Blaise-Alexandre Desgoffe

Desgoffe began his career at the École des Beaux Arts under Flandrin and later Bouguereau's instruction and soon made his mark as a still-life painter.  After careful study of the gems and objets de virtue at the Louvre, Desgoffe would turn to his canvas, perfectly capturing the precious qualities of the rare items.  The present work, which depicts the Crown of Louis XV and the sword of Charlemagne, part of the French coronation regalia residing in the Louvre, exemplifies the artist's intimate understanding of how to capture the unique beauty of faceted gemstones and fine metals as they refract light.  The date of 1887, prominently displayed in the work's upper left, is potentially significant. This same year the French government of President Jules Grevy, in one of the greatest jewelry sales of all time, sold a substantial portion of the crown jewels (Tiffany & Co., alone purchased twenty-four lots) in order to suppress a potential Royalist movement. Before her exile, the Empress Eugènie of France, herself a jewel connoisseur, managed to take a portion of the collection with her to England but likely commissioned Desgoffe to replicate on canvas the objects she was forced to leave behind.  Similarly, Catherine Lorillard Wolfe asked the artist to copy bejeweled items from the Louvre for her personal collection (now at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).  As William Gerdts explains influential patrons such as Wolfe promoted this French artist's reputation in America to become "one of the most popular artists of the day... titillating the acquisitive tastes of the wealthy" (William H. Gerdts and Russell Burke, American Still-Life Painting, New York, 1971, p. 135,  p. 201).  Indeed Desgoffe's work was found in many of the most prominent American collections—such as William Rockefeller's.