*** DESCHAMPS | PORTRAIT OF A BIRACIAL WOMAN

An old label on the stretcher identifies this pastel as a "portrait fantasie" by a M. Deschamps. In 1767, a pastellist by this name advertised his portrait business upon arrival in Saint-Domingue in the French Caribbean, though he returned to France just two months later.¹ In his Dictionary of Pastellists, Neil Jeffares identifies a pastel of a woman from the Caribbean, of similar dimensions and style to the present work; based on photographs, Jeffares believes the pastels were executed by the same hand.² It is possible that the elegant depiction of a biracial woman presented here was completed by the artist either during his time in the Caribbean or shortly thereafter.  

We are grateful to Neil Jeffares for his assistance with the cataloguing of this lot. 

1. N. Jeffares, "Deschamps," Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, London, 2006; online edition http://www.pastellists.com/articles/deschamps.pdf. 2. op. cit., cat. no. J.2694.102.