Lot 102: Portrait of a magistrate

Attributed to Alexis Loir (Paris 1712-1785)
Portrait of a magistrate
dated '1742' (?)
pastel, laid down on canvas
26½ x 22¼ in. (673 x 565 mm.)

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Loir was from a family of artists and was a sculptor as well as a pastellist. Agrée at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1746, he did not achieve full membership until 1779, but exhibited regularly at the Salon in the intervening years. He worked primarily in Paris, but also spent time in Rome (1739), England (1753) and Russia (1763-69).
This portrait of an unidentified magistrate shares similarities with other works by Loir, such as the dark grey background with a halo of light around the figure's head, and the application of different coloured pastels side-by-side. Loir's Portrait of Clément Belle now in the Louvre is comparable in its depiction of the sitter's fleshy, blue-veined hands and lushly textured, shimmering velvet robe (N. Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, London, 2006, p. 356).