.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Alfred de Dreux was born in an artistic milieu, the son of the renowned architect Pierre Anne de Dreux, who had won the Prix de Rome in 1815 for architecture, and settled down with his family in the Villa Medic is as a resident artist. Young Alfred was additionally fortunate that his uncle, the painter Pierre Joseph Dedreux-Dorcy (1789-1874), was a very close friend of Théodore Géricault. As a result of this close family bond, the great French Romantic artist stayed with the family in Rome and painted de Dreux several times as a boy, alone or accompanied by his sister. Géricault, whose choice of subjects, notably horses, was to have a lasting influence on the young artist. He too, favoured strong thoroughbreds as the subjects of his paintings, and had been fascinated by the exoticism of North Africa.
During the 1820s de Dreux studied with the history painter Léon Cogniet but, probably through Théodore Géricault, his early development was also much influenced by English painters such as George Stubbs, Sir Edwin Landseer, and George Morland. His first major success came at the Salon of 1831 with The White Stallion, which was clearly indebted to both Géricault and, in particular, Stubbs' Horse attacked by a Lion (1770).
Noted for their liveliness of touch and vibrancy of colour, de Dreux's equestrian subjects, whether portraits, or historical and troubadour scenes, became extremely popular and the mainstay of his artistic production, and included numerous large-scale aristocratic commissions. Works such as the present lot exhibit his skill in framing his subject in a deftly rendered receding landscape. Around the time that the present work was painted, de Dreux aligned himself with the Royal Family, visiting England with the king, Louis-Philippe, in 1844; and following the fall of the July Monarchy in 1848, he travelled to England where he found employment doing elegant portraits of aristocrats and their horses, very much in the manner of Landseer.
De Dreux took part in the Exposition Universelle of 1855 and was appointed Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1857. It was also around that time that he became one of the chief artists for the family and circle of the emperor, Napoléon III, whose portrait on horseback he painted in 1859.
During the 1820s de Dreux studied with the history painter Léon Cogniet but, probably through Théodore Géricault, his early development was also much influenced by English painters such as George Stubbs, Sir Edwin Landseer, and George Morland. His first major success came at the Salon of 1831 with The White Stallion, which was clearly indebted to both Géricault and, in particular, Stubbs' Horse attacked by a Lion (1770).
Noted for their liveliness of touch and vibrancy of colour, de Dreux's equestrian subjects, whether portraits, or historical and troubadour scenes, became extremely popular and the mainstay of his artistic production, and included numerous large-scale aristocratic commissions. Works such as the present lot exhibit his skill in framing his subject in a deftly rendered receding landscape. Around the time that the present work was painted, de Dreux aligned himself with the Royal Family, visiting England with the king, Louis-Philippe, in 1844; and following the fall of the July Monarchy in 1848, he travelled to England where he found employment doing elegant portraits of aristocrats and their horses, very much in the manner of Landseer.
De Dreux took part in the Exposition Universelle of 1855 and was appointed Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1857. It was also around that time that he became one of the chief artists for the family and circle of the emperor, Napoléon III, whose portrait on horseback he painted in 1859.