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Lot Essay
The recent discovery of these undocumented studies for Franz Xaver Winterhalter's official portraits of the Emperor and Empress of the French (now lost) sheds valuable insight into the genesis of the finished paintings and Winterhalter's working methods were undertaking important state commissions.
Winterhalter had lived and worked in Paris since December 1834. His playful and colourful Italian genre scenes established his reputation among the critics, while his portraits, distinguished by their high degree of corporeal likeness with the permissible amount of flattering idealisation, comme-il-faut elegance, and fresh palette drew the attention of the French aristocracy and the banking elite. Louis-Philippe, King of the French, and his family, became Winterhalter's principal patrons from 1838. They introduced the artist to Queen Victoria, and from 1842 onwards, Winterhalter began travelling regularly to London to assuage the Queen's insatiable appetite for portraits of the loved ones near and far. However, Louis-Philippe's patronage of Winterhalter ended abruptly when the July Monarchy was overthrown by the February Revolution of 1848. The Second Republic had no employ for a court painter; and the dawn of the Second Empire promised seemingly little for Winterhalter.
The first commissions for official portraits of the new Imperial couple, Emperor Napolon III and Empress Eugénie of the French, were given, demonstratively and emphatically, to French artists, including Alfred de Dreux and Edouard Dubufe. A number of these were slated to be shown at the Salon of 1853, the first Salon of the Second Empire. However, even prior to the opening of the Salon on 15 May 1853, rumours began to circulate about Winterhalter receiving impending commissions from the Court of the Tuileries. The reasons for such dramatic volte-face by the imperial establishment are not difficult to guess. The reception of Napolon III and Eugénie's portraits by the above-mentioned artists was less than felicitous; and the critical consensus opined that authoritative official representations of the Imperial couple are yet to be delivered. At the same time, Winterhalter's credentials as an elite portrait specialist remained unchallenged. The authoritative official representations were sorely needed by the new regime, and commissioning of portraits from Winterhalter indicates that his presumed allegiances to the former ruling dynasty were cast aside for the sake of high quality semiotic statements of the new imperial rule.
The very existence of these studies clearly shows that the decision to commission official portraits from Winterhalter was not taken lightly. The palace clearly precipitated a populist backlash consequent to awarding the responsibility for producing the definitive images of the Second Empire to an artist who was not only a foreigner but also the authoritative iconographer of the previous political regime. (Their concern was prescient: when the finished portraits were unveiled at the Exposition Universelle of 1855, Maxime Du Camp wrote that the choice of Winterhalter "nous tonne et nous afflige, car il y a en France vingt faiseurs de portraits qui ont beaucoup plus de talent que ce peintre étranger." ) Therefore, utmost care was undertaken on both sides to ensure that the resulting portraits were going to be nothing less than satisfactory. It must have been a rather galling experience for a seasoned and established elite portrait specialist like Winterhalter to submit working modellos for the Imperial approval instead of embarking on the actual portraits as was his usual custom. However, the patronage from the court of the Tuileries was a coveted prize, and the detailed examination of the studies clearly shows that a mutually suitable compromise has been reached.
Although neither of the works is signed or dated, the analysis of pigments confirms that these studies date from the early 1850s. Furthermore, the pigments used are comparable to those in autograph Winterhalter's works of the era. Studies for portraits in Winterhalter's oeuvre post-1835 are extremely rare; visual examination and eyewitness accounts confirm that the artist predominantly painted a la prima after outlining the initial design on blank canvas in wisps of black or brown pigment. Traces of similar underdrawing are visible in the infra-red photographs of the present works. Winterhalter's hand is undoubted in the highlights, rich impastos, and the bravura finishes of the studies. However, the presence of another hand in the background and preparatory layers of the paintings is also clearly evident, most likely being that of a studio assistant working under Winterhalter's supervision. This is not an isolated case in Winterhalter's practice. A number of copies after Winterhalter's portraits of Louis-Philippe, King of the French, and his family bear evidence of Winterhalter's finishing touches. Furthermore, the documentary evidence confirm that Winterhalter's replica of the portrait of Prince Albert, The Prince Consort (1867, oil on canvas, London: National Portrait Gallery) after the original at Buckingham Palace (1859, oil on canvas, HM Queen Elizabeth II) was similarly produced with the studio participation under the artist's supervision. The identity of the assistant(s) is unclear at the time of writing, and further investigation is required to ascertain whether the brushwork within the background and preparatory layers can be attributed to Hermann Winterhalter (1808-1891), or to other artists working within Winterhalter's studio at the time, who included among others Charles Boutibonne (1816-97), Richard Lauchert (1823-69), Josephine Ludwig (?-?), and Federico de Madrazo (1815-94).
