Ary SCHEFFER (Dordrecht 1795-Argenteuil 1858) - Lot 6

Ary SCHEFFER (Dordrecht 1795-Argenteuil 1858) Portrait of Madame Valentine Delessert Panel, one board, not parqueted 86 x 57 cm Signed and dated on the left A. Scheffer 1830 Provenance: Always remained in the model's family. Valentine de Laborde (Paris 1806 - 1894) was the granddaughter of Marquis Jean-Joseph de Laborde, a famous financier and collector. She was the daughter of Count Alexandre de Laborde, a politician and archaeologist. In 1824, she married Gabriel Delessert, a member of parliament from a famous banking dynasty. A talented painter, lover of the arts, aesthete and cultured, Madame Delessert became the muse and mistress of Prosper Mérimée, then inspector of historical monuments, in 1836. The latter wrote to Stendhal: "I am madly in love with the pearl of women, happy because I am loved, very unhappy because I cannot prove my love as often as I would like". He dedicated several of his plays to her, and drew inspiration from her for some of his characters, such as Madame de Pienne in Arsène Guillot. Under the July Monarchy (1830-1848), Madame Delessert maintained a prestigious salon, welcoming to her Passy hotel the leading figures of the Romantic generation, including Adolphe Thiers, Alfred de Musset and the Countess de Castiglione. The salon was said to be one of the busiest in Paris. Ary Scheffer, Madame Delessert's painting teacher, met Eugène Delacroix and Chateaubriand there (cf. M. Kolb, Ary Scheffer et son temps, Paris, 1937, pp. 130-131). Widowed in 1858, Valentine Delessert maintained a prominent social position under the Second Empire, as an intimate of Empress Eugénie and arbiter of family quarrels between Bonapartists and Orleanists. In 1846, she became the first woman to join the Société des Bibliophiles Français. It was at her home that composer Ernest Reyer played Richard Wagner's works on the piano for the first time in Paris. One day, in the Tuileries Palace, she had the impertinence impertinence to reply to Napoleon III, who asked her what should be done to protect the arts: "Sire, you must love them". A Dutch-born painter, Ary Scheffer moved to Paris in 1811 and joined Pierre-Narcisse Guérin's studio. At the age of seventeen, he exhibited at the Salon of 1812. He immediately won the esteem and respect of his colleagues thanks to his uprightness and modesty, so much so that Louis Philippe entrusted him with the artistic education of his children and chose him as an art advisor. Although academically trained, he sided with the Romantics because of the ideal of freedom he advocated. In 1830, the year of our painting and the birth of his only daughter Cornelia, Ary Scheffer moved to 16 rue Chaptal, in the then rapidly changing district of Nouvelle Athènes. In the courtyard of his house, he had two studios built, one intended for creative work and the training of his students, the other as a venue for the presentation of his works and also as a reception area. It was here, between 1831 and 1858, that he received the greatest artists of the Romantic generation every Friday. The July Monarchy marked the peak of Scheffer's career. His works presented at the Salon, which were very well received and bought by the State and the Royal Household, were mainly inspired by history and literature. The greatest celebrities of the time, including Chopin, Liszt, Guizot, Montalembert and the painter Vernet, commissioned his portraits. Thus, from the Restoration to the Second Empire, Ary Scheffer occupied a central position in Parisian artistic life. Here, Ary Scheffer departs from the aesthetic of the Ingresque portrait: the extreme gentleness emanating from the painting is characteristic of his work. Madame Delessert is depicted from the back, gracefully seated on a sofa, part of which can be seen, with her hair up, clearing the nape of her neck, and her face turned slightly towards the viewer. Scheffer uses the panel admirably, with its light brushstrokes and harmony of white and gray, to lend tenderness and lightness to the model.