Lot 285
  • 285

AUGUSTE LOUIS JEAN-BAPTISTE RIVIÈRE | Portrait of Count Grigory Ivanovich Chernyshev (1762-1831), holding a mask, after Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun

Estimate
15,000 - 20,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Portrait of Count Grigory Ivanovich Chernyshev (1762-1831), holding a mask, after Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun
  • oil on canvas, unlined
  • 10 1/2  by 7 3/4  in.; 26.8 by 19.8 cm. 

Provenance

Possibly in the Koslova collection, before the Revolution;
Private collection, France. 

Condition

The canvas is unlined. It is flat and stable with minimal craqueleure. The paint layer has been well-preserved, particularly in the face and white scarf. The background has worn and is thin, but this could have been painted thinly originally. Ultra violet light reveals an uneven varnish, particularly in the background, making old restorations difficult to see. Some scattered repaint and strengthening is evident in the black cloak, but otherwise there are no major areas of restoration. The painting is ready to hang as is. Offered in a carved giltwood frame.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

The French painter and diplomat Auguste Louis Jean-Baptiste Rivière was a brother-in-law of Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, who was already a famous portraitist by the time their siblings married in 1784.  At that time Rivière was studying at the Académie Royale after having first trained in Dresden.  During the Revolution, both Vigée Le Brun and Rivière fled Paris; the two connected in Turin and from there Rivière continued to accompany the artist and her daughter across Europe and into Russia.  During these years the two painters often worked together, with Rivière painting smaller-scale copies of Vigée Le Brun's life-size portraits. 

This charming portrait is a reduction of Vigée Le Brun's Portrait of Count Grigory Ivanovich Chernyshev, now in the State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.1  Though neither version is dated, there is mention of the portrait in Vigée Le Brun's memoirs from a list of orders in 1793, when she and Rivière were in Vienna; Rivière's version must therefore date from after 1793 but before he and Vigée leave for Russia in June of 1795.  It is likely that the artists would have met Count Chernyshev at one of the numerous balls held by the Russian Ambassador to Vienna, Count Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky, or at one of the events put on at the home of Alexandrovich Stroganov.  We are grateful to Joseph Baillio for proposing the attribution to Rivière on the basis of photographs and for his assistance with the cataloguing of the picture.  



1. Inv. no. GE 7459, oil on canvas, 22 by 17 3/8 in.; 56 by 44 cm. See J. Baillio et al., Vigée Le Brun, New Haven 2016, p. 167, cat. no. 55, reproduced p. 166.