Live Auction 7783Old Master & 19th Century Paintings, Drawings & Watercolours Day Sale
Christie’s roundel
Lot 191

Scott-Pierre-Nicolas Legrand, called Legrand de Lérant (Pont-l'Évêque 1758-1829 Bern)

Portrait of Nicolas-Frédéric Freudenreich (1776-1858), half-length, in an officer's uniform, leaning on a cannon, a battle beyond

Closed9 December 2009

Price Realised

GBP 8,750

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Scott-Pierre-Nicolas Legrand, called Legrand de Lérant (Pont-l'Évêque 1758-1829 Bern)
Portrait of Nicolas-Frédéric Freudenreich (1776-1858), half-length, in an officer's uniform, leaning on a cannon, a battle beyond
signed, indistinctly inscribed and dated 'LEGRAND- De ... P... 1818 KIRCH[BER?]G' (lower right, on the cannon)
oil on canvas, unlined
25 5/8 x 21¾ in. (65.2 x 55.3 cm.)
with identifying inscription, possibly in the hand of the sitter's grand-daughter Elisa Gautier, née Freudenreich, 'Nicolas Frédéric Freudenreich Né à Berne 1776, officier au service d'Angleterre dans le regimt Suisse de Roverea. bailli à Berthoud & à Wimmis pour la Restauration, Capitaine Grand Juge en les regiments suisses à Naples 1830-1850 mort à Berne 1858' (on the reverse of the stretcher)

The sitter, and by descent until at least circa 1970 (sold with a note tracing the descent of the picture).

Specialist note

Nicolas-Frédéric Freudenreich, born in Bern in 1776 to Christoph Friedrich Freudenreich and Catherine Hortin, was a member of the Swiss regiment commanded by Ferdinand de Roverea (1763-1829), whose memoirs record the events of the Revolution in Switzerland, the campaign of 1799, the feats of Marshal Suvorov and the character of generals such as Archduke Charles of Austia and Pedro Caro, Marqués de La Romana (F. de Roverea, Memoires, Bern, 1848). As the inscription on the reverse of this picture records, the regiment was in the pay of the King of England, and fought for the Allies in the Napoleonic Wars. Freudenreich was afterwards (1830-1850) in the service of the King of the Two Sicilies, in Naples, and was awarded the Order of Saint George of the Reunion by Ferdinand II in 1849.