Attributed to Jacques SABLET (Morges 1749-Paris... - Lot 37 - Daguerre

Attributed to Jacques SABLET (Morges 1749-Paris 1803) Portrait of Mathurin Crucy (1749-1826) Canvas. 62 x 50 cm Provenance: family of the model. Related bibliography: catalogue of the exhibition Les frères Sablet (1775-1815): Peintures, dessins et gravures, Nantes, Rome, Lausanne, ed. Carte Segrete, 1985. Catalogue by Anne Van de Standt. Mathurin Crucy began his architectural training in Jean-Baptiste Ceineray's studio in his hometown, Nantes, and later entered the Academy of Architecture in Paris as a student of Etienne-Louis Boullée. In 1774, he won the "First Prize of the Academy" - which later became the Prix de Rome - for a project of "Public mineral water baths". In 1780, he was appointed road architect, in charge of the public roads of Nantes in place of his former master, Ceineray, and then in 1809 departmental architect. Between 1780 and 1820, the city of the Dukes doubled its population and surface area. Commerce is flourishing and, in the midst of economic growth, the city is becoming a vast construction site. The architect gives the plans for public buildings, squares and new streets to be built. Among his works, the Place Graslin - Crucy draws his inspiration from the Place de l'Odéon in Paris - which will house the Théâtre Graslin, completed in 1788. Crucy also practiced building neo-classical mansions such as the Hôtel Montaudouin in 1783 (today on the Place du Maréchal-Foch) or the Palais de la Bourse (1790 - 1815) in which Palladian reminiscences are clearly visible. The Crucy family and the two Sablet brothers became friends in Rome from 1779-1780. The younger brother of our model, Louis Crucy, went to Rome where his elder brother was a resident of the Académie de France. They meet up again on their respective returns to Nantes. It was at this time that Jacques Sablet painted the Portrait of Louis Crucy in the Paimboeuf shipyards (La Baule, p