouvrages des membres de l'Academie royale de peinture et de sculpture, Paris, 1854, II, p. 321
  • M.A. Duvivier, Liste des cleves de l'Ancienne ecole academique et de l'ecole des beaux-arts qui ont remporte les grands prix de peinture, Archives de l'Art Francais, 1858, Serie I, pp. 279-280
  • A. Jal, Dictionnaire critique de biographie et d'histoire, Paris, 1867; 2nd ed. 1872, p. 212
  • E. Bellier de Chevignerie and L. Auvray, Dictionnaire generale des artistes de l'ecole francaise depuis l'origine des arts du dessin jusqu'a nos jours, I, Paris, 1882, p. 81
  • H. Stein in U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allegemeines Lexicon der bildenden Kunstler, III, Leipzig. 1909, p. 499
  • G. Janneau, La peinture francaise au XVIIe siecle, Geneva, 1965, p.265, Thierry Lefrancois, Nicolas Bertin, Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1981 pp. 16, 79, 101, 182 and 188, no. 1 and fig. 6

According to the Bible in the book of Genesis when God saw evil and corruption in the world He went to Noah and said (Genesis 6) 14. "Make thee an ark of gopher wood; with rooms shalt thou make the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. 15. And this is how thou shalt make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. 16. A light shalt thou make to the ark, and to a cubit shalt thou finish it upward; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. …18. …and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee. 19. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark…"

Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. In the center of the painting we see Noah with one of his sons pointing at the plans, seeming to say, like any architect to the contractor, "just follow the plans". Another son seems to be listening and on the left side is the third son, their wives and children.

On the right we see a bit of artistic license, - a team of muscular laborers. While showing this painting to a mother and son, we overheard the little boy say, "but Mother according to the Bible, the family built the ark". Out of the mouths of babes… Bertin has decided that for such a great endeavor Noah must have had some hired hands. I only worry how he broke the news to them that they were not invited on board!

Bertin obviously did not find the animals who would be invited into the ark to be of great interest but don’t miss the two heads of camels poking out between the workmen.

For this innovative work at the age of seventeen Bertin won the Prix de Rome. This official competition for art students was started by Louis XIV in 1666 at the suggestion of his finance minister, Colbert. The award was a scholarship to study at the French Academy in Rome which was considered the best place to get a classical education.

In 1688 Bertin cut his stay in Rome short, fleeing the irate parents of a Roman Princess with whom he had been having "an improper relationship". Returning to Paris, his libertine life style may have been the reason that he was not accepted into the Academy until 1702.

In his monograph on Bertin Thierry Lefrancois identifies the present painting as that which the young artist submitted for the annual grand concours of the Academie and which gained him the first prize for painting in 1685 (see literature). He further identifies a black chalk drawing in a Paris collection as the premiere pensee for the composition and reproduces a study for the right foreground workman in the Orleans Musee des Beaux Arts which is inscribed Etude de N. Bertin pour son prix de Rome de 1686 (sic)