Early 1800s Figurative Paintings

Bernard GAILLOT (Versailles 1780 – Paris, 1847) Portraits of two sisters Pair of oil on canvas H. 92 cm; L. 73 cm One signed Student of David, he presented his first works at the Salon of 1810. Mainly known for his portraits of children, his work does not seem extremely vast. More than a dozen religious paintings are kept in large Parisian or provincial churches (Val de Grâce, Saint-Denis, Notre Dame des Victoires, Collégiale d'Eu, etc.), and a few paintings on historical subjects are kept at the Palace of Versailles, made during major orders from Louis-Philippe for the opening of the Versailles Museum. He also produced numerous humorous drawings, mainly in wash, some of which were engraved. Our two portraits of little girls most certainly represent sisters and had remained in the family until today. Unfortunately, time has made them lose their identity... One is shown sitting at the foot of a tree, in front of a kiosk with very beautiful neoclassical architecture. She holds in her arms a multitude of freshly picked flowers, which she holds awkwardly. His sister with her little red patent shoes...

The Arcadian View Italian School, circa 1800 Grand Tour subject oil on canvas, unframed canvas : 12 x 16 inches provenance: private collection, UK condition: very good and sound cond...

French school circa 1800 Portrait of a child in the clouds H. 40 cm; L. 32 cm This luminous portrait is that of a child of three or four years old, represented in the clouds. The ve...

Jean-Victor BERTIN and workshop (1767, Paris – 1842, Paris) Landscape of Ile de France Oil on canvas H. 38 cm; L. 46 cm Related work: painting of the same composition preserved at t...

Alexander Nasmyth (1758-1840) is a renowned Scottish artist and early plein art landscape artist, whose six children also became well known artists. Work by Nasmyth is highly valued....

Wonderful and outstanding example by one of England's known and much-loved 18th and 19th-century painters. Morland was an English painter who became one of the most popular artists o...

English School, circa 1800 Napoleonic Wars Marine Scene oil on canvas, framed framed: 10.5 x 13 inches canvas: 8 x 10 inches private collection, England condition: The painting is i...

English School, circa 1800 Napoleonic Wars Period marine scene with soldiers on a French beach. oil on canvas, framed framed: 10.5 x 13 inches canva...

This painting is a quite elaborate and finished study of the figure of the decimvir Appius Claudius and of his entourage with the lictors, who stand out on the left side of the monumental canvas of the Death of Virginia painted by Vincenzo Camuccini between the 1799 ad the 1804, today housed in the Museum of Capodimonte in Naples. In respect to the painting in Naples and the very beautiful signed d’apres held in the Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Mansi in Lucca (in all ways identical to the painting in Capodimonte), this small canvas-cropped on all sides by approximately 1 cm by an old reframing around which is stretched the original canvas-shows few but significant compositional variations. There is a different composition and totally different progression to the figures faintly outlined with very thin oil in white and pale blue in the background on the right. The fasces held by the lictors of Appius Claudius also seem slightly varied in number and style in respect to the painting in Naples. The figure at the left shoulder of Appius Claudius in second position, for example, holds just one in his hands, while in the final painting there would be two. Other small discrepancies can be found in the faces and emotional states of the squad of figures by the right shoulder of Appius Claudius. However, the variation most important to understanding the value of the drafting of this painting within the long creative process that led to the definitive work today seen at the Capodimonte, although of feeble visible evidence, is that which regards the rendering of a head that falls exactly at the height of the left hand of Appius Claudius, just to the side of the throne in which the decemviro is seated and on which is designed the Roman She-wolf. The figure, whose body is completely hidden by the bearded man with the green tunic...

This replica of the last self-portrait of Jean-Baptiste Greuze painted in 1804, executed by his daughter Anna at her father's side and recently rediscovered, provides us with a poignant image of the great artist, represented with panache despite the disillusions of life. 1. Jean-Baptiste Greuze Jean-Baptiste Greuze was the sixth child of a roofer from Tournus and retained a certain rusticity in his behaviour from his provincial childhood, beyond his taste for describing picturesque scenes of the countryside. He initially started training with a little-known painter from Lyon, Charles Grandon, before his genius was recognised in Paris where he became a full-time student of the Académie (of Painting) in 1755. He exhibited his work for the first time at the Salon during the summer of 1755, before leaving on a trip to Italy in the company of Louis Gougenot, abbot of Chezal-Benoît. Upon his return to Paris, Greuze became a prolific painter, participating widely in the Salons held between 1759 and 1765, to which he sent no less than 63 paintings: numerous genre scenes (The Marriage Contract, The Beloved Mother), but also portraits of his family circle, of courtiers and art lovers, or of his colleagues. The Academy closed the doors of the Salons to him in 1767 for not having produced his reception piece within six months of his reception, as was the tradition. He worked actively on this painting (Emperor Severus rebukes Caracalla, his son, for trying to assassinate him ) until the summer of 1769, tackling historical and mythological subjects for the first time. Once this was completed, he was then fully admitted to the Academy, but as a genre painter, and not as an historical painter, which had been one of the greatest humiliations of his life. Greuze then refused any participation in events organised by the Academy or its successor, the Academy of Fine Arts until 1800. Abandoning history painting, he gave a new twist to genre scenes, bringing them closer to history painting, as in this pair of canvases which constitutes some of his masterpieces: The Paternal Curse: The Ungrateful Son and The Paternal Curse: The Punished Son . Married in 1759 to Anne-Gabrielle Babuti, the daughter of a Parisian bookseller, his marriage was unhappy and his wife probably frequently unfaithful. The institution of divorce enabled him to record their separation in 1793, keeping his two daughters Anna-Geneviève, born in April 1762, and Louise-Gabrielle, born in May 1764, with him. Little is known about his daughter Anna except that she was herself a painter and lived with her father until his death. It is likely that most of the paintings she produced up to that date were attributed to her father, whose technique she shared to a great extent, making it extremely difficult to establish an autonomous corpus of her paintings. Greuze died in his studio at the Louvre on March 21st 1805. The attention paid to the expressivity of his characters and the emotional charge they convey enabled Jean-Baptiste Greuze to enjoy immense popularity with the eighteenth-century public, and they still constitute Greuze's true modernity. As the artist said, "I dipped my brush in my heart". Greuze was also an exceptional draughtsman and a portraitist of immense talent and exceptional longevity who painted both the Dauphin (the son of Louis XV and father to Louis XVI) and the young Napoleon Bonaparte. 2. Greuze's self-portraits Greuze was very much influenced by Dutch paintings during all his life. While the source of his inspiration for genre scenes can be found in Gerard Dou...

This is one of Raeburns best works from his best period that is not in a museum or private collection. Three-quarter length portrait, seated in a white dress with a black scarf over...

The Condition is fair. work has been slightly over-cleaned. A heavy layer of glossy varnish. The surface of the canvas is undulated and most apparent from extreme side view . Yet in...

After Francis Wheatley, circa 1800 The Taming of the Shrew Oil on canvas; held in a period style frame. Dimensions refer to size of frame Artists and patrons in the eighteenth ...

Attributed to George Morland. 19th Century English Antique, Two Country farmers drinking beer in a landscape. Wonderful early 19th-century original oil on canvas. A classic 'Morland' composition as the painter was a big fan of English Pub scenes...