THÉODORE CHASSERIAU (El Limón - Santo Domingo 1819-Paris, 1856) THE CHILD AND THE RUSSIAN BASSOON, PORTRAIT OF VICTOR PIERRUGUES (1835-1857) Original canvas Signed and dated lower right "T. Chassériau / 1836" Original canvas, signed and dated lower right Original canvas, signed and dated lower right 81 x 57 CM - 31,9 x 22,4 IN. PROVENANCE The model's family by descent up to the present day. This previously unpublished canvas is one of Chassériau's early works, produced during his stay in Marseille in the summer of 1836. Aged seventeen, he was invited to the city by his cousin Charles-Frédéric Chassériau, during which period he painted a number of portraits. In his 1931 monograph, Léonce Bénédite wrote: "We know very little about these works done in Marseille. What has become of these portraits, these studies that he announced in such large numbers in his correspondence with his brother, particularly of Bedouins, and these sketches? At least there may still be some in a few families in the region that Chassériau's growing fame will no doubt one day bring out". The fame of his cousin, a well-known architect, enabled him to rub shoulders with a number of Marseilles notables, including the Pierrugues family. The painting of the young boy should be compared with another portrait by our painter, of the same size, The Child and the Doll (location unknown; ill.1), dated the same year. Her model is Laure Stéphanie Pierrugues, daughter of Jean-François Pierrugues, a polytechnician and staff officer in command of the 9th artillery regiment in Marseille. The most eminent member of the family, however, was Laure Stéphanie's great-uncle, Baron Félix de Beaujour, Officer of the Legion of Honour and member of the Institut de France, who was successively President of the Tribunate, French Ambassador to the United States, then State Councillor and Member of Parliament for Bouches-du-Rhône. His fortune can be traced back to Napoleon Bonaparte, when he was awarded the Légion d'honneur in recognition of his diplomatic interventions at the time of the sale of Louisiana and the recovery of a Spanish debt owed to France in Mexico the same year. The notebook RF 26.080, kept in the Department of Graphic Arts at the Louvre, contains two preparatory sketches of portraits of the two children (RF 26054, 33, Louis-Antoine Prat, Inventaire général des dessins - Ecole française - Théodore Chassériau, vol.2, Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris, 1988, p. 789-790 n°2229, folio 16, ill. 2). Our boy is Victor Pierrugues, aged one, the younger brother of Laure Stéphanie (1832-1872). Chassériau's talent as a colourist is fully expressed in this contrast between the cool colours of the white garment and the warmer tones of the crimson-red velvet armchair. In his left hand, the child is holding a wind instrument, an upright snake known as a Russian bassoon (as the Musée de la Musique de Paris calls it). Around his neck, a whistle decorated with four bells is held by a golden chain. This painting bears witness to Chassériau's talent as a child prodigy, who from an early age stood out from his contemporaries by attracting the attention of the greatest artists of his time, such as Ingres, his teacher at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Like the paintings in the Louvre, his self-portrait in frock coat (1835), the portrait of his sister (1835) and his brother (1835-1836), our painting is perfectly in keeping with the Romantic movement of his time, of which he was to become a major representative. We would like to thank Louis-Antoine Prat for confirming the autograph nature of this painting and for the information contained in this note. The latter was drawn up in collaboration with the owner's family.