Lot 194
Franz Xaver Winterhalter (Menzenschwand 1805-1873 Frankfurt am Main)
Portrait of the Countesse Duchapel, full-length, with her son
Closed9 December 2009
Price Realised
GBP 97,250
More Information
Specialist note
This full-scale Salon portrait depicts Rosalie Paulée Duchâtel, the daughter of a wealthy family from the Landes, with her son, Charles-Jacques-Marie. Her husband Comte Charles-Marie-Tanneguy Duchâtel was a deputy for the Charente region, who rose first to become Finance Minister in 1835, and in 1840 was appointed Minister of the Interior under King Louis-Philippe.
The painting is expressed in a portraiture idiom which stretches back to the British swagger portrait, and emphasises grandeur and status, the sitter looking down from a high perspective. The classical and draped background, elongated fingers, and sheer scale hark back to the Van Dyck; while the relationship between mother and child recall Rubens's Portrait of the artist with his family (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).
Winterhalter painted this portrait during his first sojourn in Paris, where he had gained an easy entry into aristocratic circles thanks to the patronage he already enjoyed from the British royal family. He kept a foothold in Paris until the upheavals of 1848, painting leading families from around Europe, and flattering his (mostly female) sitters by an acute understanding of the fashions of his day, and by tuning his key to the wishes and status of his sitters.
The painting is expressed in a portraiture idiom which stretches back to the British swagger portrait, and emphasises grandeur and status, the sitter looking down from a high perspective. The classical and draped background, elongated fingers, and sheer scale hark back to the Van Dyck; while the relationship between mother and child recall Rubens's Portrait of the artist with his family (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).
Winterhalter painted this portrait during his first sojourn in Paris, where he had gained an easy entry into aristocratic circles thanks to the patronage he already enjoyed from the British royal family. He kept a foothold in Paris until the upheavals of 1848, painting leading families from around Europe, and flattering his (mostly female) sitters by an acute understanding of the fashions of his day, and by tuning his key to the wishes and status of his sitters.