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Portrait of Antoine-Francois Gelée (1796 - 1860)

(1787 France)

Colnaghi


Portrait of Antoine-Francois Gelée (1796 - 1860)

Artist(s): PAUL CLAUDE MICHEL LE CARPENTIER (1787-1877)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Signed: Signed lower right: Paul Carpentier p.x 1832 à son aimi Gelée
Dimensions: 82.00cm wide   100.00cm high (32.28 inches wide  39.37 inches high)
Description:

A painter of history scenes and portraits, a sculptor and an engraver, Paul le Carpentier was a pupil of his father Charles-Louis Franc Le Carpentier. He then became a pupil of Jacques-Louis David (1829-1886), John le Barbier and Paillot de Montabert exhibiting at the Salon between 1817 and 1838 and again in 1853, including a painting in 1838 entitled Louis XVI, donnant ses instrusments à Lapérouse. There is a Creation of Eve in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, a copy after Poussin and a portrait of Paillot de Montabert in Troyes.

The sitter, Antoine-Francois Gelée (1796-1860) was an engraver who studied under Anne-Louise Girodet (1767-1824) and Hippolyte Louis Em. de Pauquet (born after 1797). In 1820 he won second prize in the Prix de Rome and in 1821 he won first prize. Gelée also exhibited at the Salon from 1822 to 1853. In 1842 he won a first class medal for his engraving La justice poursuivant le crime, after Prud’ hon. He was principally an engraver of genre scenes.

The Colnaghi portrait eloquently portrays Carpentier’s friend Gelée in his studio sitting upright at his desk with various engraving tools. He is holding a small magnifying glass in his left hand and, most likely, a multiple line engraver in his right. By the mid-eighteenth pure engraving had largely been replaced by mixed-engraving techniques such as the tonal engraving process of mezzotint, roulette and stipple and as such many of these tools are seen resting on the table. It may be said that the linear composition, which Carpentier has employed in the background, complements Gelée’s profession as an engraver; the crisp, vertical and angular lines are reminiscent of the lines applied in engraving.