Alfred de Dreux

Le comte Charles Lehon and La comtesse Fanny Lehon, née Mosselman, Paris (acquired together with The Falcon Hunt in 1852)
Collection of Le Grand Hôtel, Paris (together with The Falcon Hunt  in 1862)
Sale: Couturier & Nicolay, Musée Galliéra, Paris, December 2, 1975, lot 44 (together with The Falcon Hunt)
Sale: Sotheby's, London, April 19, 1978, lot 168
Colnaghi Gallery, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 1978

Paris, Salon, 1846, no. 484 (as Chasse à courre sous Louis XV)

A.H. Delaunay, Catalogue complet du Salon de 1846, Paris, 1846, p. 33
Jeanne Doin, "Alfred de Dreux," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Paris, vol. 63, October 1921, p. 246
Alfred de Dreux, 1810-1860 : peintures, dessins, aquarelles, lithographies, exh. cat., Paris, 1988, p. XIII
Marie-Christine Renauld, Alfred de Dreux, le peintre du cheval, Lousanne, 1988, p. 16, illustrated p. 22
Marie-Christine Renauld, Alfred de Dreux, le Cheval, passion d'un dandy parisien, Paris, 1997, pp. 34, 47, 67, 161, illustrated p. 48

While The Falcon Hunt and The Departure for the Hunt were executed relatively early in de Dreux’s career, they were based on years of careful study and reveal the refinement of his personal style first set forth in previous Salon submissions such as The Battle of Baugé (1839, Musée d’Art de L’Histore, Narbonne) or La Fuite (1840, Private Collection).  Such early works, depicting scenes from medieval history or troubadour tales, fascinated Salon goers with their figures garbed in elaborate period costumes, riding powerful, realistically composed horses locked in battle or striding across moody landscapes.  These complex and evocative compositions demonstrated de Dreux's lessons learned in Théodore Géricault's studio and his interest in Eugène Delacroix’s Romantic compositions; they also illustrated his contemporary audience's affinity for work that dramatized the past and present glories of France.  Indeed, the public success of de Dreux’s medieval and Renaissance themed works helped earn an invitation to accompany King Louis-Philippe on his official visit to London in 1844.  During this trip, exposure to the works of British artists such as George Morland, John Constable, and Edwin Henry Landseer had a profound impact on the young artist. Like so many of his French countrymen, de Dreux developed “anglomania,” the craze for anything related to British culture, particularly horses, racing, dogs and scenes of the hunt.  Upon his return home to France de Dreux incorporated such popular trends with his well-studied technique to conceive The Falcon Hunt and The Departure for the Hunt.  These two monumental works depict elaborately staged hunting parties set against great, open spaces of twisted trees, wind-swept grasses and changeable skies, using an emotive palette of mossy greens, brilliant blues and rich reds, somber shades and brilliant lights.  More thematic pendants than a true pair, The Falcon Hunt and The Departure for the Hunt were first exhibited at the Salon of 1846, earning the artist the second prize, and the accolades of innumerable critics and visitors.

The basic compositional elements of The Falcon Hunt and The Departure for the Hunt suggests the influence of English models established by George Stubbs, John Wootton, Henry Alken and their contemporaries: frieze-like arrangements of hunting figures in mid-action, set against a landscape with a long, low sight line.  Yet in their elaborate costuming, interaction of party members, and sense of narrative tension, the works recall earlier, well-known Flemish and Dutch works of the genre.  No matter the art historical inspiration or derivation, few hunting pictures ever showed a poor man’s occupation--rather the time-honed rituals and past-times of the best dressed aristocrats, noble groups and wealthy landowners. Going one step further (and historically earlier), as suggested by the official Salon titles of each work, de Dreux chooses to costume his hunting parties and their grooms, and to regale his horses in Charles VII (1403-1461) and Louis XV (1710-1774) period fashion. It is a matter of some debate whether the name-sake kings and members of their court are among de Dreux's painted figures but it is conceivable. The exact identity of the hunters was less important than the the suggestion of royal style of the works. Faced with the growing demands of a “modern” society, France’s bourgeois and upper-class art patrons considered the heyday of Europe’s great courts as the golden age of elegance---when entire days could be spent enjoying the pursuit of game.  It is then no surprise that de Dreux would select two elaborate forms of the hunt for his impressive compositions.

