La tour de Batz au coucher du soleil

Inscriptions: Signed (lower left)

Provenance: Robert Zunz, Paris (acquired circa 1940)

Christie’s, Paris, June 14, 2010, lot 25

Sotheby’s, New York, 3 November 2011, lot 222

Christie’s, Paris, 14 June 2019, lot 25

Exhibitions: Salon des Indépendants, Paris, Grande Serre de l’Alma et des Invalides, Cour de la Reine, 1905, titled La tour de Batz, no. 2901

Note: This painting represents the Église Saint-Guénolé in Batz-sur-Mer, France. Built in the 15th and 16th centuries, this flamboyant Gothic style church, in close proximity to Metzinger’s home town of Nantes, is topped by a 60 meters high bell tower, surrounded by pinnacles visible in the painting. The church was topped by a wooden bell tower originally, but it was struck by lightning twice in the same place, in 1603 and again in 1657. The construction of a stone bell tower was made possible through a tax levied on wine sold at retail in the territory in 1677.

There exists an earlier version of this scene painted by Metzinger, of similar dimensions.