Joseph-Siffred DUPLESSIS (1725-1812) - Lot 368

Joseph-Siffred DUPLESSIS (1725-1812) Portrait of a man in an embroidered frock coat wearing a medal of the Military Order of Saint-Louis. Saint-Louis Oil on canvas. H_92 cm x W_73 cm Modern carved and gilded wood frame, in the taste of Infroit productions. Joseph-Siffred Duplessis (1725-1802) was a French painter of the 18th century. By creating a large portrait of Louis XVI in royal costume, he established himself as a successor to Louis-Michel Van Loo (1707-1771) and Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659-1743). He gained international renown with his famous portrait of Benjamin Franklin, which later decorated the American hundred-dollar bill. Typical of his style, our painting demonstrates the painter's skill in rendering textures and flesh tones. His brushwork is deft and his brushstrokes very free, which explains the confusion with Fragonard (1732-1806) at the turn of the century. Beneath a still-clear varnish, the painting, whose pigments have become transparent, reveals clearly visible indentations in the bicorne. The model's position, with one hand in his vest, is reminiscent of the portrait of Louis XVI at the Château de Versailles, painted around 1774-1775. Kept in prestigious collections for over a century, our still anonymous portrait still has a secret to reveal. Long attributed to Watteau, then to Jean Honoré Fragonard, it was finally reintegrated into the Joseph Siffred Duplessis corpus. But the identity of the model is still unknown. Proudly wearing the medal of the military order of Saint-Louis on his chest, the man depicted also bears a scar that he wished to make clearly visible. In the XVIIIᵉ century, it was customary to ask painters to soften certain flaws; this officer, on the other hand, has chosen to proudly display this wound, probably received in battle. Rare are the works for which a clear century of provenance is available. This is the case for this brilliant painting, which passed through the Sedelmeyer gallery at the beginning of the century. Our work is in the collection of Charles Sedelmeyer, who ran one of the most important galleries of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During the war, our painting was stolen by the Nazis from Gabrielle Philippson Bernard de Pontois. Pontois before being returned to her heirs in 1947. In addition to the quality of its execution, this painting therefore has real historical value. Provenance : - Probably the collection of Count André de Ganay, but the work does not appear in his 1906 and 1910 sales. - Collection of DR. G. H. Neumans, Tableaux anciens, May 29, 1908, lot 61, page, 37, as an 18th-century French school, with Watteau suggested as the author. Reproduced. Sold 4,800 frs to H. Fainard - Illustrated catalog of the twelfth series of 100 paintings by old masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French and English schools, Sedelmeyer Collection, 1913, Lot 72, as Jean Honoré Fragonard, reproduced - Gabrielle Philippson Bernard de Pontois, seized by the Nazis in 1941 and repatriated on April 18, 1946 and returned to Ms. Philippson on November 13, 1947, inv BPO 5. the painting was registered as "Fragonard, portrait de Maréchal debout mi-corps grandeur nature." - Tableaux et antiquités, Palais des Beaux-Arts, March 12, 1951, lot 51, reproduced, catalog cover, as Jean Honoré Fragonard - Ader Picard Tajan, Palais d'Orsay, December 14, 1979, lot 31, as Joseph Siffred Duplessis, sold 92 000 frs - François Heim Collection - Galerie Philippe Perrin, 2013 - Fine French private collection Bibliography: - Georges Grappe, H. Fragonard, vol 1, p. 84, as Fragonard. - Jean Paul Chabaud, Joseph-Siffred Duplessis (1725-1802), un provencal, peintre du Roi. du Roi. 2003, p.141 reproduced.