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Lot Essay
This portrait, which has not been publicly exhibited in almost a century, is a superb example of Corneille de Lyon’s mature style, when the artist, in full command of his skills, had distilled his restrained yet impactful formula.
Considered along with Jean and François Clouet as the father of French portraiture, Corneille de Lyon was born in The Hague to Flemish parents. He trained in the city of Antwerp before moving to Lyon, where he is first recorded in 1533, and where he swiftly rose to prominence. By 1541, around the time this portrait was painted, Corneille was painter to the ‘dauphin’, or heir apparent, Henri, who later granted him the prominent position of ‘peintre et valet de chambre du roi’ upon his accession to the throne in 1547. This elevated position brought the artist numerous commissions, which in turn translated into financial success, as testified by the various properties the artist subsequently acquired in Lyon and the surrounding countryside. A testament to Corneille’s eminent reputation, in 1544, the poet Eustorge de Beaulieu devoted a rondeau to the painter: ‘To produce a fine likeness from life / no one in France compares to Corneille’ (cited in A. Dubois de Groër, op. cit., p. 19).
Corneille’s swift draftsmanship and his approach to building structure in the sitter’s face, which he learnt during his Flemish training, are still perceptible in this portrait, however, the painter has adopted a more polished manner, characterised by minute brushstrokes and a more subtle modulation of light (rather than the sharper contrasts visible in his earlier portraits). Cast on to the deep green background, that has become synonymous with Corneille’s art, the shadows of both the sitter and the frame are delicately rendered. The portrait can be dated on stylistic grounds to the period between 1540 and 1545. Corneille produced a large number of aristocratic portraits which were copied repeatedly (with varying degrees of quality) due to the illustrious identity of their sitters. By contrast, the present picture is only known in one other example, a panel in the Brooklyn Museum, which is considered by Dubois de Groër in her monograph on the artist to be a later copy.
The sitter has traditionally been identified as the eminent theologian Theodore Beza (1519–1605). A native of Vézelay in Burgundy, Beza studied law in Paris and Orléans before experiencing a religious conversion that prompted his move to Geneva in 1548, where he became Calvin’s disciple and later successor. He was an ardent defender of the Reformation in Europe and a virulent critic of absolute monarchy. This identification has now been discounted, however: the sitter’s dress indicates that he is a wealthy bourgeois merchant, rather than a man of learning.
We are grateful to Dr. Alexandra Zvereva for confirming the attribution after inspection of the original.
A note on the provenance: Alfred Morrison (1821-1897) was the second son of the merchant James Morrison, who, from very modest beginnings, experienced a meteoric rise in the textile industry in London. Alfred attended Edinburgh and Cambridge Universities, travelled regularly on the continent and spent over three years crisscrossing North America on behalf of his father’s merchant bank. While travelling with him in 1842, his elder brother Charles wrote home: ‘I have been observing Alfred - & do not think he will become a working man of business ... I think that nothing but necessity will induce him to become the inmate of a countinghouse ... [he] does not value money & does like his ease.’ Fortunately for Alfred, he would never be forced to become the ‘inmate of a countinghouse’. When his father died in 1857, Alfred inherited the Fonthill estate and £750,000 in stocks and shares. Alfred would use his inheritance to amass an extraordinary collection of art treasures. He began by collecting engravings and Chinese art. His patronage of contemporary artists, such as Lord Frederic Leighton and John Brett, and of living craftsmen, earned him the title of the ‘Victorian Maecenas’. He was also a noted collector of autograph letters. Parallel to this interest in historical documents, Morrison showed in his collecting of Old Masters a strong predilection for portraits of historic and literary figures.
Considered along with Jean and François Clouet as the father of French portraiture, Corneille de Lyon was born in The Hague to Flemish parents. He trained in the city of Antwerp before moving to Lyon, where he is first recorded in 1533, and where he swiftly rose to prominence. By 1541, around the time this portrait was painted, Corneille was painter to the ‘dauphin’, or heir apparent, Henri, who later granted him the prominent position of ‘peintre et valet de chambre du roi’ upon his accession to the throne in 1547. This elevated position brought the artist numerous commissions, which in turn translated into financial success, as testified by the various properties the artist subsequently acquired in Lyon and the surrounding countryside. A testament to Corneille’s eminent reputation, in 1544, the poet Eustorge de Beaulieu devoted a rondeau to the painter: ‘To produce a fine likeness from life / no one in France compares to Corneille’ (cited in A. Dubois de Groër, op. cit., p. 19).
Corneille’s swift draftsmanship and his approach to building structure in the sitter’s face, which he learnt during his Flemish training, are still perceptible in this portrait, however, the painter has adopted a more polished manner, characterised by minute brushstrokes and a more subtle modulation of light (rather than the sharper contrasts visible in his earlier portraits). Cast on to the deep green background, that has become synonymous with Corneille’s art, the shadows of both the sitter and the frame are delicately rendered. The portrait can be dated on stylistic grounds to the period between 1540 and 1545. Corneille produced a large number of aristocratic portraits which were copied repeatedly (with varying degrees of quality) due to the illustrious identity of their sitters. By contrast, the present picture is only known in one other example, a panel in the Brooklyn Museum, which is considered by Dubois de Groër in her monograph on the artist to be a later copy.
The sitter has traditionally been identified as the eminent theologian Theodore Beza (1519–1605). A native of Vézelay in Burgundy, Beza studied law in Paris and Orléans before experiencing a religious conversion that prompted his move to Geneva in 1548, where he became Calvin’s disciple and later successor. He was an ardent defender of the Reformation in Europe and a virulent critic of absolute monarchy. This identification has now been discounted, however: the sitter’s dress indicates that he is a wealthy bourgeois merchant, rather than a man of learning.
We are grateful to Dr. Alexandra Zvereva for confirming the attribution after inspection of the original.
A note on the provenance: Alfred Morrison (1821-1897) was the second son of the merchant James Morrison, who, from very modest beginnings, experienced a meteoric rise in the textile industry in London. Alfred attended Edinburgh and Cambridge Universities, travelled regularly on the continent and spent over three years crisscrossing North America on behalf of his father’s merchant bank. While travelling with him in 1842, his elder brother Charles wrote home: ‘I have been observing Alfred - & do not think he will become a working man of business ... I think that nothing but necessity will induce him to become the inmate of a countinghouse ... [he] does not value money & does like his ease.’ Fortunately for Alfred, he would never be forced to become the ‘inmate of a countinghouse’. When his father died in 1857, Alfred inherited the Fonthill estate and £750,000 in stocks and shares. Alfred would use his inheritance to amass an extraordinary collection of art treasures. He began by collecting engravings and Chinese art. His patronage of contemporary artists, such as Lord Frederic Leighton and John Brett, and of living craftsmen, earned him the title of the ‘Victorian Maecenas’. He was also a noted collector of autograph letters. Parallel to this interest in historical documents, Morrison showed in his collecting of Old Masters a strong predilection for portraits of historic and literary figures.