Jean-Benoît SUVEE (Bruges 1743-Rome 1807) Le Commerce. Oil on canvas. 20.4 x 27.3 cm. Sketch for La Science ou Le Commerce, commissioned, around 1780-1783, from Suvée with three other allegories, L'Abondance ou La Terre, La Tempérance ou l'Eau, et la Liberté, by his compatriot Joseph van Huerne (1755-1844), magistrate, lord of Schiervelde and Puyenbeke, patron and collector. Provenance: 1- Inventory after the artist's death, Paintings and sketches with gilded wooden borders, "L'abondance, la tempérance, la liberté et le commerce, esquisses sur toile"; 2 - Paris, Suvée Sale, 4-7 November 1807 "Paintings and sketches with borders, no. 29, "L'Abondance, la Tempérance, la Liberté et le Commerce. Four sketches. T."; 3 - Bruges, A Dullaert, Van Huerne sale, 21 October 1844, no. 104 "Science or Commerce" (acquired by Van Ham Bruges); Bibliography: Sophie Join-Lambert, Anne Leclair, Joseph-Benoît Suvée 1743-1807. Un artiste entre Bruges, Rome et Paris, p. 235, cat. P. 117 (Paris 2017).