This painting probably belonged to important actors in the history of France linked to the city of Bagneux. In all likelihood, the artist of the Holy Family of Bagneux belongs to the generation of painters trained in the second half of the Great Century and active at the beginning of the eighteenth century, whose production was inspired by the examples of the first painters of the king, Charles Le Brun and Pierre Mignard. The frontal faces of the painting, as well as the glances staring at the spectator, the shadow under the eyes or the slightly pinched mouths are all elements evoking the art of Pierre Mignard and his epigones. These details can be found in famous works such as the Saint Jean-Baptiste (1688, Madrid, Prado Museum) or the Portrait of the Marquise de Maintenon (1684, Versailles, Palace). In this regard, it should be noted that the features of Mary’s face are close to those of Madame de Maintenon, a Marquise whose confessor François Gobelin resided at Bagneux, as the local scholar Antoine Guillois (1855-1913) reminds us. While local tradition has long placed the painting in the entourage of Pierre Mignard, Guillaume Kazerouni, in 2006, brought it closer to the production of Pierre-Jacques Cazes and Jean-Baptiste Santerre. However, the cold colour and rather firm drawing of the painting are quite far from Cazes' work. If the curved wall in the background directly evokes the Suzanne at the bath of Santerre (Paris, museum of the Louvre), the physical type of the Child Jesus and Joseph are quite distant from those of Santerre.
www.sauvegardeartfrancais.fr/projects/sainte-famille-bagneux/