Lot Essay
The inscription on the drawing reads 'Bordeaux 20...I hope my dear...[to be] in Paris from the first year, 10 germinal. I still suffer, but I will bear it with more patience when I think that every minute is taking me closer to you'.
The features of the sitter in the present sheet are comparable to those of some of the members of the artist's family in a group portrait now in the Saint Louis Museum, P. Rosenberg, French Master Drawings of the 17th & 18th centuries in North American collections, Kent, 1972, no. 3, illustrated.
Along with Isabey, Augustin was one of the leading French portraitists of the 18th and 19th Centuries. He was born in Saint Dié and in 1791 moved to Paris where he quickly built up a successful practice.
He shared with Boilly a taste for perfecting the execution of drawings in stumped black chalk heightened with white. A comparable sheet was sold at Christie's London, July, lot 342, and another, dated 1801 was with Spencer Samuels in 1969.
The features of the sitter in the present sheet are comparable to those of some of the members of the artist's family in a group portrait now in the Saint Louis Museum, P. Rosenberg, French Master Drawings of the 17th & 18th centuries in North American collections, Kent, 1972, no. 3, illustrated.
Along with Isabey, Augustin was one of the leading French portraitists of the 18th and 19th Centuries. He was born in Saint Dié and in 1791 moved to Paris where he quickly built up a successful practice.
He shared with Boilly a taste for perfecting the execution of drawings in stumped black chalk heightened with white. A comparable sheet was sold at Christie's London, July, lot 342, and another, dated 1801 was with Spencer Samuels in 1969.