Old Master Drawings

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Lot 157
  • 157

Attributed to Hyacinthe Rigaud Perpignan 1659 - 1743 Paris

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Description

  • Hyacinthe Rigaud
  • portrait of claude deshais-gendron
  • black chalk heightened with white chalk and white body colour (partly oxidized) on blue paper

Exhibited

Meaux, Musée Bossuet, Hyacinthe Rigaud dessinateur, cat. no. 48, reproduced

Catalogue Note

The sitter, Deshais-Gendron, was an important doctor of medicine in Montpellier; well-known for his research on cancer, and a friend of Boileau, Montesquieu and Voltaire.  This portrait has been dated to 1715-20 and is thought to have been made as a presentation drawing, rather than a record of a painted portrait, as was Rigaud's normal studio practice.  Nonetheless, Joseph Roman mentions in his book, Le Livre de Raison du Peintre d'Hyacinthe Rigaud (Paris 1919, p. 108) a painted portrait of Deshais-Gendron in a private Parisian collection, inscribed on the back: 'peint par Hyacinth Rigaud 1719'.