Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier

M. Isodore Van de Velde, Brussels (by 1878)

Paris, Exposition Universelle, 1878, no. 630

Camille Lemonnier,"Correspondence de Belgique," La Chronique des arts et de la curiosité: supplément à la Gazette des beaux-arts, Paris, 1878, p. 302
L'Illustration, February 7, 1891, vol. XCVII, illustrated p. 145 (the etching after the painting)
Gustave Larroumet, Meissonier, Paris, 1895, p. 87,  illustrated p. 5 (the etching after the painting)
M.O. Gréard, Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier: ses souvenirs - ses entretiens, Paris, 1897, p. 406
Vallery C.O. Gréard, Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier: his life and his art, New York, 1898, p. 374 (as The Comrades; shaking hands before battle)
Philippe Durey and Constance Cain Hungerford, Ernest Meissonier, Musée des beaux -arts de Lyon, March 25 - June 27, 1993, exh. cat., no. 122, p. 213 (for a study for the present work, referred to as lost)

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This work is made from numerous pieces of wood joined prior to the work being painted. All pieces seem to be made of oak. The panel has subsequently been mounted and cradled. There is a join running horizontally across the sky, about 3 inches from the top edge. There is a join down the left side, one across the bottom edge, one down the right side and a vertical join through the center above the horizontal join in the sky. There are other faint vertical lines in the right and left sides of the panel, but these do not seem to correspond to panel joins. The condition of the paint layer throughout is marvelous. There are no retouches within the figure group. There are a few retouches to the horizontal panel join in the sky and top edge. The joins around the edges have only a few tiny dots of retouching. The condition of the work is beautiful.
"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."

In 1859, Meissonier was assigned to accompany Napoleon III and his army to record the events of the Italian campaign, which initiated a life-long interest in depicting battle scenes. His distinctive choice of subject reflected a movement towards historical realism, which had become popular in painting and sculpture under the Second Empire. Napoleon Bonaparte’s military career, in particular, captivated the collective imagination in France throughout the nineteenth century, and Meissonier conceived of a cycle of five paintings documenting his early campaigns, completing two of them: 1807, Friedland (1867-1875, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), and The Campaign in France, 1814 (1864, Musée d’Orsay).

Les Deux Amis, by contrast, does not represent a specific historical scene. Here, Meissonier imagines a meeting of the hussars and dragoons of the First Empire, shaking hands before battle. His attention to detail is extraordinary, and is clearly seen in the intricately detailed regalia, gestures and expressions of the soldiers as well as the saddles and bridles and anatomical exactitude of the horses, Meissonier carefully researched, sketched and planned every element of the composition (he even built wax models for the horse in his paintings, see lot 101). The resulting compositional arrangement is deceptively complex, and a marvelous tour de force.

This painting marks an important rediscovery for the artist, its location was unknown for over a century and previously known through an etching reproduced in 1895.