Live Auction 5962Centuries of Style: Silver, European Ceramics, Portrait Miniatures and Gold Boxes
JEAN-URBAIN GUERIN (FRENCH, 1760-1836)
Lot 321 THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR

JEAN-URBAIN GUERIN (FRENCH, 1760-1836)

Closed28 November 2012

Price Realised

GBP 5,000

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JEAN-URBAIN GUERIN (FRENCH, 1760-1836)
Étienne-Marie-Antoine Champion de Nansouty (1768-1815), Comte de Nansouty, in black coat with gold embroidered oak leaf collar and gold epaulettes, wearing the red moiré sash, badge and breast-star of the Royal French Order of the Legion of Honour
on ivory
oval, 2 1/16 in. (53 mm.) high, gilt-metal mount within rectangular plush easel-stand frame, applied with gilt cartouche engraved 'GAL DE NANSOUTY', the strut stamped 'Alph. Giroux et Cie'

Ernst Holzscheiter Collection, Meilen, inv. no. MD/0333; part I, Sotheby's, London, 28 March 1977, lot 173.

Specialist note

The sitter descended from a noble family in Burgundy. Destined for a military career, he studied at the Brienne military school and was a graduate of the Paris military academy. He was a cavalry commander at the outbreak of the French Revolutionary wars and was promoted through the ranks, finally to General of Division in 1803. Under Emperor Napoleon's newly created Grande Armée he was called to command the 1st Heavy Cavalry Division and he commanded his troops in some of the most significant subsequent conflicts, including the battle of Borodino. He became a member of the Military Household of the Emperor and during the Bourbon restoration, King Louis XVIII appointed him member of the Military Household of the King of France and bestowed further awards on him. He died in February 1815 and his name is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe.