Lot 23035: JEAN GEORGET (French 1768-1823) Louis XVIII ,

JEAN GEORGET (French 1768-1823) Louis XVIII , circa 1820 Oil on Paris porcelain 32-3/4 x 27 inches (83.3 x 68.6 cm) Signed middle right: Georget Jean Georget was an important French miniaturist and porcelain painter at the Sèvres manufactory during the reign of Louis XVIII. His most famous work, a sumptuously painted La Table des Saisons at Fontainebleu, is his unqualified masterpiece. In this portrait of LOUIS XVIII on Paris porcelain, Georget portrayed the monarch in his later years, only four years before his death. Louis had only recently been restored to the throne following the defeat of Napoleon. Jean Georget painted this portrait during his tenure at Sèvres, near the end of his own life but at the height of his artistic powers. It dates from circa 1820 judging from the details of the sitter's costume. Louis is dressed in a blue velvet frock coat, the sheen of which Georget seems to have relished painting. He achieved rich color and textural contrasts, pairing the gold royal epaulets and the medal of the Legion of Honor, with the sharp white jabot at the nape and the blue silk moiré sash. Provenance : Gift from Louis XVIII to Charles of Saxony; Thence from a royal Austrian family; Christie's, December 16, 2002; Crow Art Partnership Collection, Dallas, Texas Exhibition: (in Gobelins) Musée National du Château de Versailles. Literature: (La Table des Saisons) Sèvres, des Origines à nos Jours. Fribourg, 1978, p.245, pl. LVIII. In this portrait of the monarch who would establish a legislature and allow more personal freedom in post-Napoleonic France, Georget created a likeness of grandeur and dignity while maintaining a strong sense of realism: present are the monarch's piercing brown eyes, dominant nose, and the corpulent chin. Louis surely personally approved of this work, for he presented it as a gift of thanks to Charles of Saxony who had extended him hospitality at Rastrelli Palace in Latvia, during his period of exile This portrait also served as the model for a portrait tapestry of the king produced at the Gobelins Factory.