Robert LEFEVRE (1755-1830) Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Lebrun de Rochemont (1736-1822) Canvas 82 x 65 cm Signed and dated lower left: Robert.Lefevre/fecit.1807 On the reverse the old inscription in ink: Cte Lebrun de Rochemont Provenance : - Sale Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 1 December 1975, lot 22 Biography : Jean-Baptiste Lebrun de Rochemont : Born in 1736 in Saint-Sauveur-Lendelin, Normandy. His father, a landowner and farmer, was involved in the administration of the commune and introduced his sons to political life. Jean-Baptiste's youngest son, Charles-François, Duc de Plaisance (1739-1824), was the Third Consul of the Republic (under the Consulate), where he was in charge of finance before becoming Prince-Archtreasurer of the Empire in 1804. Jean-Baptiste began his career as director of the Duc de Penthièvre's estates, but the Revolution put an end to it. Supported by his brother, he was elected deputy for La Manche to the Corps législatif on 24 frimaire an IX (15 December 1800). On Bonaparte's recommendation, he joined the Senate on 10 brumaire an XII (2 November 1803), which was then the first of the constituted bodies with broad constitutional powers. In April 1814, Jean-Baptiste voted to depose Napoleon Bonaparte, who had been defeated by the allied armies in Paris. Appointed Peer of France "for life" by Louis XVIII on 4 June 1814, he remained loyal to the Bourbons during the Hundred Days and became a hereditary Count-Pair on 31 August 1817. The Almanach du Commerce de Paris of 1811 mentions him as residing at the Hôtel de la Monnaie. He is shown here in senatorial costume, wearing the Légion d'honneur, which he received as a knight in 1804, before being made a commander of the order on 14 June 1805. One year after our portrait of Jean-Baptiste, Robert Lefèvre painted that of his brother Charles-François, of the same dimensions and sold in our galleries, sale in Fontainebleau, Osenat, 5 June 2011, lot 279, repr. ; signed and dated 1808 ). Robert LEFEVRE : David's rival, Robert Lefèvre, was one of the greatest portraitists of the Empire. His friendship with Vivant-Denon ensured his career as a portraitist through official commissions, and he loved to play with the brilliance of the materials that stand out against dark backgrounds. In 1807, at the time of this portrait, he was in full swing: thirty-seven copies of his portrait of Napoleon exhibited at the Salon in 1806, now in the Château de Versailles, were commissioned. As Napoleon wanted a gallery of portraits of the great marshals of the Empire and his ministers, Robert Lefèvre produced three full-length portraits, which are also now at Versailles, where no fewer than twenty-two of his portraits are kept. For Fontainebleau, the emperor commissioned him to portray the imperial family. He painted the features of Empress Josephine, Princess Pauline, Marie-Julie, Queen of Spain with her daughter, the future Duchess of Canino, her husband King Joseph, Lucien Bonaparte, and Louis, King of Holland. After the fall of the Empire, he remained an official painter and exhibited a portrait of Louis XVIII at the Salon in November 1814, before painting Charles X in 1827.