Louise HERSENT

A young woman reading a letter. Study figure

1812

Nicolas Edward GABE (Paris, 1814 - Paris, 1865) The death of General Négrier on Place de la Bastille on June 25, 1848 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 82 x 101 cm 1849 Nicolas Edward Gabé is a 19th century artist who is still little studied to this day and yet seems to have enjoyed, according to the artistic press of the time, a certain notoriety, in particular for his seascapes. The few bibliographical elements that we have come from the Salon booklets and tell us that the artist was born in Paris in 1814, therefore shortly before the end of the Empire. No elements on his artistic training are mentioned in the booklets, we just know that Gabé exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1835 to 1864 where he first practiced miniature then then approached easel painting, risking himself as well in still life that the seascapes, the landscape, the portrait or the hunting. According to press articles, he also took part in various exhibitions in the provinces such as Boulogne-sur-Mer and Marseille. Notably, Gabé did not exhibit at the Salon his large historical canvases on the revolution of 1848, which today are of obvious documentary and iconographic interest; probably for political reasons which are easily understandable to us today in view of the historical events of then. Gabé died in Paris at the age of 51 on January 4, 1865 with a mention in the January 7, 1865 edition of L'Union des Arts: “The death of Mr. Gabé, painter, well known in the export trade in paintings as well as to the auctioneers' hotel, whose sales it supplied through its numerous navies. “ "On June 25, 1848, in front of the barricades erected in the Bastille by the insurgents of the Red Republic, General Négrier fell to death, while he was uttering words of order and conciliation". Here are the opening lines of the tribute paid by Colonel Borgarelli d´Ison, friend of General Négrier. General Négrier belonged to a family from Maine, brought back by Marshal Lannes from emigration. Born in Le Mans on April 27, 1788, François Marie Casimir de Négrier entered, barely 18, as a volunteer in the 2nd Light Infantry Regiment. He began in 1806 with the campaigns of Prussia and Poland, during which he earned, through his bravery, the rank of sergeant and the decoration of the Legion of Honor. He made the following campaigns in Spain and Portugal, and left, with his regiment, only for the campaign of France, in 1814, after having risen successively, by actions of brilliance and by a serious wound, to the ranks of head of battalion and officer of the Legion of Honor, with which he was provided from October 1813. The Restoration retained his rank in his regiment. After having fought and wounded a second time seriously in Waterloo, Négrier was recalled in 1816 under the second Restoration. He was appointed, in 1825, lieutenant-colonel, then colonel in 1830, brigadier general in 1836, and of division in 1841. From March 1837 he participated in the conquest of Algeria. The Revolution of 1848 found Negrier in possession of the important command of the 16th Military Division in Lille. Quaestor of the Assembly in these times which promised to be troubled, Négrier reviewed the Place de la Concorde on June 23 at around noon various mobile guard battalions. He then took the head of 2,000 men provided by the 10th and 11th legions of the national guard and bivouacked on the Place du Palais until the next day 24. On Sunday 25 at nine o'clock, the Négrier division resumed the fight towards the Saint suburb. -Antoine. The troop gains continual advantages. At around two o'clock the column of Négrier had seized the Pont Marie: it had removed the barricades from the Quai Saint-Paul, the rue de l'Etoile, the rue des Barres...

After Louis-Stanislas MARIN-LAVIGNE (Paris, 1797 – Paris, 1860) Portrait of Colonel Charles-Louis-Prosper Marquis de Chérisey (1786-1837) in the uniform of commander of the 38th lin...

French school of the second half of the 19th century, follower of Oudry Blue macaw perched on a branch Oil on canvas 73 x 60 cm

Attributed to Jeanne Élisabeth CHAUDET (Paris, 1761 – Paris, 1832) Cupid holding his arrow Oil on oval canvas Not signed 33 x 26.5 cm Élisabeth Chaudet, born Gabiou in Paris on Ja...

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...

Auguste Adolphe CHAUVIN (Liege, 1810 – Liege 1884) Portrait of Coraline Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 91 x 68cm 1868 Auguste Adolphe Chauvin, born in Liège on October 2...

Jean DESPUJOLS (Salles 1886 – Shreveport 1965) Portrait of a Henri Martin, mayor of Saint Médard en Jalles (Gironde) Oil on canvas H. 75 cm; L. 60 cm Signed lower right around 1920/2...

Francisque POULBOT (Saint-Denis, 1879 - Paris, 1946) Poster project for the Bal de la Mode - February 25, 1922 Charcoal and oil on canvas H. 99 cm; W. 91 cm Signed lower right In th...