A. Wilbault (active Château-Porcien, 1778)

Previously unrecorded, the author of this finely-painted work must be a member of the Wilbault artistic dynasty of Château-Porcien, in the Ardennes: Nicolas Wilbault, called Duchastel (1686-1763) worked in Leipzig and Dresden, where he was a member of the art academy; Jacques Wilbault (1729-1816), was his nephew and pupil. The significance of the bust of François de Chevert, its profile view derived from a design by Charles-Nicolas Cochin père (see Drouot Richelieu, Paris, 10 June 2009, lot 47) is uncertain; Chevert came from relatively nearby Verdun, and had achieved legendary status as an almost undefeated general who had risen from orphanhood and poverty to the highest military rank baring that of maréchal de France. He may be an ancestor or a simply a military hero of the sitter, although the possibility that this is a self-portrait cannot be excluded.