Jacques Laurent Agasse

Marie Brocher, Geneva,1930.

Geneva, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Exposition d'Oeuvres du Peintre Genevois Jacques-Laurent Agasse, February-March 1930, no. 9.

Record Book, "July 1822 P. of Mrs Schoener [sic]. Half Length" (manuscript, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva);
C.F. Hardy, Agasse, his life, his work, 1905, p. 141;
L. Gielly, L'école genevoise de peinture, Geneva 1935, p. 221;
Jacques-Laurent Agasse, 1767-1849, Geneva and London 1988/89, p. 130, under cat. no. 45 (as mistakenly painted in July 1821).

The canvas is relined and supported by a new stretcher. The paint surface is in very good condition over all. There are two minor infilled losses in the background upper right and upper left, discernible to the naked eye. Inspection under UV reveals old minor retouches to the background and along the right edge though the figure remains largely untouched. Offered in a carved gilt wood frame.
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Mrs. Scheener was a member of the expatriate Swiss Huguenot community in London and, like many of Agasse's subjects, a personal friend of the artist.  She was married to Edward Scheener, an attaché to the Foreign Office in London, who was originally from Geneva and a naturalized British citizen.  He had changed his given family name from Schenker-Moré to Scheener.  According to the artist's record book, Agasse painted this portrait of Mrs. Scheener in July 1822, as well as another of her in the same month (whereabouts unknown).  He also painted two portraits of her husband, one in July 1820 and the other in December 1823.¹

In a letter dated 13 September 2006, Renée Loche confirmed the attribution to Agasse.

1.  See Geneva, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire; London, The Tate Gallery, Jacques-Laurent Agasse, 1767-1849, 10 November 1988 - 2 April 1989, cat. nos. 45 and 54.