Adolphe-Alexandre Lesrel

Tedesco Frères, Paris
Goupil et Fils, Paris
Edward E. Rosenfield, Portchester
Frederick Mueller, Miami Beach-Fort Lauderdale
Sale, Christie's, New York, May 21, 1986, lot 117, illustrated (purchased by Edmond Safra for Republic National Bank)

A world apart from the Greek, Roman and mythological scenes so popular in the late nineteenth century, courtly genre scenes satisfied nostalgia for more recent, local history.  While Adolphe-Alexandre Lesrel’s highly detailed vision of The Prince’s Birthday Party seems highly imaginative to the present-day viewer, contemporary admirers considered such compositions more or less accurate portrayals of courtly life.  Indeed, bourgeois and upper-class patrons considered the heyday of the Bourbon, Medici and European courts the golden age of elegance--when good food and drink abounded, and costume and ritual ruled.  The new rich and powerful classes looked back in admiration to a society where the aristocrats held sway, and the realties of an urban, industrialized society were unknown.  Lesrel meticulously details the luxurious setting, elaborate dress, and joyful expressions of the young prince and his guests.  The Prince’s Birthday Party is further informed by a movement earlier in the century, in which artists such as Delacroix and Ingres focused on depicting cavaliers and ladies; Lesrel's work also incorporates earlier elements from the seventeenth century, “The Company” pictures of Frans Hals and Rembrandt.  The high level of painterly virtuosity and finish combine a feel of refined elegance with lavish luxury—best symbolized in the gleaming gold of the prince’s gift, a ship model, which acts both as a toy and as a powerful symbol of this young boy's extraordinary influence.  At the same time the prince’s smile suggests something wryly humorous in this scene—despite its historically accurate subject, the work ultimately offers a pretext to absorb oneself in a fantasy.