Henri-Pierre Danloux

M. Boitelle;
His sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 24 April 1866, lot 29 (bought for 1620 fr.);
Sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 17 February 1922, lot 33;
Sale, Paris, Hôtel George V, 29 May 1969, lot 83;
With Galerie Cailleux, Paris;
Private collection, United States;
Anonymous sale, ("Property from a Private Collection"), New York, Sotheby's 28-29 October 1988, lot 19;
Newhouse Galleries, New York, 1991;
Where purchase by the present owner.

Old Master Paintings, an exhibition of European Paintings from the 16^th century to the 19^th century, New York, Newhouse Galleries, Londres, Verner Amell Gallery, 1991, no. 25.

Baron R. Portalis, Henry-Pierre Danloux, Peintre de portraits et son journal Durant l’émigration (1753-1809), Paris 1910, pp. 31-32, reproduced p. 44.

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. The restoration of this picture is still effective, and the painting should be hung in its current condition. Under ultraviolet light, most, if not all, of the restorations seem to be visible. There is a structural damage in the lower center in the dress, measuring about six to eight inches. There is another in the lower right corner. The condition seems to be very good in the figure and hat. There are a few retouches in the shadowed areas of the face, neck and chest, but this is otherwise a very well-preserved area of the picture. There are numerous spots of retouching in the background and in the curtains which have been diligently applied to reduce thinness and light abrasion. The shadowed face of the child in the crib also shows some retouches. The conservation that has been done is very good, and the picture seems none the worse for wear despite the restorations that do exist.
"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."

This personal portrait by Henri-Pierre Danloux, depicts his wife, Marie-Pierrette-Antoinette de Saint Redan, with their second and only son, Jules, born in 1790 at the Chateau de Passy, Burgundy.  The painting can be dated between the end of that year and the beginning of 1791, when the artist produced a number of such works related to his family.

Here, the newborn is positioned in the far background to the right, swaddled in blue silk in his cot, with only his head exposed.  His mother, at the center of the composition, rocks the cradle (which Portalis unfortunately mistook for a table in his description of the work in 1910 [see Literature]).  The young  Marie-Pierrette-Antoinette seated in a medallion armchair, wears a dress of voluminous, pink silk, which Danloux exploits to demonstrate his virtuosic treatment of light, reflecting the varying hues of the fabric.  This painting is a particularly touching subject for the artist: while returning from Rome to Paris in 1788, the couple had been forced to stop at Lyon where Marie-Pierrette-Antoinette was taken ill, tragically causing her to lose her first child.

Danloux studied with both Joseph-Marie Vien and Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié and met Jacques-Louis David during a trip to Rome in the late 1770s.  The influence of these artists, encountered in Danloux’s formative years, remained palpable in his works for the rest of his career, reflected in his expressive faces and capacity for conveying human emotion.  A genre scene painter and talented portraitist, Danloux established himself in Lyon where he met Marie-Pierrette-Antoinette de Saint Redan and the two were married in 1785.  After eighteen months in Italy, they settled in Paris but were forced to flee to London in 1791 to escape the Revolution.  By then, Henri-Pierre Danloux was at the height of his carreer; adapting to life in London with ease, he swiftly became renowned in the city's artistic and collecting circles alike.  Danloux returned to France in 1800, but demand for portraiture was by then in decline and the artist’s Anglo-influenced, pre-Revolutionary style had limited success in his later years.