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Lot Essay
François Gérard was one of the most important and influential neoclassical painters in France from the Revolution through the Bourbon Restoration, displaying an uncanny ability to navigate the shifting political and cultural waters of the day. The present portrait depicts Julie Hugo (1797-1865), sister-in-law of the novelist Victor Hugo, and herself a distinguished painter, onetime pupil of Jacques-Louis David, Marie-Éléonore Godefroid, and Gérard himself. Born Louise-Rose-Julie Duvidal de Montferrier in Paris in 1797, daughter of Jean-Jacques Duvidal de Montferrier (1752-1829) and Jeanne Delon (c.1770-1831), Julie was educated in Écouen before studying painting with David and Gérard. Following her training, she served as an official copiest of works by Ingres and Delacroix, and made copies of paintings by Gérard for the Crown. She exhibited her original compositions–mostly portraits and history paintings–at the Paris Salon from 1819 to 1827; two of her mythologies, commissioned as overdoors for Rambouillet, are today in the Louvre. Her large religious composition, The Vow of St. Clothilde (1819), hangs to this day in the Assemblée Nationale.
Working as the art tutor of Victor Hugo’s wife, Julie married the celebrated writer’s older brother Abel Hugo (1798-1855) in 1827. A French military officer and historian, Abel served as a page to Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain, later working in the administration of the Comte d’Artois, future Charles X, King of France. Upon his father’s death in 1828, Abel was ennobled ‘Count Hugo’, and from 1835 to 1843, published three multivolume histories of France. Julie and Abel Hugo had two sons, Léopold-Armand (1828-1895), a graphic designer, and Joseph-Napoléon (1835-1863), a Jesuit priest. Julie Hugo died in Brussels on 10 April 1865, age 68.
François Gérard’s romantic image of his young pupil probably dates to circa 1815-1820, when Julie would have been around 20 years old, a date suggested by her obvious youth, as well as her center-parted, curled coiffure à la greque, cashmere shawl and low-cut, high-waisted velvet gown with short, puff sleeves, all the height of fashion in Paris in the final years of the Empire. Gérard emphasizes his sitter’s upturned, almond eyes, strong eyebrows and long, graceful neck, striking physical characteristics found again in Julie’s own Self Portrait (private collection), a painting which certainly dates from approximately the same time. A later portrait of Julie Hugo by Gérard portraying the now-mature wife and mother, is in the collection of the Maison de Victor Hugo in the Place de Vosges, Paris.
Working as the art tutor of Victor Hugo’s wife, Julie married the celebrated writer’s older brother Abel Hugo (1798-1855) in 1827. A French military officer and historian, Abel served as a page to Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain, later working in the administration of the Comte d’Artois, future Charles X, King of France. Upon his father’s death in 1828, Abel was ennobled ‘Count Hugo’, and from 1835 to 1843, published three multivolume histories of France. Julie and Abel Hugo had two sons, Léopold-Armand (1828-1895), a graphic designer, and Joseph-Napoléon (1835-1863), a Jesuit priest. Julie Hugo died in Brussels on 10 April 1865, age 68.
François Gérard’s romantic image of his young pupil probably dates to circa 1815-1820, when Julie would have been around 20 years old, a date suggested by her obvious youth, as well as her center-parted, curled coiffure à la greque, cashmere shawl and low-cut, high-waisted velvet gown with short, puff sleeves, all the height of fashion in Paris in the final years of the Empire. Gérard emphasizes his sitter’s upturned, almond eyes, strong eyebrows and long, graceful neck, striking physical characteristics found again in Julie’s own Self Portrait (private collection), a painting which certainly dates from approximately the same time. A later portrait of Julie Hugo by Gérard portraying the now-mature wife and mother, is in the collection of the Maison de Victor Hugo in the Place de Vosges, Paris.