Loading Spinner
Don’t miss out on items like this!

Sign up to get notified when similar items are available.

Lot 50: LOUIS GAUFFIER

Est: $150,000 USD - $200,000 USD
Sotheby'sNew York, NY, USJanuary 26, 2011

Item Overview

Description

LOUIS GAUFFIER POITIERS 1762 - 1801 FLORENCE PORTRAIT OF AN OFFICER, THOUGHT TO BE GÉNÉRAL JEAN-CLAUDE MOREAU (1755 -1828), FULL LENGTH, IN UNIFORM, ON A TERRACE, A VIEW OF FLORENCE BEYOND signed, inscribed and dated: L. Gauffier. Flor./ an 9. e oil on canvas 25 3/8 by 18 1/8 in.; 64.5 by 46 cm.

Artist or Maker

Provenance

Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Gentleman'), London, Christie's, 13 December 1996, lot 62;
There purchased by the present collector.

Notes

Upon winning the Prix de Rome in 1784, Louis Gauffier immediatley moved to Rome as a pensionnaire at the French Academy. He remained in Italy, except for a brief trip to Paris in 1789, until his early death in 1801. In 1793 anti-French demonstrations in Rome forced Gauffier to flee to Florence, where in order to make a living he largely abandoned historical, mythological and religious themes, and began executing portraits. The majority of his sitters were British and French army officers, as is the case here in one of Gauffier's last, and finest portraits from his time in Florence.

Though traditionally described as a portrait of Général Jean-Claude Moreau (1755-1828), it is somewhat unclear as to the definite identity of the sitter, given the fact that a variant was sold in the Boberg sale, Stockholm, Bukowski, 30 October- November 1946, lot 102, where the sitter was identified as Général Claude-Ignace-Francois Michaud (1751-1833). The uniform of the sitter here is that of Chef du Brigade, Moreau's rank in Italy from 23 September 1800 to 22 September 1801 (he was not promoted to General until 1803, after Gauffier's death). The named sitter in the variant, Michaud, was already a general by 1801, and Gauffier would have presumably depicted him as such in a portrait. Furthermore, Michaud is documented in Lombardy at this time, and the present portrait most obviously indicates a picture completed in Florence.

This composition can be found in a composite work of eleven small scale, finished oil sketches by Gauffier, all executed on the same canvas, and now in the collection of the Musée Fabre, Montpellier (fig. 1). The Montpellier canvas represents individuals who were in Italy during Gauffier's time there, and may have served as a personal record for the artist of works which he executed during his sojourn abroad. Similar to the present example, Gauffier painted full scale portraits of other sitters shown in the Montpellier canvas. For example, that of Elizabeth Webster, later Lady Holland (1795; sold, London, Christie's, 13 December 1996, lot 63), one of the last British sitters for Gauffier, who was in Florence beginning from June 1793, and throughout parts of the following year. Further portraits from the Montpellier canvas, also known in full size compositions, are those of The Salucci Family (1800; Musée Marmottan, Paris), and a Portrait of an Officer of the Cisalpine Republic (1801; Musée Marmottan, Paris).

Auction Details