The Falcon Hunt depicts one of the most noble and rarified hunting activities.  Falconry had been practiced in the ancient civilizations of Egypt, the Roman Empire and Japan before entering Europe by way of Asia Minor and Arabia.  By the fifteenth century, falconry was both a favorite sport and social grace, in which teams of elegantly costumed riders raced on horseback on open fields, closely following the action in the sky (Anthony Vandervell and Charles Coles, Game & the English Landscape: The Influence of the Chase on Sporting Art and Scenery, New York, 1980, p. 29).  Here De Dreux depicts a group whose lavish fifteenth century fashions and well groomed mounts suggest their privilege, looking up to the sky, eagerly focused on the most evocative movement of the falcon hunt: the  “stoop” or rapid descent of a the hunting bird from a height onto its flying quarry. Falconry or hawking parties were followed by footmen to assist while dogs (often spaniels and pointers) drove out the game or recovered fallen prey (Vandervell and Coles, p. 31).  Similarly, in The Departure for the Hunt’s composition, de Dreux recreates an episode from romantic hunting history.  While this eighteenth century era party's quarry remains unconfirmed, it is conceivably a stag or deer.  By the rein of Louis XV, deer hunting rituals dictated by French custom often requiring a number of hounds and well-bred horses to pursue the swiftly moving, highly intelligent prey.  Increasingly in the eighteenth century, stag hunting became less an activity held in wild forests than on great estates or parks where deer were husbanded for food and sport suggested by de Dreux's depiction of a well-kept and even landscape (Vandervell and Coles, p. 28).

In their evocative compositions of elaborate hunts displayed on a grand scale, de Dreux's works received immediate and frequent attention upon their exhibition at the Salon.  Hanging among submissions by  Alexandre Gabriel Descamps, Horace Vernet and Delacroix, De Dreux's work was considered to be, as Champfleury noted, "brilliant paintings of décor" while others applauded the artist's ability to use "luminous colors"  in creating "chic" scenes of the hunt (as quoted in David Kelly, Baudelaire, Salon de 1846, Oxford, 1975, p. 223).  While largely focused on other artists in his Salon review, Baudelaire himself could not resist an appraisal, praising de Dreux’s “capacities of improvisation” applied “that of smart life… bright and dazzling. M. Alfred Dedreux [sic] has two excellent qualities; he knows how to paint, and his works have the fresh and vivid appearance of theatrical decors” (Charles Baudelaire, Art in Paris: 1845-1862, Salons and Other Exhibitions, trans. Jonathan Mayne, London, 1965, p. 96).  While many critics recognized the significance the artist’s period subjects, they were primarily interested in his ability to employ strokes of paint and dramatic use of color in creating evocative, emotive scenes while maintaining the decorative appeal of scenes of noble pleasures.  Certainly these qualities would have figured in the decision by Belgian Ambassador, Le Comte Charles Lehon and his art-loving wife La Comtesse Lehon (née Mosselman, a family of frequent patrons of de Dreux’s) to purchase the works for the grand sum of 6,000 francs, installing them in their elegant Parisian residence on the Rond-Point des Champs-Elysees.  Later the scenes decorated the great staircase of the Grand Hôtel on the rue Scribe built during the Second Empire.  Constructed by Alfred Arman in 1862 under commission by Napoleon III (who often commissioned de Dreux’s works), the Grand Hôtel was intended to reflect the glorious successes of the Second Empire and its strengths in science, art and industry. The Grand Hôtel's lounges and its inviting Café de la Paix were magnets for upper class Parisians, wealthy artists, writers and tourists alike to sit for hours watching a fashionable procession of fellow visitors.  Indeed, the Grand Hôtel celebrated the best of "modern-day" French society--mirrored in de Dreux's brilliant works of past noble pleasures.