The wooden panelling in the background of the portrait studies suggests that the initial sittings most likely took place at the Palais des Tuileries, where an atelier was set up for the exclusive use by the artists charged with official portrait commissions. This suggests the commencement date of late August or September, after Winterhalter's return from London, but before the departure of the Imperial court to Compiègne in early October of 1853. Winterhalter's visit to Compiègne that year has been recorded, and it is possible that the artist joined the Imperial party in order to present them with the modellos and secure the official approval to commence his work on the final portraits. The intervening two months between his visit to Compiègne in October and the receipt 24,000 francs for the pair of finished portraits in December 1853 corresponds with the length of time it took Winterhalter to execute comparable full-length pendant portraits.
The originals are believed to have been destroyed in conflagration that engulfed the Palais des Tuileries between 23 and 25 May 1871. However, the sheer proliferation of arguably faithful copies still allows for an informed comparison between the studies and the finished variants. The overall representation of Napolon III is steeped within the traditional formulae of official state portraiture with the prerequisite trappings of the full-length contrapposto, regalia, and billowing curtains. The Emperor cuts a rather dashing figure in his lieutenant-general's uniform that emphasises broad shoulders, singed waistline, and flatteringly elongated limbs in highly polished knee-length boots. The Legion d'Honneur across his chest completes the Imperial regalia. Winterhalter's design of the portrait of the Empress is informed by its role as the pendant to that of the Emperor, and therefore it echoes its numerous compositional devices, such as the full-length stance, direct gaze, and the placement within a palatial interior. The portrait features a sumptuous collection of jewels, including the pearl and diamond tiara, the Emperor's wedding gift, which was created by the crown jeweller, Gabriel Lemmonier (c.1804-84), and is preserved today at the Louvre. The multiple strands of pearl necklaces almost obscure another present from the Emperor, the diamond and emerald clover-shaped brooch, a traditional good-luck charm and one of the Empress's favourite jewels. The gold and precious stone crown on the left-hand-side of the portrait looks markedly different from the actual crown of the Empress, which is also preserved at the Louvre, but the discrepancy between the two is explained by the fact that Eugénie's crown was not completed by Lemmonier until 1855, and Winterhalter therefore would have had to work from the jeweller's working designs rather than the actual object. Eugnie's decorations are supplemented by innumerable bracelets on her wrists and the jewelled Order of Maria-Luisa, worn on a ribbon across her bodice. The greatest and most obvious point of difference between the studies and the finished variants is the treatment of the background, where the sombre panelling was replaced with billowing curtains, columns, and landscape vignettes. In the finished portraits, Winterhalter firmly situates the Emperor within the Palais des Tuileries, the seat of the Imperial power; while the background of Eugnie's portrait has been traditionally identified as the palace garden of Saint-Cloud, the sphere of courtly entertainments.
No record has come to light to indicate Napolon III and Empress Eugnie's opinion of their state portraits by Franz Xaver Winterhalter. However, the immediate and innumerable proliferation of copies on canvas, Sèvres porcelain, Gobelins tapestries, and in a variety of reproductive print media, at full, half, or bust length configurations, and the fact that an official order form had to be pre-printed to keep up with the increasing demand for copies, leaves little doubt that the sovereign couple deemed Winterhalter's official and outward construct of their imperial personas satisfactory. The fact that more than fifteen per cent of the annual art budget was dedicated purely to the reproduction of Winterhalter's portraits and the artist's immediate nomination as Peintre Attir© de la Cour de Napolon III further attests to the Imperial appreciation of his artistic talents.
The coup-de-foudre success of the first two portraits of the Emperor and Empress of the French sufficed to ensconce Winterhalter as the preferred iconographer of the new Imperial regime. This prompted several bon mots from the artist's contemporaries. Vignon wrote that "les familles couronnes se transmettent M. Winterhalter comme une tradition"; while the fellow artist, Eugne Lami (1800-1890), who shared a similar dose of success within the ruling establishments both under the July Monarchy and the Second Empire, famously quipped: "Les souverains changent, mais les paules des femmes restent!"
