Lot 444: Jacques Guillaume Lucien Amans (French, 1801-1888,

Jacques Guillaume Lucien Amans (French, 1801-1888, active New Orleans, 1836-1856), "Portrait of Antoinette Decuir (1826-1896)", oil on canvas, signed upper left, 36 3/4 in. x 29 1/8 in., in a period giltwood frame.

Provenance: Descended in the Ellis/Denis/Beauvais-Decuir family, New Orleans and Pointe Coupée, Louisiana.

Note: The only daughter of Antoine Decuir and Louise Suzanne Antoinette de Beauvais, Antoinette Decuir inherited her father's estate in 1829 at the age of three. The land was managed by her mother and half-brother, Adolphe Tanneret, until Antoinette came of age. The vast estate was comprised of three large plantations, including River Lake Plantation, as well as their contents. Antoinette's property increased further upon her marriage to Arthur Denis in 1850. Their eldest daughter, Louise, married Charles Parlange in 1883 and resided at Parlange Plantation, where a portrait of Louise Suzanne Antoinette de Beauvais, attributed to Jacques Amans, is indicated as being present in1975. That portrait, which is illustrated in the Colonial Dames' Louisiana Portraits book, bears a great resemblance to the present lot, each portrait having sleek, dark hair, large eyes, and an oval face. Antoinette and Arthur Denis lived in New Orleans from as early as 1860 until their deaths.