JEAN-FRANÇOIS BONY | PORTRAIT OF MADEMOISELLE ALBERT, FULL-LENGTH, SEATED IN A LANDSCAPE BESIDE A STONE VASE AND BASKETS FILLED WITH FLOWERS

Private collection, France;

From whom acquired by the present owner.

Musee des Beaux-Arts, Fleurs de Lyon 1807 - 1917, Lyon 1982, exhibition catalogue, pp. 111-114, no. 45, reproduced p. 113.

Born in Givors, near Lyon, Jean-François Bony studied flower design at the Lyon École de Dessin. In addition to painting, he produced embroidery designs for satin, velvet, and taffeta for Lyon textile manufacturers, and later taught flower design at the École de Beaux-Arts in Lyon. In 1811 he relocated to Paris, where he designed textiles and clothing for the court of Napoleon I and later for Louis XVIII, including dresses for Empress Josephine and window hangings for Versailles. While many of his textile designs are preserved in the Musée Historique des Tissus in Lyon and the Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, his oil paintings are very rare.

Bony exhibited flower paintings at the Paris Salon of 1819, and after he took his own life in 1825, eight of his paintings were exhibited posthumously in 1828.  The present painting is unique in Bony's oeuvre for its monumental size and combination of his talents for precise flower painting and textile design. His signature suggests that he also designed the striped silk dress worn by Mademoiselle Albert, as he was employed at the silkworks in Lyon. Beyond her the landscape shows Lyon's Fourvière hill with the Basilica of Notre Dame, demonstrating Bony's connections to the industries of his hometown.