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Lot Essay
Born in Nantes, Brittany, Jacques-André Portail was trained as an architect by his father before moving to Paris. In 1738 he was appointed Draftsman to the King and two years later curator of the royal collection of maps and pictures. In this capacity he benefited from lodgings in Versailles. Portail executed several views of the building and the orangery, as well as of the gardens of Versailles. These works brought him recognition.
In spite of an artistic career that strayed from the fame and honors of the Academy of Painting, Portail's drawings were admired and sought-after both by his enlightened contemporaries and later on by collectors in the 19th Century, such as Marius Paulme, the Marquis de Chenneviéres and the Goncourt brothers.
A skillful colorist, and always concerned with precision and detail, Jacques-André Portail is one of the artists whose technique is so individual that it is immediately recognizable and the style of this drawing is no exception. Among the artist’s favorite subjects were elegant young men and women caught in solitary reading, drawing or writing. A Lady sketching at a table, in the same technique and size as the present sheet, is in the collection of the Morgan Library and Museum in New York (C. Denison, French Master Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1993, no. 44, ill.).
In spite of an artistic career that strayed from the fame and honors of the Academy of Painting, Portail's drawings were admired and sought-after both by his enlightened contemporaries and later on by collectors in the 19th Century, such as Marius Paulme, the Marquis de Chenneviéres and the Goncourt brothers.
A skillful colorist, and always concerned with precision and detail, Jacques-André Portail is one of the artists whose technique is so individual that it is immediately recognizable and the style of this drawing is no exception. Among the artist’s favorite subjects were elegant young men and women caught in solitary reading, drawing or writing. A Lady sketching at a table, in the same technique and size as the present sheet, is in the collection of the Morgan Library and Museum in New York (C. Denison, French Master Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1993, no. 44, ill.).