Portrait of a Handsome Young Man wearing a Black Jacket & White Frilly Shirt

Circa 1815

Guerrino Guardabassi (Rome 1841 - 1893) Portrait of a Young Lady Oil on canvas 24 x 20 1/4 inches (61 x 51.5 cm)x` 32.5 x 28.5 inches framed (82.5 x 72.5 cm framed) Signed lower left...

Edmond Petitjean was born July 5, 1844, in Vosges. He made his debut at the Salon of 1874 and became a member of Salon of French Artists in 1883. He exhibited in Munich from 1890. H...

Christian-Henri Roullier was born in Lyon, France, in 1845, and was an infant when his parents arrived in gold-rush San Francisco. After much difficulty, Roullier senior found employment at the White House, a pioneer department store owned by a popular and successful French businessman, Raphael Weill. From then, the Roulliers' life took a prosperous turn. Christian-Henri resided with his family in San Francisco at the beginning of his career. During the Franco-Prussian War he was listed, with other members of the city's French community, as a local subscriber to a French patriotic fund. He subsequently traveled to Paris to study painting with Jean-Leon Gerome the leading teacher of the day. He also studied sculpture with W. E. Fremiet and explored both media throughout his life. A successful artist, Roullier exhibited widely in France. His work was included in most Paris Salon exhibits between 1878 and 1914. He exhibited at the San Francisco Art Association and the Mechanics' Institute of San Francisco in 1883, suggesting that he had returned to San Francisco, perhaps working with Jules Tavernier, whom he depicted in buckskin and knee-high boots in an oil entitled Tavernier Painting. Roullier probably joined the gregarious Tavernier in Monterey as well. Among his portraits, he executed two of Josiah Stanford, now in the collection at the Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University. When in France, Roullier and his sister Blanche spent half of their time in Paris, the remainder at a beautiful property the family bought in the small town of Saint-Nizier sous Charlieu, some ten miles from Roanne. Blanche became a successful pastellist who also exhibited at the French salons and received several awards. Like his friend and fellow-painter Armand Charnay, Roullier painted rustic, local scenes of his native region, except for a few canvases of Tunisia done in colors reminiscent of his California work. He died in Paris on July 25, 1926. A retrospective exhibit of his work was held at the 1926 Paris Winter...

Oil on canvas 38 x 29. 1/2 inches (96.5 x 74.9 cm.) Framed: 51 x 42 inches Signed lower right: Aimé Perret Aimé Perret participated regularly in the Salon in Paris, from 1870 to 188...

Painting, oil on canvas, measuring 92 x 75 cm without frame and 102 x 87 cm with frame depicting a nobleman of the French school of the first half of the 18th century. In its formal...

Painting oil on canvas measuring 92 x 75 cm without frame and 102 x 87 cm with frame depicting a rich lady of the French school of the first half of the 18th century. In its formal ...

Auguste-Joseph Delécluse (Roubaix 1855 - Paris 1928) Portrait of the artist's son, Eugène Delécluse Oil on canvas H. 98 cm; W. 116 cm Signed lower right 1903 Exhibition: 1903, Salon...

Louis-Gabriel BLANCHET (Versailles, 1701 – Rome, 1772) Presumed self-portrait of the artist Oil on canvas H. 73 cm; W. 60 cm Circa 1730 Originally presented in a Restoration period frame with a "Mignard" cartouche, this beautiful painting initially appeared to us as a work from northern Italy. However, it exuded a rather French form of refinement, suggesting that its artist may have assimilated a dual influence from both sides of the Alps. We thank our colleague and friend Philippe Mendès for spontaneously and judiciously "bringing out" the name of Louis-Gabriel Blanchet, a Romanized French portraitist, whose spirit and stylistic characteristics we clearly recognize here. Blanchet's "French" years, before his final departure for Rome in 1728, following his winning of the second Grand Prix for painting after Subleyras in 1727, are extremely poorly documented. His father, Gabriel, was valet to Blouin, himself Louis XIV's first valet at the time. According to Thierry Lefrançois, Blanchet was one of the few students of Nicolas Bertin (1667-1736), whose studio he is said to have joined in the early 1720s. At a baptism on March 24, 1724, where he was godfather, he is mentioned as a painter in the picture store of the Duke of Antin, the director of buildings between 1708 and 1736. At this time, he was probably already married to Jeanne Quément, with whom he had a daughter also named Jeanne, who would marry Nicolas Aviet, the son of a valet in the queen's wardrobe, in Versailles in 1738. When Blanchet arrived in Rome in October 1728, he was accompanied by Subleyras, Trémolières, and Slodtz. He enjoyed the goodwill of Vleughels, the director of the Académie de France, which had been based at the Palazzo Mancini since 1725, even though the latter was not always kind to our resident. From 1732, he was under the protection of the Duke of Saint-Aignan when he took up his post as ambassador to Rome. Along with Slodtz and Subleyras, they formed a trio of friends, joined by Joseph Vernet shortly after his arrival in Rome in 1734. Slodtz and Blanchet, on the occasion of Subleyras's marriage in 1739, were there to attest that their friend was not bound by any marital commitment, and Blanchet was a witness at Vernet's wedding in 1745. It is most likely from these early years in Rome that our portrait of the artist dates, the expression and turn of his face irresistibly reminiscent of a self-portrait. The still relatively youthful features may correspond to Blanchet's thirty-something years, and the fluffy wig was still fashionable at this time. The painting fits well with the depiction of a young painter wanting to display both the beginnings of success and a certain simplicity or restraint. A slight smile expresses a form of assurance in this man with a gentle, sincere gaze and a face radiating a keen sense of wit. We find here the air of intimacy present in almost all of Blanchet's portraits, even those from the 1750s and 1760s, as well as an almost complicity with the viewer. The spirit of the painting is quite close to that of the presumed portrait of Bouchardon (painted around 1730) and the portrait of Pannini, painted in 1736, but it possesses a more natural quality, notably thanks to the absence of decorum. Our work exhibits the characteristics of Blanchet's paintings: elegance, luminosity (especially in the whites), vibrant and refined colors (here, the harmony of the garnet of the garment and the slate blue of the background, whose uniformity is tempered by a very sketched landscape and a grove of greenery), light complexions, rather rosy cheekbones, often full lips, and rather tight framing. According to the Academy's rules, Blanchet's stay should have ended in the spring of 1732, but, for reasons unknown, he remained in the Eternal City until his death, as did his friend Subleyras, with whom he shared accommodation until the late 1730s. The latter regularly called upon him to collaborate on his paintings, such as The Meal at Simon's. Through Saint-Aignan's intervention, Blanchet was employed in the late 1730s by the Stuart princely family, then exiled in Italy. He notably produced copies (now lost) after Liotard of the portraits of Charles Edward and Henry Benedict, the sons of James III Stuart. The latter also commissioned three other portraits (now in the National Portrait Gallery in London), whose more formal character contrasts with the intimate spirit of Blanchet's portraits. Blanchet frequented English painters, such as the landscape painter Richard Wilson, and studied with the Scottish portraitist Katherine Read...