Lot 54: Adèle Romany (? 1769-1846 Paris)

Adèle Romany (? 1769-1846 Paris)
A family portrait in a river landscape
signed and dated 'Aυdυl Romany; 1807' (lower center)
oil on canvas laid down on board
38½ x 51¼ in. (97.8 x 131.3 cm.)

PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

Adèle Romany, also known as Adèle de Romance or Adèle Romanée, was born Jeanne-Marie Mercier in 1769. She was the daughter of the marquis de Romance (a captain of the guard) and Jeanne-Marie Mercier, who was a married woman at the time that Adèle was conceived. At the age of nine she was recognized by her father and it was then that she adopted his name, Romance (she subsequently also changed her first name -- substituting her mother's name with her chosen name, Adèle), it was thus that she began her career as an artist. An unhappy marriage to the miniature painter François-Antoine Romany in 1790 resulted in the birth of a daughter; two more children were born after her divorce from Romany in 1793. Adèle Romany trained in a studio for female artists in Paris, directed by the wife of Jean-Baptiste Regnault. She exhibited widely at the Salon between 1793 and 1833 and is best known for her portraits of fellow artists, celebrated dancers and other fashionable sitters.

The present group portrait or 'conversation piece', dated 1807, is representative of the early, formal portraits produced by the artist when the influence of Regnault is most evident. This portrait is unrecorded and does not appear to have been exhibited at the Salon; the sitters have therefore yet to be identified. A similar portrait of 1804, representing members of Adèle Romany's family (cousins from her mother's side) was sold at Christie's, Paris, 26 June 2008, lot 76 (for Euro 66,500). Critics praised Romany's works in the first decade of the nineteenth century for their 'life-like appearance' and 'grace'.