Louis Gauffier

Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Gentleman'), London, Christie's, 13 December 1996, lot 62, where acquired by the present collector.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This canvas has been very lightly lined onto a burlap support. At some point some water damage was received on the right side and in the lower right corner. There have been a few paint losses in this area which have subsequently been restored but a good deal of that restoration has been removed and so there is hardly any real retouching remaining on the surface. There are paint losses visible in the lower right, there are three or four spots in the upper left in the sky which require restoration and in the wall and vines behind the figure there is some thinness. There is some slight thinness in a few areas of the dark clothing of the figure but if the picture were to be lightly cleaned and the retouching accurately carried out, the painting would return to its original sharp quality quite easily. The face, the hair and the decorations on the figure are all beautifully preserved.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Upon winning the Prix de Rome in 1784, Louis Gauffier immediately moved to the eternal city as a pensionnaire at the French Academy. He remained in Italy, except for a brief trip to Paris in 1789, until his early death in 1801. In 1793 anti-French demonstrations in Rome forced Gauffier to flee to Florence, where in order to make a living he largely abandoned historical, mythological and religious themes and began executing portraits. The majority of his sitters were British and French army officers, as is the case here in one of Gauffier's last and finest portraits from his time in Florence.

Though traditionally described as a portrait of Général Jean-Claude Moreau (1755-1828), it is somewhat unclear as to the definite identity of the sitter given the fact that a variant was sold in the Boberg sale, Stockholm, Bukowski, 30 October - November 1946, lot 102, where the sitter was identified as Général Claude-Ignace-Francois Michaud (1751-1833). The uniform of the sitter here is that of Chef du Brigade, Moreau's rank in Italy from 23 September 1800 to 22 September 1801 (he was not promoted to general until 1803, after Gauffier's death). The named sitter in the variant, Michaud, was already a general by 1801, and Gauffier would have presumably depicted him as such in a portrait. Furthermore, Michaud is documented in Lombardy at this time, and the present portrait most obviously indicates a picture completed in Florence.

This composition can be found in a composite work of eleven small-scale, finished oil sketches by Gauffier, all executed on the same canvas, and now in the Musée Fabre, Montpellier (fig. 1). The Montpellier work shows individuals who were in Italy during Gauffier's time there, and may have served as a personal record for the artist of works which he executed during his sojourn abroad. Similar to the present example, Gauffier painted full-scale portraits of other sitters shown in the Montpellier canvas. For example, that of Elizabeth Webster, later Lady Holland (1795; sold, London, Christie's, 13 December 1996, lot 63), one of the last British sitters for Gauffier, who was in Florence from June 1793, and throughout parts of the following year. Further portraits from the Montpellier canvas, also known in full-size compositions, are those of The Salucci Family (1800; Musée Marmottan, Paris), and a Portrait of an Officer of the Cisalpine Republic (1801; Musée Marmottan, Paris).