We would like to thank Eugene Barilo von Reisberg for his assistance in cataloguing this lot and for writing the above catalogue note.
Winterhalter had lived and worked in Paris since December 1834. His playful and colourful Italian genre scenes established his reputation among the critics, while his portraits, distinguished by their high degree of corporeal likeness with the permissible amount of flattering idealisation, comme-il-faut elegance, and fresh palette drew the attention of the French aristocracy and the banking elite. Louis-Philippe, King of the French, and his family, became Winterhalter's principal patrons from 1838. They introduced the artist to Queen Victoria, and from 1842 onwards, Winterhalter began travelling regularly to London to assuage the Queen's insatiable appetite for portraits of the loved ones near and far. However, Louis-Philippe's patronage of Winterhalter ended abruptly when the July Monarchy was overthrown by the February Revolution of 1848. The Second Republic had no employ for a court painter; and the dawn of the Second Empire promised seemingly little for Winterhalter.
The first commissions for official portraits of the new Imperial couple, Emperor Napolon III and Empress Eugénie of the French, were given, demonstratively and emphatically, to French artists, including Alfred de Dreux and Edouard Dubufe. A number of these were slated to be shown at the Salon of 1853, the first Salon of the Second Empire. However, even prior to the opening of the Salon on 15 May 1853, rumours began to circulate about Winterhalter receiving impending commissions from the Court of the Tuileries. The reasons for such dramatic volte-face by the imperial establishment are not difficult to guess. The reception of Napolon III and Eugénie's portraits by the above-mentioned artists was less than felicitous; and the critical consensus opined that authoritative official representations of the Imperial couple are yet to be delivered. At the same time, Winterhalter's credentials as an elite portrait specialist remained unchallenged. The authoritative official representations were sorely needed by the new regime, and commissioning of portraits from Winterhalter indicates that his presumed allegiances to the former ruling dynasty were cast aside for the sake of high quality semiotic statements of the new imperial rule.
The very existence of these studies clearly shows that the decision to commission official portraits from Winterhalter was not taken lightly. The palace clearly precipitated a populist backlash consequent to awarding the responsibility for producing the definitive images of the Second Empire to an artist who was not only a foreigner but also the authoritative iconographer of the previous political regime. (Their concern was prescient: when the finished portraits were unveiled at the Exposition Universelle of 1855, Maxime Du Camp wrote that the choice of Winterhalter "nous tonne et nous afflige, car il y a en France vingt faiseurs de portraits qui ont beaucoup plus de talent que ce peintre étranger." ) Therefore, utmost care was undertaken on both sides to ensure that the resulting portraits were going to be nothing less than satisfactory. It must have been a rather galling experience for a seasoned and established elite portrait specialist like Winterhalter to submit working modellos for the Imperial approval instead of embarking on the actual portraits as was his usual custom. However, the patronage from the court of the Tuileries was a coveted prize, and the detailed examination of the studies clearly shows that a mutually suitable compromise has been reached.
Although neither of the works is signed or dated, the analysis of pigments confirms that these studies date from the early 1850s. Furthermore, the pigments used are comparable to those in autograph Winterhalter's works of the era. Studies for portraits in Winterhalter's oeuvre post-1835 are extremely rare; visual examination and eyewitness accounts confirm that the artist predominantly painted a la prima after outlining the initial design on blank canvas in wisps of black or brown pigment. Traces of similar underdrawing are visible in the infra-red photographs of the present works. Winterhalter's hand is undoubted in the highlights, rich impastos, and the bravura finishes of the studies. However, the presence of another hand in the background and preparatory layers of the paintings is also clearly evident, most likely being that of a studio assistant working under Winterhalter's supervision. This is not an isolated case in Winterhalter's practice. A number of copies after Winterhalter's portraits of Louis-Philippe, King of the French, and his family bear evidence of Winterhalter's finishing touches. Furthermore, the documentary evidence confirm that Winterhalter's replica of the portrait of Prince Albert, The Prince Consort (1867, oil on canvas, London: National Portrait Gallery) after the original at Buckingham Palace (1859, oil on canvas, HM Queen Elizabeth II) was similarly produced with the studio participation under the artist's supervision. The identity of the assistant(s) is unclear at the time of writing, and further investigation is required to ascertain whether the brushwork within the background and preparatory layers can be attributed to Hermann Winterhalter (1808-1891), or to other artists working within Winterhalter's studio at the time, who included among others Charles Boutibonne (1816-97), Richard Lauchert (1823-69), Josephine Ludwig (?-?), and Federico de Madrazo (1815-94).
