.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Born in Troyes in 1843, Adrien Moreau began his artistic training as a glassmaker in that city. The artist moved to Paris where he worked for a brief time in the studio of Leon Coignet and then joined the studio of Isidore Pils. He debuted at the Paris Salon in 1868, and exhibited in the following year, but his studio was destroyed by an explosion during the Franco-Prussian War and the artist would not appear again in the Salon until 1873. In 1876, he won the second-class medal, and was awarded a silver medal in the Expositions Universelles of 1889 and 1900. Moreau was also in great demand as a book illustrator, and in 1889 he illustrated Candide by Voltaire and Le Secret de Saint Louis by E. Moreau. He was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1892.
Moreau's milieu was the historical genre painting, and few artists surpassed him in this arena. The artist catered to a clientele eager to acquire images of the 17th and 18th Centuries, particularly in North America. Moreau's paintings were highly regarded by the critics and his achieved international status when his paintings were reproduced in General Wallace's Famous Paintings of the World of 1894. The author wrote enthusiastically of both the artist and his work: '...Adrien Moreau has given us a charming idea of the luxurious life of the French nobility...The artist fancies persons of quality for the peopling of his canvases, and makes his men gallant cavaliers, and gives to his grandes dames, or great ladies, as much refinement as grace. He is so careful a student of the times he depicts, that we may know that the customs and costumes are really what they really were in these courtier days of France (General Lew Wallace, Famous Paintings of the World, New York, 1894, p. 169).
Moreau's milieu was the historical genre painting, and few artists surpassed him in this arena. The artist catered to a clientele eager to acquire images of the 17th and 18th Centuries, particularly in North America. Moreau's paintings were highly regarded by the critics and his achieved international status when his paintings were reproduced in General Wallace's Famous Paintings of the World of 1894. The author wrote enthusiastically of both the artist and his work: '...Adrien Moreau has given us a charming idea of the luxurious life of the French nobility...The artist fancies persons of quality for the peopling of his canvases, and makes his men gallant cavaliers, and gives to his grandes dames, or great ladies, as much refinement as grace. He is so careful a student of the times he depicts, that we may know that the customs and costumes are really what they really were in these courtier days of France (General Lew Wallace, Famous Paintings of the World, New York, 1894, p. 169).