Lot 334: AUGUSTE JEAN-BAPTISTE VINCHON

PORTRAIT OF NENCY DESTOUCHES
signed and dated lower right: A. Vinchon./août 1829.

32 1/8 by 25 3/4 in.; 82 by 64.4 cm.

oil on original canvas

Olivier Le Fuel, Paris

Vinchon, a pupil of Serangeli and David, entered the Prix de Rome in 1813 and won second prize with the Death of Jacob. The following year he won the Grand Prix with the subject Diagoras Carried in Triumph by His Sons, earning him a stay at the Villa Medici in Rome from 1814-1819. Upon his return to France, he was commissioned to paint frescoes for the Chapelle Saint-Maurice in Saint-Sulpice, Paris and, in 1830, he won two large commissions: The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple for Nôtre Dame de Lorette, Paris and Boissiy d'Anglas Saluting the Severed Head of the Deputy Féraud for the decoration of the Salle des Séances in the National Assembly. The latter commission was won over several more established artists, including Delacroix. Vinchon also exhibited regularly at the Salon from 1822-1855.

The sitter, Nency Destouches, may be the daughter of the painter Paul-Emile Detouches, called Destouches (1794-1874), who excelled in the depiction of genre subjects in the Paris Salons between 1817-1841.