Lot 48: Leonard Defrance (LiŠge 1735-1805)

Officers recruiting in an inn signed 'L. Defrance De Liege' (centre, on the table) oil on panel 231/2 x 31 1/8 in. (59.7 x 76.5 cm.) PROVENANCE Emile Vierset. LITERATURE J. Vallery-Radot, 'Quelques dates dans l'oeuvre de L‚onard Defrance de LiŠge', La Revue d'art, 27, June 1926, p. 35. F. Dehousse, M. Pacco and M. Pauchen, L‚onard Defrance 1735-1805, LiŠge, 1985, p. 118, no. 101, illustrated pp. 56 and 119. EXHIBITION LiŠge, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Retrospective L. Defrance - M. Herman, 1925, no. 28, 'Int‚rieur de taverne'. LiŠge, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Exposition de l'Art de l'ancien pays de LiŠge et des anciens arts wallons, 1930, no. 896, 'ScŠne d'enr“lement'. LiŠge, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Art mosan et arts anciens du pays de LiŠge, September-October 1951, no. 716, 'L'enr“lement au cabaret'. LiŠge, Les fastes Militaires, 1970. LiŠge, Mus‚e de l'Art wallon et de l'Evolution culturelle de la Wallonie, Le SiŠcle des LumiŠres dans la Principaut‚ de LiŠge, October-December 1980, no. 395(n). NOTES This is one of two closely similar compositions, the other being the painting in the Bayerische Staatsgem„ldesammlungen, Munich (inv. no. 1946). Mrs. Pacco, to whom we are very grateful for her assistance, regards the present work as of at least as good quality as that in Munich, which she lists, after the present picture, as no. 102 in her catalogue raisonn‚ ( op. cit. ). There are two preparatory drawings for the composition; the first, in the Mus‚es Royaux des Beaux Arts, Brussels, is a sketch for the main group of figures (fig. a; charcoal and traces of sanguine, 26 x 41.5 cm.); the second is a study for the female figures (private collection; charcoal and sanguine). In addition, the figure of the soldier reading a military gazette reappears in an Interior of an inn by Defrance in the Bredius Museum, The Hague. Vallery-Rodot, loc. cit., noted that the grey uniforms with pink facings and gold buttons belonged to the Lyonnais regiment, and that they can be used to date the picture to between 1779 and 1789. The subject was a popular one in Defrance's oeuvre, and reflected the Principality of LiŠge's status in the eighteenth century as one of the favourite locations for military recruitment. Copyright Cabinet des dessins, Mus‚es Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Belgique.