François-André Vincent

Possibly Marie-Gabrielle Capet (1761-1818), Paris;

Possibly thence by inheritence to "Mme. Lortal", 1818;

Thereafter acquired by the present owner.

J.P. Cuzin, François-André Vincent, 1746-1816, Entre Fragonard et David, Paris 2013, pp. 273, 503, cat. no. 672 P, reproduced.

Tours, Musee des Beaux-Arts de Tours, François-André Vincent, 1746-1816, entre Fragonard et David, 19 October 2013 - 19 January 2014, no. 66.

A direct rival of Jacques-Louis David and founding member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, François-André Vincent painted this sentimental portrait in 1813, near the end of his fruitful career. An inscription on the verso of the unlined canvas identifies the sitter as Victoire Perrier, a close friend of Vincent household. This must have been a particularly personal work for the artist, who otherwise painted relatively few works in his final years due to his failing health. Though few biographical details are known about the Perrier’s life, her portrait–painted with a remarkable sense of familiarity and candor–reveals an underlying bond between artist and sitter. 

Born in Fougères in 1768, Victoire Perrier must have shared close personal relationships with Vincent and his wife, the artist Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, as well as Marie-Gabrielle Capet, a female artist who lived with the couple in their Paris apartment.¹ At the time of Vincent's death in 1816, Perrier inherited several personal items and a painting from the artist, whose last will and testament refers to their "tender attachment" and "sincere friendship".² Two years later she was a primary beneficiary of Capet's estate, from which she received an intimate profile portrait of Vincent.³ Indeed, Capet’s will of 1818 affectionately refers to Vincent as “mon père” ("my father") and Perrier as “ma sœur d'amitié” (my sister in friendship).⁴ Additionally, a portrait of Mlle. Perrier is mentioned in the same will, bequeathed to a “Mme. Lortal”, but without specification of the artist; it could be the present work or an unidentified painting by Capet herself. 

¹ Although the inscription (probably by Vincent's hand) the painting's verso gives Perrier's date of birth as October 23, 1775, her birth certificate in the civil registry archives of Fougères indicates that she was born on October 23, 1768.

² "Testament de François-André Vincent," reproduced in Cuzin 2013, p. 523.

³ Marie-Gabrielle Capet, Portrait of François-André Vincent, 1811, black, red, and white chalk on paper. Katrin Bellinger Collection, inv. no. 2021-024; reproduced in A. Badiee Banta, A. Griest, and T. Kutasz Christensen (eds.), Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400-1800, exhibition catalogue, Toronto 2023.

⁴ "Testament de Marie-Gabrielle Capet," reproduced in Cuzin 2013, pp. 532-533.