Paris Tableau, the first international art fair dedicated to Old Master paintings, will open to the public from Friday 4 to Tuesday 8 November 2011 at the renowned Palais de la Bourse, the former stock exchange located in the heart of the Paris art scene. This important new event was devised by ten leading Parisian paintings dealers who wish to share their passion for the field and to encourage the wider appreciation of paintings from the 14th to the mid 19th centuries. They have invited ten important international colleagues from London, Amsterdam, Zurich, Rome, Madrid and New York to join them in this showcase for excellence.

The ten Paris dealers, led by Maurizio Canesso of Galerie Canesso, are Didier Aaron et Cie, Éric Coatalem, De Jonckheere, Talabardon & Gautier, Haboldt & Co, Jean-François Heim, Jacques Leegenhoek, Galerie Giovanni Sarti, and Galerie Claude Vittet. From London come Charles Beddington Ltd, Derek Johns Ltd, Stair Sainty Gallery and The Weiss Gallery; Amsterdam dealers Noortman Master Paintings and Kunsthandel P. de Boer will be joined by David Koetser Gallery from Zurich, Adam Williams Fine Art Ltd from New York, Galleria Cesare Lampronti from Rome and Galeria Caylus from Madrid.

One of the oldest works to be exhibited will be a beautiful gold-ground painting of the Virgin and Child dating from circa 1330 by Andrea Di Nerio, an important artist whose works rarely appear on the market, offered by Galerie Giovanni Sarti, while one of more recent will be shown by Jean-François Heim, an exhilarating rendition of the rushing waters of the river Velino below the famous Marmori falls at Terni in Umbria by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875) painted during the artist’s first visit to Italy in 1826.

The Weiss Gallery is delighted to be exhibiting for the first time in France two important works with strong resonance for French patrimony and culture. One is a moving scene of Christ carrying the cross dating from circa 1632-35 by Nicolas Tournier (1590-1639) that was once in an important chapel in Toulouse and has only recently been rediscovered. The second is a very rare portrait of Madeleine Le Clerc, circa 1570-72, by François Clouet (c.1515-c.1572). A dendrochronological examination has established that the panel is made from the same wood as a work by Clouet in the British Royal Collection.

Kunsthandel P. de Boer will bring to Paris an important view of La Grande Galerie du Louvre seen from the West with the Seine, the Porte Neuve, the Tour du Bois and the Pont Neuf by Abraham de Verwer (c.1585-1650). It was probably commissioned by Stadholder Prince Frederik Hendrik of Orange who asked the artist to visit Paris several times to paint views of the city. Indeed, De Verwer is considered to be the first painter to have executed such cityscapes, painting towering Dutch cloudscapes above Parisian panoramas.

Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697-1768), called Canaletto, was one of the most famous of all painters of Venice, and also travelled to other cities to paint. Galleria Cesare Lampronti will exhibit a stunning view of the Thames looking towards Westminster Bridge painted during the artist’s decade-long sojourn in England.

Didier Aaron & Cie will show an elegant portrait of a huntsman by Henri-Pierre Danloux (1753-1809) painted in 1802 just after he returned from England where he lived from 1792 to 1801. The seemingly simple composition of the young English dandy is rendered highly original through a trompe l’oeil of an astonishing fox brush hanging over a painting of a hunting scene.

Many of the finest artists travelled to work in other countries, especially Northern artists who visited Italy, and an example of this can be seen in An Inlet near Naples with a castle and Fisherfolk by the leading French landscape artist Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789) to be exhibited by Charles Beddington Ltd. Vernet’s grandson Émile-Jean-Horace Vernet (1789-1863) was one of the most prolific French military painters and Portrait of the Young Baron Le Selliers, 1811, is a fine full-length portrait of a young officer standing beside his horse to be shown by Derek Johns Ltd. Jacques Leegenhoek will offer a newly discovered and published allegory of the river Tiber by Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) and Gaspard Dughet (1613-1675) painted while Le Brun, who later became first painter to Louis XIV, was in Rome between 1642 and 1645.

De Jonckheere will feature a delightful winter landscape with skaters by Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1663), a hitherto unpublished roundel with colourful and lively figures painted with the delicacy and luminosity for which this exceptional painter is known. Deaf and dumb, Avercamp is the acknowledged master of winter scenes which he established as a distinct category in Dutch art. Of a panoramic landscape with travellers painted on copper in 1608 by Jan Bruegel the Elder (1568-1625), David Koetser said: “As soon as I saw the painting for the first time I felt I was among the horses and carts, listening to the noises and seeing the little boats shining in the light near the misty horizon, the sun warming my back. That is what I look for with Bruegel, I have to be convinced.”

Haboldt & Co will show Flora by the Florentine artist Vincenzo Mannozzi (1600-1658). The sensuous nude draped in a red cloak is painted on a large piece of grey-blue veined marble left bare in the background which gives the effect of a cloudy sky and confers the work with an extraordinarily modern quality. Another moving work is the painting of Saint Francis at prayer, circa 1650-66, by Fancisco de Zurbarán being shown by the Spanish dealer Galeria Caylus. Vulcan in his Forge is a very powerful work by Pompeo Batoni (1708-1787). Monogrammed and dated 1750 when the artist was in Rome, it is offered by Galerie Canesso while Galerie Claude Vittet will show a painting depicting Alexander the Great receiving Darius’ family by Hans Jordaens the Elder (c. 1539-1630).

Not surprisingly, visitors to Paris Tableau will discover a splendid selection of work by French painters. Talabardon & Gautier will offer La Sortie des orangers, a delightful work by Hubert Robert (1733-1808) showing gardeners wheeling out a tub of orange trees after the winter at the foot of the sweeping steps of a grand garden. A sensitive depiction of an alert doe in a wood by Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755), one of the outstanding animal painters of the 18th century, will be exhibited by Éric Coatalem, while an engaging scene of a young woman attending to her correspondence in her boudoir by Louis-Rolland Trinquesse (1746-1800) is being shown by Stair Sainty Gallery. Allegory of Poetry by Eustache Le Sueur (1616-1655) will be shown by Noortman Master Paintings and a charming portrait of a young woman with a black scarf by Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) will travel from New York with Adam Williams Fine Art.

Old Master paintings may hit the headlines less frequently than contemporary art but the pleasures and rewards of collecting this field are manifold. Paris Tableau will enable collectors and curators to make their choice among major paintings, many of which are exhibited for the first time, and give art lovers the opportunity to meet and share their passion with art dealers.