Master Paintings and Drawings
Master Paintings and Drawings
Sold Without Reserve
Circle of Jean Jacques François Monanteuil
Portrait of a man in a red hat, said to be a "jeune Grec" or possibly Hassan el Berberi
Lot Closed
March 23, 04:04 PM GMT
Estimate
8,000 - 12,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Sold Without Reserve
Circle of Jean Jacques François Monanteuil
Mortagne-au-Perche 1785 - 1860 Le Mans
Portrait of a man in a red hat, said to be a "jeune Grec" or possibly Hassan el Berberi
oil on canvas, unlined
canvas: 23 ¾ by 19 ½ in.; 60.3 by 49.5 cm.
framed: 28 ¼ by 23 ⅞ in.; 71.8 by 60.5 cm.
The prime version of this striking portrait by Montaneuil, dated 1830 and later engraved by B.R. Julien, is in a private collection.1 It has been suggested that the sitter is the same gentleman depicted by Claude-Marie Dubufe in a 1826-7 portrait now in the Louvre, possibly identifiable as Hassan El-Berberi, the primary keeper of the giraffe famously sent from Egypt to King Charles X.2
1. Oil on canvas, 57.5 by 47.5 cm. With Marty de Cambiare, 2018. See W. Elliot, "An exotic visitor to Paris: context and possible identities for Claude-Marie Dubufe's portrait," in Colnaghi Studies Journal, March 2020, pp. 178-9, fig. 13.
2. For further details on the possible identification of the sitter of the Dubufe portrait and its relationship to the present composition, see Ibid., pp. 170-183.