JEAN-BAPTISTE PERRONNEAU | Portrait of a gentleman, bust length, in a blue gold-lined waistcoat and white chemise

Probably château de Saché (Touraine), 19th century;
Acquired as part of the furniture of the château de Saché by Me (Rémi?) Bodin, barrister, circa 1885;
Probably his daughter, Marie Jean Louis Bodin, wife of François Jules Henry Lecoy;
By descent to Elizabeth Marie Henriette Lecoy and her husband René Benjamin (1885-1948), Paris/Tours;
Galley Jean-François Heim, Paris;
Private collection, Switzerland.

Jean-Baptiste Perroneau, portraitiste de génie dans l'Europe des Lumières, cat. exh., Orléans, musée des Beaux-Arts, 17 June - 17 September 2017, p. 143, n^o 78, repr.

L. Vaillat et P. Ratouis de Limay, B. Perronneau : sa vie et son œuvre, 2^e éd., Paris, 1923, pp. 89 et 223, pl. 26 ;
P. Ratouis de Limay, « Quelques œuvres inédites de J.-B. Perronneau » Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art français, Paris, 1923, p. 325 ;
E. Dacier, « Perronneau inédit. Cinquante œuvres nouvelles de J.-B. Perronneau », Revue de l'art ancien et moderne, n° 45, janvier-mai 1924, pp. 344-354 (repr. in black and white p. 347) ;
French paintings 1500-1825, cat. exh., San Francisco, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, dir. Pierre Rosenberg and Marion S. Steward, 1987, p. 250 ;
D. d'Arnoult, Perronneau (ca. 1715-1783), Paris, 2014, p. 295, cat. 256 P (repr. in black and white).

Par rapport à l’illustration du catalogue, les carnations sont en réalité plus colorées. A l’œil nu : Le tableau se présente dans un bon état de conservation. Le tableau est toujours sur sa toile d’origine. A gauche, on remarque une légère marque du châssis. Un joli réseau de craquelures recouvre la toile. On remarque les restes du vernis ancien sur les bords, ainsi qu’au niveau de la chevelure. A la lampe U.V. : Quelques reprises peuvent être observées sur une ligne verticale présente sur le fond au-dessus de la tête (plus ou moins 10 cm). D’autres, situées en bas à droite, seraient dues au frottage du cadre. Vendu dans un cadre en bois doré (bon état).
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A student of Charles-Joseph Natoire, Jean-Baptiste Perronneau distinguished himself brilliantly only as a portraitist; although principally known as a pastellist he also painted rarer but very beautiful oils. He was accepted as a member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1753 with the portraits of Lambert-Sigisbert Adam [1] and Jean-Baptiste Oudry [2], today in the Musée du Louvre. Thereafter, he practiced his art among a clientele drawn principally from the haute bourgeoisie, in contrast to his great rival Maurice Quentin de La Tour who had attracted the favours of the court and the aristocracy. Perronneau quickly achieved success in the provinces and abroad, particularly in Italy, England and the Netherlands. He accorded more importance to realism and to subtleties of expression than did La Tour and further differentiated himself from his rival through the harmonious use of colours and a more delicate treatment of the effects of light.

Our portrait is one of the rare oils still on its original, unlined canvas (see Literature). The model is represented full face, without a wig, with a bright complexion and his pupils painted in a lovely shade of green-blue. His suit and coat are trimmed with gold braid. 

To this day, the identity of the sitter remains unknown. According to one of its subsequent owners, René Benjamin, the portrait belonged to the furnishings of the château de Saché in Touraine. Later, in the 19^th century, it was owned by a lawyer in Saumur [3] named Bodin, who can be reasonably identified as Rémi Bodin, a solicitor associated with the civil Tribunal for first hearings in 1861. Bodin had served as the steward of the château de Saché before being becoming its owner. Later, the painting passed by descent to Elizabeth Marie Henriette Lecoy, the wife of the writer and journalist René Benjamin (1885–1948).

Rediscovered in the 19^th century, Jean-Baptiste Perronneau is one of the principal portraitists of the reign of Louis XV. Dominique Arnoult's 2014 monograph and the 2017 exhibition Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, portraitiste de genie dans l'Europe des Lumières at the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans have finally restored him to his rightful place among the great artists of the French Age of Enlightenment.

[1] 1753, oil on canvas, 131 x 97.5 cm.
[2] 1753, oil on canvas, 131 x 105 cm.
[3] L'Echo saumurois, 20 juin 1861, p. 4.