Octave Gallian

"Portrait of Elegant" Signed and dated 1895 Oil on Canvas in Frame

1895

Portrait of a woman with jewelry, early 18th-century Dutch school by painter Gérard Wigama (1673-1741). Monogram in the lower right corner on the base of the GW column. Fine Arts exp...

Modesto Faustini (1839-1891), "Portrait of elegant," oil on canvas in gilt frame signed lower right "M. Faustini - Rome." This splendid portrait belongs to one of the most flourishi...

Léon Herbo (1850-1907), "Portrait of a Girl," oil painting on canvas signed and dated 1884 lower left. In its original gilt frame. With extreme elegance and refinement, Léon Herbo p...

Martin Borgord (1869-1935) Active in California, New York, Paris, Holland "Portrait of an Elegant Woman," oil painting on wood signed lower right and dedicated to Madame Merlet. Attended: San Francisco Art Association School of Design, Académie des Beaux-Arts de Paris, Académie Julian de Paris, New York School of Art "In the past I worked on light and shadow effects. Now I paint exclusively for unusual effects and color harmonies." It is with these words that Martin Borgord, a Norwegian-born but naturalized American painter, interviewed by a journalist from the Hartford Courant, explains our painting.Straddling the line between Impressionism and Expressionism, the elegant lady loses the sharpness of detail, blending with light and color in quick, dense brushstrokes. Excellent state of preservation.Presented in antique carved and silvered wooden frame. It has a regular Fine Arts export certificate. Measurements Panel 41 x 33 cm Frame 51x43 cm BIOGRAPHY Martin Borgord was born February 8, 1869, in Guasdal, Norway, and died March 25, 1935, in Riverside, California. At the age of 16, Borgord resided in San Francisco and enrolled to study with Virgil Macey Williams (1830-1886) at the San Francisco Art Association School of Design. Interested in both painting and sculpture, Borgord will go to Paris. He was accepted to study at the Académie Julian with Jean-Paul Laurens and at the Académie des Beaux-Arts with sculptor Charles Raoul Verlet. In 1896, Martin Borgord returned to New York and enrolled in the new Chase School of Art (later renamed the New York School of Art) with William Merritt. In 1899, influential art dealer William Macbeth, dedicated to the cause of promoting American art, represented Borgord in New York.With his friend and fellow artist William Henry Singer...

Pensive Thoughts by Annie Faure (French 1940-2021) signed lower corner oil painting on canvas, unframed canvas size: 19.5 x 24 inches condition: overall very good, minor surface scuf...

French School circa 1645 Portrait of Cardinal Mazarin - Sketch Oil on canvas H. 41.5 cm; W. 27 cm Provenance: Collection of the Reverend Georges Downing Bowles (1789-1863) Would ...

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...

French School, Portrait of an Ottoman, Oil on Canvas, 19th century, unsigned, giltwood frame. Image: 24" H x 19.5" W; frame: 30" H x 24.25" W. Keywords: Painting, Oil painting, Wor...