A portrait of a young man 19th century oil on canvas

"As the incarnate of dawn shines in the morning, such a blushed Diane's complexion exposed without veils to the eyes of a mortal" Les Métamorphoses by Ovide Less tragic is our destin...

Louis Felix Amiel 1802-1864. Ecole national superieure des Beaux Arts. This painting signed bottom left is of exceptional quality resembles the playwright Charles Theodore Cogniard t...

"The Maternity" by Jose Royo oil on board. Oil on board Jose Royo's "The Maternity." Even in its small frame, this powerful painting packs a big punch becau...

An amazing 19th century view of Capitoline Hill Rome before and during the Great Fire of Rome AD64 destroying 2 thirds of the city. This is a rare a...

A 19th century terracotta statue of a North African carrying water by Joseph Le Guluche. The subjects of Joseph Le Guluche have a great presence, always very expressive, often in mo...

An exquisite set of a pair of North African orientalist/africanist terracotta sculptures of a man and female conveying water containers. Most likely by Goldsheider, incredibly molded...

Julius EXNER (Copenhagen, 1825 - Copenhagen, 1910) Model stripping Oil on canvas H. 122 cm; L. 74 cm Signed and dated 1842 lower right Exhibition: most likely Charlottenborg Salon of 1845, under number 110, titled Modelfigur, awarded with a silver medal Provenance: Emilio Fernando Bolt (c.1860 - 1944), acquired from the artist around 1900, then by descent Our painting was produced as part of the summer sessions organized between 1839 and 1850 by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1783-1853), the master of Danish painting of the first half of the 19th century, in his private studio-apartment on the ground floor. floor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. The master brought together a few students there between June and September, rented one or two models for the season, which were painted from different angles, the artists (including Eckersberg himself) sitting side by side. Eckersberg used to paint a fairly small version, the pupils of the larger formats. The work fits more generally into the legendary context of the research and reforms carried out by Eckersberg concerning the studies of nudes and in particular of female nudes, to make this exercise a genre of painting in its own right. Following his two-year stint in Jacques-Louis David's studio in Paris in 1811, Eckersberg had been made aware of work on the nude and in particular on live models, in natural light, while in Denmark the drawings were then only made from casts of antique models or other mannequins. In 1822, when he had been a professor there since 1818, it was he who had the Royal Academy of Copenhagen authorize the study of nudes, no longer in the evening by candlelight, but in natural light; from 1833, it was still he who allowed students to work on nude female models, even if the official authorization of the Academy did not take place until 1839. It was this same year that he instituted his summer sessions, on a private basis, to orient his painting and that of his students towards a new conception of the representation of models: even if the nude remains the real theme, it does not however, this is more than just an academic exercise. The subject is placed in a contemporary interior, with a rather sophisticated decor, and occupied with an intimate activity (it is this type of intimate vein that we will find later in Degas or Cassatt for example); thus in our painting, the young woman is supposed to take off her clothes to wash. The objective is that the viewer forgets that the master and his students are painting a model during a posing session, and that he instead has the impression of being alone with the model, but invisible, almost like a voyeur in spite of himself. Moreover, in these paintings, the model never looks towards the spectator, inducing a psychological distance with him, whereas model and artist are actually physically very close. On the other hand, it is not a question of idealized nudes either, even if Eckersberg, proof of his debt to the antique, chooses fairly classic models and poses. The sensuality is real and very present, with dreamy, even innocent, and timeless expressions (the models do not seem to have a defined age), suave and slow attitudes and movements, and especially with clothes that hide or reveal skillfully parts of the female body: upper buttocks, pronounced hips... Made by an artist under 20, our sensual painting is probably one of the most beautiful and spectacular produced by the students of Eckersberg during these summer sessions. With a perfect balance between the firmness of an ancient statue (it recalls the Venus de Milo) and the softness of the feminine forms, highlighted by a harmonious palette, it captures the attention with many details: the almost photographic folds white clothing...

Nicolas de LARGILLIERRE (Paris 1656 – 1746) Portrait of a woman, presumed to be Marie-Anne de Bourbon, Princess of Conti (1666-1739) Oil on oval canvas H. 80 cm; L. 61 cm (107 x 91 c...

Attributed to Jacques DUMONT aka DUMONT LE ROMAIN (Paris 1701 - 1781) Presumed portrait of Louis-Joseph de Formanoir (?-1732) Oil on canvas H. 91.5 cm; ...

French school circa 1840 Sketch of a dandy portrait Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard H. 21 cm; L. 20.5 cm

Charles FRÉCHOU (Paris 1820 – Paris 1900) Portrait of a child with a cat Oil on canvas H. 41 cm; L. 33 cm Signed lower left and dated 1849 Apart from participation in the Salon betw...

After Baron Gérard, circa 1835 Portrait of King Louis-Philippe Oil on canvas H. 79 cm; L. 65 cm Provenance : Private collection, Périgord, by descent since the 19th century This po...