The wooden panelling in the background of the portrait studies suggests that the initial sittings most likely took place at the Palais des Tuileries, where an atelier was set up for the exclusive use by the artists charged with official portrait commissions. This suggests the commencement date of late August or September, after Winterhalter's return from London, but before the departure of the Imperial court to Compiègne in early October of 1853. Winterhalter's visit to Compiègne that year has been recorded, and it is possible that the artist joined the Imperial party in order to present them with the modellos and secure the official approval to commence his work on the final portraits. The intervening two months between his visit to Compiègne in October and the receipt 24,000 francs for the pair of finished portraits in December 1853 corresponds with the length of time it took Winterhalter to execute comparable full-length pendant portraits.
The originals are believed to have been destroyed in conflagration that engulfed the Palais des Tuileries between 23 and 25 May 1871. However, the sheer proliferation of arguably faithful copies still allows for an informed comparison between the studies and the finished variants. The overall representation of Napolon III is steeped within the traditional formulae of official state portraiture with the prerequisite trappings of the full-length contrapposto, regalia, and billowing curtains. The Emperor cuts a rather dashing figure in his lieutenant-general's uniform that emphasises broad shoulders, singed waistline, and flatteringly elongated limbs in highly polished knee-length boots. The Legion d'Honneur across his chest completes the Imperial regalia. Winterhalter's design of the portrait of the Empress is informed by its role as the pendant to that of the Emperor, and therefore it echoes its numerous compositional devices, such as the full-length stance, direct gaze, and the placement within a palatial interior. The portrait features a sumptuous collection of jewels, including the pearl and diamond tiara, the Emperor's wedding gift, which was created by the crown jeweller, Gabriel Lemmonier (c.1804-84), and is preserved today at the Louvre. The multiple strands of pearl necklaces almost obscure another present from the Emperor, the diamond and emerald clover-shaped brooch, a traditional good-luck charm and one of the Empress's favourite jewels. The gold and precious stone crown on the left-hand-side of the portrait looks markedly different from the actual crown of the Empress, which is also preserved at the Louvre, but the discrepancy between the two is explained by the fact that Eugénie's crown was not completed by Lemmonier until 1855, and Winterhalter therefore would have had to work from the jeweller's working designs rather than the actual object. Eugnie's decorations are supplemented by innumerable bracelets on her wrists and the jewelled Order of Maria-Luisa, worn on a ribbon across her bodice. The greatest and most obvious point of difference between the studies and the finished variants is the treatment of the background, where the sombre panelling was replaced with billowing curtains, columns, and landscape vignettes. In the finished portraits, Winterhalter firmly situates the Emperor within the Palais des Tuileries, the seat of the Imperial power; while the background of Eugnie's portrait has been traditionally identified as the palace garden of Saint-Cloud, the sphere of courtly entertainments.
No record has come to light to indicate Napolon III and Empress Eugnie's opinion of their state portraits by Franz Xaver Winterhalter. However, the immediate and innumerable proliferation of copies on canvas, Sèvres porcelain, Gobelins tapestries, and in a variety of reproductive print media, at full, half, or bust length configurations, and the fact that an official order form had to be pre-printed to keep up with the increasing demand for copies, leaves little doubt that the sovereign couple deemed Winterhalter's official and outward construct of their imperial personas satisfactory. The fact that more than fifteen per cent of the annual art budget was dedicated purely to the reproduction of Winterhalter's portraits and the artist's immediate nomination as Peintre Attir© de la Cour de Napolon III further attests to the Imperial appreciation of his artistic talents.
The coup-de-foudre success of the first two portraits of the Emperor and Empress of the French sufficed to ensconce Winterhalter as the preferred iconographer of the new Imperial regime. This prompted several bon mots from the artist's contemporaries. Vignon wrote that "les familles couronnes se transmettent M. Winterhalter comme une tradition"; while the fellow artist, Eugne Lami (1800-1890), who shared a similar dose of success within the ruling establishments both under the July Monarchy and the Second Empire, famously quipped: "Les souverains changent, mais les paules des femmes restent!"
We would like to thank Eugene Barilo von Reisberg for his assistance in cataloguing this lot and for writing the above catalogue note.