- 209
*** Halb 18th Century
Estimate
2,500 - 3,500 USD
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Description
- Portrait of Mme Du Pont
- Black chalk with touches of red chalk, with watercolor and white heightening, on vellum laid down on a wooden stretcher;
signed and dated in brown ink, lower left: Halb / 1774
Catalogue Note
Pasted to the reverse of the frame is a sheet of paper bearing a long inscription, giving extensive biographical information on the sitter and her family. Louise-Jeanne Caulet d'Hauteville, died 12 February 1803, was the wife of Gaetan Lambert Du Pont, "Conseillieur d'Etat, Intendant de l'Ecole militaire, mort a Paris, l'an 1782, en son hotel, rue culture Ste Catherine No 7". The inscription also notes that we see "Mme Du Pont tient a la main une lettre timbree d'Avignon, adressee a l'Ecole militaire", presumably from her absent husband.
The artist 'Halb' is unknown, however a painter, François Halbou, is recorded as being active in Paris in 1774, and possibly the signature is an abbreviation of his name.