Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891)

Two hand studies; and a study of Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bessières (1768-1813)

Details

Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891)
Two hand studies; and a study of Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bessières (1768-1813)
all three signed with monogram (lower right)
oil on panel
11 x 12 cm.
(3)

Provenance

The two hand studies:
The artist's studio sale; Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1893, lots 353 and 355 as “Une main droite, relevée près de la joue, la paume en dehors. Etude pour l’Homme lisant à la fenêtre ( 1883); and Etude de main droite, posée au bras d'un fauteuil, pour un Portrait de M. Meissonnier (1881).
with Hammer Galleries, New York.
with Bedel & Cie (Le Garde Meuble Public), Paris.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, South Kensington, 20 January 2016, lot 11.

Literature

M.O. Gerard, Jean Louis Ernest Meissonnier: Ses Souvenirs, ses entretiens: precedes d’une etude sur sa vie et son oeuvre, Paris, 1897, p. 376, no. 3, as: Study of a hand, for a Reader (1883), and p. 375, no. 15, as: Study of a hand. On the curved arm of a seat. For a portrait of the painter (1881).

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Lot Essay

This work is a study for the figure of Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bessières from the larger 1807 work The Battle of Friedland, which is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. It is believed that Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bessières served under Napoleon in all of his campaigns. He was appointed a Marshal in 1809.
The second hand sketch is related to Meissonier's watercolour Self Portrait (1882), now in Valenciennes (see C. Hungerford et al., Ernest Meissonnier : Retrospective, exhibition Catalogue, Lyon, Musee des Beaux Arts, 1993, no. 61).

We are grateful to Constance Hungerford for confirming the attribution.

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