Lot 76: Charles-Fran‡ois Hutin (Paris 1715-1776 Dresden)

Portrait of a young woman, half-length, holding a spaniel signed and dated 'c. hutin. Pix. 1767' (lower right) oil on canvas 303/4 x 22 in. (78.1 x 55.8 cm.) ENGRAVED Christian-Gottfried Schultze (1749-1819), as 'Dors ou bien fais semblant de dormir!' NOTES Hutin trained in Paris under Fran‡ois Lemoyne before travelling to Rome, where he became increasingly interested in sculpture. On his return to Paris in 1742, he produced a number of works in that medium, being received into the Acad‚mie Royale as a full member in 1747 on the presentation of Charon the Ferryman (Paris, Louvre), executed in marble. In 1748 Hutin took up the position of First Sculptor to Augustus III in Dresden, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. There, like his uncle Louis de Silvestre, he was to have a great impact on the artistic development of the Electoral state, not only teaching at the Dresden Academy (of which he became Director in 1762), but also working on the ambitious project to publish engravings of the major paintings from the Saxon royal collection. Throughout his career, however, he continued to paint, producing both large scale public commissions as well as intimate genre subjects, the present work being an excellent example of the latter, comparable with such works as the Young Girl with a book in the Gem„ldegalerie, Dresden (no. 791). The combination of French and German influences on the present work are typical of Hutin's Dresden work. That it may have been highly regarded is its own time is suggested by its having been engraved by Schultze, a pupil of Hutin's at the Dresden Academy. After leaving the Academy, Schultze travelled to Paris before returning to Dresden as Court Engraver, in which capacity he reproduced many of the works in the Electoral collection.