Pierre GOBERT (Fontainebleau or Paris 1662 - 1744 Paris), circa 1712

Portrait of François III of Lorraine, future Duke of Lorraine,

gand-duke of Tuscany and Emperor, aged three (1708-1765)

Oil on canvas, 89.5 x 70 cm

PROVENANCE

- France, Sologne, private collection and by descent for several generations until 2016

THE PATRON

Born in Innsbruck and raised in exile at the court of the Hapsburgs in Austria, Duke Leopold (1679-1729), father of the sitter, did not recuperate full sovereignty of his Duchies of Lorraine and Bar until after the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697. The Emperor’s nephew by birth and that of Louis XIV by his marriage to Elisabeth-Charlotte of Orleans, Leopold I had an elevated idea of the majesty of his functions and the ostentation with which he should be surrounded, and didn’t hesitate to imitate the Sun King. During his thirty years reign, the country which had been devastated by a century of wars now recovered peace, prosperity, and the fine arts. Leopold created a Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture instituted a pension system which made it possible for artists to be trained in Rome, and invited – often at great expense – French and Italian musicians, architects, and painters who transformed his Lunéville residence into a second Versailles.
An indefatigable builder, Leopold had Jules Hardouin-Mansart, brought to Nancy, and then the Lyonnais painter Pierre Bourdict, Coysevox’ brother-in-law, and at the latter’s death, Germain Boffrand. To produce allegorical ceilings, history scenes and portraits, the duke turned to Parisians Jean-Baptiste Martin, “painter of the king’s conquests,” Jean-Baptiste Durupt from the Gobelins, Jean-Louis Guyon of the Academy of Saint Luke, and especially members of the Royal Academy: Jacques Van Schuppen and Pierre Gobert, who both arrived in 1707. 

Sold in 2017 to the Lunéville château des Lumières Museum

Ambroise Louis GARNERAY (Paris 1783 - 1857 Paris)

The Third Battle of Ouessant, May-June 1794

Signed and dated 1838 lower right, inscribed on the flag upper right

Oil on canvas (re-lined), 56 x 76.5 cm

PROVENANCE

- Private collection Neuilly sur Seine (Anonymous sale; Saint-Cloud, Le Floch, 02 October 2016, lot n ° 26);

- Galerie Barnabé until 2017.

EXHIBITION

Salon of 1838, n ° 772 (the dimensions indicated are 80 by 100 cm with the frame)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Catalog of the exhibition Louis Garneray 1783 - 1857 Painter, Writer, Adventurer, museums of Honfleur and Dunkirk in 1997, p. 104, 105 & 182

Didier Rykner, "A painting by Garneray for the Brest Museum of Fine Arts" on La Tribune de l'Art site. Page read on 09/13/2018,; repr. in color.

The boat the Marseillois, which had taken part in the American war of independence, was renamed the Avenger by the revolutionaries at the beginning of 1794. During the battle of 13 Prairial Year II against the English fleet, its men took an oath to fight until death and sink while defending the tricolor (episode here in the background). At least according to the propaganda pleadings of lawyer Barrère who, from the platform of the Convention, transformed the defeat into a patriotic sacrifice (because in truth the captain had abandoned the wounded and the crew had been saved by the English…).

The Salon catalog details the action as follows: “In the battle fought on 13 Prairial by the French fleet, commanded by Admiral Villaret de Joyeuse, against the English fleet, commanded by Admiral Howe, the 74 (guns ), the Avenger, attacked by superior forces, had been dismasted, riddled with water on all sides. The sailors on board then hastened to nail the flags to the wreckage of the masts, and the crew assembled on the forecastle, renewed the oath to conquer or die, and triumphantly carried the colors into the abyss. from France ".

Sold in 2018 to the Brest Fine Arts Museum