Jean-Baptiste GREUZE Tournus, 1725 - Paris, 1805 Presumed portrait of Mademoiselle Clairon in oriental costume Oil on canvas Presumed portrait of Mademoiselle Clairon, oil on canvas, by J. B. Greuze 41 x 34 cm (16,14 x 13,39 in.) Provenance: Possibly the collection of Madame du Barry ; Possibly sale from the collection of Jean-Corneille Landgraff, Paris, Hôtel de Bullion, 21 December 1784, no. 36 (Portrait of a young lady represented in bust, three quarters, & in hunting clothes. This well-painted piece was made for Madame du Barry); Acquired from the Galerie Cailleux by Mr Jean Fraissinet in Paris in the 1950s; Then by descent; Private collection, Geneva Exhibitions: 'Les Goncourt et leur temps', Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 21 June - 28 August 1946, p. 53, no. 383 Women in French Art', Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, March-May 1953, no. 61 Célébrités françaises', Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 1954, no. 102 Bibliography: Perhaps Jean Martin, 'Oeuvre de J.-B. Greuze. Catalogue raisonnée', Paris, 1908, p. 41, n° 609 Connaissance des arts', n° 65, July 1957, p.5, heading 'Faisons connaissance', question n° 253 Olivier Bernier, 'The eighteenth-century woman', New York, 1981, p. 68 Neil Jeffares, 'Dictionary of pastellists before 1800', online version, mentioned in the page devoted to Greuze, p. 7 (accessed 1 February 2024) Comment: In a bust, turned three-quarters to the left, the seductive model painted by Jean-Baptiste Greuze is dressed in a blue-green casaque with gold embroidery, wide open on the chest and trimmed with lace. The young woman is wearing a bonnet in the same tones, also embroidered in gold, revealing her chestnut brown hair with red highlights. Several entries in Jean Martin's 1908 catalogue raisonné of the artist can be associated with this portrait, although none of them coincides completely satisfactorily with our portrait. For example, the head of a Greek slave (no. 609 in the catalogue), which reproduces the Young Greek Woman in a different arrangement and in a larger format, is described as follows: "in a green Amazon costume, embroidered with gold; lace shirt; lilac bonnet in the form of a toque". The catalogue also mentions a portrait of the actress Mademoiselle de Clairon (no. 1079), which was sold in 1834 (Lucien Bonaparte sale, no. 39) without any further details. We know of other portraits of the actress attributed to Greuze. The Pasadena Museum in California is said to have another work by Greuze depicting Mademoiselle Clairon as Roxane, a copy of which is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Marseille1. The sale after the actress's death, which took place from 5 to 15 March 1773, does not provide us with any further clues, as it only mentions prints based on compositions by Greuze. Claire-Josèphe-Hippolyte Léris de La Tude (1723-1803), who took the pseudonym Mademoiselle de Clairon, was a leading Comédie-Française actress of international renown, who settled at the court of the Margrave of Ansprach, where she remained for 17 years. Of modest origins, she entered the Comédie-Française in 1743 and performed the roles of Phèdre and Dorine. But it was in the tragedy repertoire that she made her mark. Not surprisingly, such a model was a source of inspiration for Greuze, who strove to translate the different passions of the human soul through his brush. Mademoiselle Clairon herself declared in her Memoirs that "all the movements of the soul must be read in the physiognomy. Muscles that tense, veins that swell, fear that reddens, prove an inner emotion, without which there is never any great talent. 2 Our work, full of charm and spontaneity, shows a model with cheeks reddened by the emotion that overwhelms her. Mademoiselle de Clairon's features were immortalised by other artists such as Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne (1761, marble, Paris, Comédie-Française), Carle van Loo, who depicts her as Médée in Corneille's play (Berlin-Brandenburg, Neues Palais), and Gabriel de Saint Aubin, in a drawing kept at the Louvre (1771, RF 52209, Recto), as well as in prints. These various points of comparison allow us to propose that the model be identified as Mademoiselle de Clairon, a hypothesis already supported by the Galerie Cailleux in the 1940s. 1 Claire-Josephe-Hippolyte Legris Clairon de la Tour, Mémoires, Paris, 1822, p. 265, quoted by Edgar Munhall, "Quelques découvertes sur l'œuvre de Greuze", in La Revue du Louvre et des musées de France, 16e année, 1966, no. 1, Paris, p. 90. An oval canvas by Greuze depicting Mademoiselle Clairon was also in the collection of the dealer Gimpel fils in 1946 (see A selection of five centuries of French painting, London, Gimpel fils, November-December 1946, no. 8). 2 Munhall, op.cit. p. 92 We would like to thank Yuriko Jackall for her help in writing this notice. Lot temporarily imported The buyer will have to pay import fees, i.e. 5.5% in addition to the hammer price, unless the lot is immediately re-exported outside the European Union. Lot in temporary importation. In addition to the commissions and taxes, and additional import fees of 5,5% of the hammer price will be charged. The import fees can be retroceded to the purchaser on presentation of written proof of exportation outside European Union.