Johann Melchior WYRSCH (1732-1798) - Lot 50

Johann Melchior WYRSCH (1732-1798) Portrait of Professor F. V. Ordinary Canvas Height: 94.5 cm Width: 72.5 cm Old restorations In 1780, Wyrsch painted an oval bust portrait (69.50 cm x 58.50 cm) of Francois-Vincent Ordinaire, professor of law at the royal university of Besançon and one of Voltaire's best friends. On the back, on the original is inscribed: "F.V. Ordinaire, professeur royal en l'université de Besançon, âgé de 55 ans, peint par Wyrsch 1780" coll part. The jurist is shown wearing the scarlet professor's flap and gown, edged with white fur white fur, typical of professors at the royal university. A second, larger copy with the hand was subsequently commissioned from the Swiss painter, possibly intended for the royal faculty. Professor Ordinaire's family, of old Comtois stock, all belonged to the patrician society of the patrician society of Bisont, whether as a scholar, naturalist, canon of the Besançon chapter nephew Jean-Jacques, first rector of the Besançon academy, whose father Pierre-François, a lawyer at the Franche-Comté parlement de Franche-Comté was mayor of Besançon (his portrait, painted by Lenoir in 1790, was sold in Besançon Besançon on May 19, 2025). Note that Emile Fourquet's "Dictionnaire des Homme Célèbres de Franche-Comté" (1929) lists no fewer than no fewer than 9 entries relating to the Ordinaire surname.