François-André VINCENT (1746-1816), Entourage de - Lot 187

Lot n° 187
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Estimation :
7000 - 9000 EUR
Result : NC
François-André VINCENT (1746-1816), Entourage de - Lot 187
François-André VINCENT (1746-1816), Entourage de Presumed portrait of Charles Messier (1730-1817), astronomer to the king Oil on canvas 61 x 50 cm (74 x 61 cm with frame) Original canvas and stretcher Gilded wood frame decorated with pearls Charles Messier was born in Badonviller, Lorraine, on June 26, 1730, and died in Paris on April 12, 1817. One of the most renowned French astronomers of the second half of the 18th century, he owes his fame mainly to his observations of comets and the catalog of celestial objects that today bears his name. Arriving in Paris in the 1750s, he entered the service of the astronomer Joseph-Nicolas Delisle, with whom he trained in the methods of astronomical observation. Messier was soon noted for the precision and consistency of his work, and specialized in comet research, a field in which he acquired a European reputation. His many discoveries earned him the nickname "the comet ferret", reportedly bestowed on him by Louis XV. To avoid any confusion between comets and certain fixed nebular apparitions observed in the sky, Messier undertook a systematic inventory of these celestial objects. The result was the famous Messier Catalogue, published between 1764 and 1781, which lists star clusters, nebulae and galaxies visible from the northern hemisphere. Still in use today, this catalog is one of the benchmarks of observational astronomy. Inducted into the Académie royale des sciences in 1770, Messier was also appointed Astronomer of the Navy under the reign of Louis XVI, a sign of the institutional recognition that astronomical sciences then enjoyed within scholarly circles and the monarchy.
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