.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This amusing caricature by François-André Vincent, and those in the following lots, depict various members of the Institut de France. The drawings come from an album sold at auction in Paris soon after 1960. The album, known as Album Baderou from the name of its owner, the collector and art dealer Henri Baderou (1910-1991), contained about 49 caricatures. All the drawings, now dispersed, present manuscript inscriptions in a 19th Century hand identifying the sitters. A large group of these caricatures (28) were donated by Henri Baderou and his wife Suzanne to the musée de Rouen in 1975 (Cuzin, op. cit., 1980, pp. 93-99).
The Institut, created in 1795, was intended to replace the Royal Academy after the French Revolution and unite France's intellectuals in the fields of the sciences, arts, and humanities. The caricatures were likely made without the sitters’ knowledge; whether or not Vincent showed them to his subjects is unknown. All of the drawings in the group are of similar small dimension and drawn with same rapid technique of pen and ink. The pleasure of these drawings is the unique character each one possesses, speaking of the talent of Vincent as an artist, and his familiarity with his subjects as a friend.
Antoine Diannyère (1762-1802) was a French thinker and writer, as well as a founding member of the Institut. He wrote on a wide variety of topics but was best known for his works on political science and economics. Vincent shows him in profile at a writing desk with a wide grin.
The Institut, created in 1795, was intended to replace the Royal Academy after the French Revolution and unite France's intellectuals in the fields of the sciences, arts, and humanities. The caricatures were likely made without the sitters’ knowledge; whether or not Vincent showed them to his subjects is unknown. All of the drawings in the group are of similar small dimension and drawn with same rapid technique of pen and ink. The pleasure of these drawings is the unique character each one possesses, speaking of the talent of Vincent as an artist, and his familiarity with his subjects as a friend.
Antoine Diannyère (1762-1802) was a French thinker and writer, as well as a founding member of the Institut. He wrote on a wide variety of topics but was best known for his works on political science and economics. Vincent shows him in profile at a writing desk with a wide grin.