Etienne de LAVALLéE-POUSSIN (Rouen 1735... - Lot 35 - Daguerre

Etienne de LAVALLéE-POUSSIN (Rouen 1735 - Paris 1802 ) Portrait of the Eeremans de Beaufort family Canvas with oval view. Signed and dated lower right LAVALLEE.P/ faciebat/E..ncour/1798. Inscribed on the sheet held by the child Armand Erman/Beaufort (?)/1797 (?). 127.5 x 99 cm According to family tradition and the inscription on the drawing in the center, this painting would represent Madeleine Françoise de Logras (1754-1806) and her children, Madeleine Angélique Eeremans de Beaufort (born in 1778) and Armand Eeremans de Beaufort (1783-1858). The father (1723-1793), who disappeared five years before the painting, is evoked by the copy of his portrait held by his son, above his drawing board. He was, under the Ancien Régime, first lieutenant-colonel of cavalry, provost marshal, first lieutenant of the court of the marshals of France and very close to the marshal of Richelieu (Louis-François-Armand de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu). The eldest daughter became Madame Le Charron under the Empire. This beautiful portrait, open to a landscape, evokes the neoclassicism of Fabre and Gauffier, just like the At this date of 1798, peace returned, the economy took off again, and our painting is now in the hands of the testifies to this moment, a peaceful interlude in history It is signed by Lavallée-Poussin, and surprises us, as the second part of his career has been ignored for a long time, so much so that it is not known. to the point that some dictionaries of painters have him dying in 1793, or living in Italy after the Revolution. This is not not the case, and if he withdraws from exhibitions at the Salon and paints only for himself or his inner circle, he is elected mayor of Poissy (see Lionel Britten, Cécile Garguelle-Hébert, Thierry Zimmer, "De trois tableaux d' Étienne de Lavallée- Poussin (Rouen 1735-Paris 1802), mayor of Poissy from 1799 to 1802," Revue de l'histoire de Versailles et des Yvelines, 2015, t. 97, pp. 61-79). This article reproduces a "Portrait of Marie-Joseph Chénier" (fig.145) from 1797, stylistically close to ours. Lavallée-Poussin learned painting in his native town from Jean-Baptiste Descamps, and then in Paris from Jean- Baptiste-Marie Pierre. He won the Prix de Rome in 1759, where he stayed from 1762 to 1777, adopting antique themes in vogue. He was made a knight donate of the Order of Malta. On his return to Paris, he devoted himself to the decoration of hotels (Hôtel Grimod de la Reynière, today the American Embassy). His creations as an ornamentalist are distributed by engravers. He was admitted to the Academy in 1789, with his painting The Return of Young Tobias (Paris, Saint-Jean-Baptiste-de-la-Salle church). He provided the manufacture of Beauvais the models of the hanging The conquest of the Indies in 1785 and four pieces of the History of Alexander in 1792.