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Robert Levrac-tournières - Portrait Of The Governor Of Canada - Charles De La Boische Beauharnais
Robert LEVRAC dit TOURNIÈRES
(Caen 1668 – Caen 1752)
Portrait of Charles de la Boische, Marquis de Beauharnais, Governor of Canada (1671-1749)
Oil on canvas
H. 45 cm; L. 37 cm
Related works: - Mid-thigh portrait, Grenoble museum
- Half-length portrait, art market,
Brussels Son of an engraver, Levrac-Tournières began his apprenticeship with a relative, then joined Paris where he will be under the orders of Bon Boullogne and the great master Hyacinthe Rigaud. In 1702 he was accepted as a portrait painter at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and two years later as a history painter. It is as a portraitist that he will excel and will be known thereafter. Many political personalities and artists pass in front of his easel just like the Regent, who find in the art of Levrac-Tournières, a new facet. Accustomed to the brilliant and pompous images of Rigaud and Largillierre which were then fashionable between 1690 and 1730, the young painter from Caen brought a Dutch touch to his portraits. A little icy side, precise, inspired by the painters Godfried Schalken and Gerard Dou whom he studied for a long time. It is this change in the art of the portrait that is appreciated by a whole generation of French people wishing to have portraits made. Two types of works are mostly known. Those in real size made either at mid-thigh, mid-body, bust or simply cut at the shoulders, and the small formats around 45 to 50 cm high where the subjects are generally represented at mid-body or full length and do not take only a small space of the composition. A few group portraits are known, mainly of families. His history works seem to have all disappeared. Regularly, several portraits of the same people are found in the painter's corpus in a variety of formats. This is exactly the case with our shoulder-framed portrait, of which at least two other versions exist, mid-body and mid-thigh. Our painting being a rediscovery, it is possible that other versions exist, in bust or in small format. The Marquis de Beauharnais (or Beauharnais) here wears his red cord of Commander of the Order of Saint-Louis on ceremonial armour. Born in 1676, Charles de Beauharnais was one of thirteen siblings. One of his brothers will be the grandfather of Alexandre who will marry Joséphine, future Empress of the French. A sailor from the beginning of his career, he entered as a midshipman at fourteen and finished lieutenant-general of the king's naval armies, the highest rank. In 1726 he was appointed governor of Canada, a position he left in 1747 at the age of seventy-seven. Our painting, like its other versions, was painted on his return from Montreal in 1748, when Levrac-Tournières exhibited the work kept in the Grenoble museum at the Salon. It was this same year that the painter let go of his brushes and returned to Caen where he lived his last days in 1752. Charles de Beauharnais preceded him in the grave in 1749. Did he have time to admire all the versions of his vibrant portrait executed by the painter? At seventy-eight, our man is represented still fresh, his face luminous and rosy, enhanced by the red of the cord. The wig, marvelously detached from the brushed gray background, has the characteristic touch of Levrac-Tournières, very fluffy and not sculpted as with other painters of the time. He is precise in the details and works in glaze in the flesh to give them more depth and transparency.
(Caen 1668 – Caen 1752)
Portrait of Charles de la Boische, Marquis de Beauharnais, Governor of Canada (1671-1749)
Oil on canvas
H. 45 cm; L. 37 cm
Related works: - Mid-thigh portrait, Grenoble museum
- Half-length portrait, art market,
Brussels Son of an engraver, Levrac-Tournières began his apprenticeship with a relative, then joined Paris where he will be under the orders of Bon Boullogne and the great master Hyacinthe Rigaud. In 1702 he was accepted as a portrait painter at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and two years later as a history painter. It is as a portraitist that he will excel and will be known thereafter. Many political personalities and artists pass in front of his easel just like the Regent, who find in the art of Levrac-Tournières, a new facet. Accustomed to the brilliant and pompous images of Rigaud and Largillierre which were then fashionable between 1690 and 1730, the young painter from Caen brought a Dutch touch to his portraits. A little icy side, precise, inspired by the painters Godfried Schalken and Gerard Dou whom he studied for a long time. It is this change in the art of the portrait that is appreciated by a whole generation of French people wishing to have portraits made. Two types of works are mostly known. Those in real size made either at mid-thigh, mid-body, bust or simply cut at the shoulders, and the small formats around 45 to 50 cm high where the subjects are generally represented at mid-body or full length and do not take only a small space of the composition. A few group portraits are known, mainly of families. His history works seem to have all disappeared. Regularly, several portraits of the same people are found in the painter's corpus in a variety of formats. This is exactly the case with our shoulder-framed portrait, of which at least two other versions exist, mid-body and mid-thigh. Our painting being a rediscovery, it is possible that other versions exist, in bust or in small format. The Marquis de Beauharnais (or Beauharnais) here wears his red cord of Commander of the Order of Saint-Louis on ceremonial armour. Born in 1676, Charles de Beauharnais was one of thirteen siblings. One of his brothers will be the grandfather of Alexandre who will marry Joséphine, future Empress of the French. A sailor from the beginning of his career, he entered as a midshipman at fourteen and finished lieutenant-general of the king's naval armies, the highest rank. In 1726 he was appointed governor of Canada, a position he left in 1747 at the age of seventy-seven. Our painting, like its other versions, was painted on his return from Montreal in 1748, when Levrac-Tournières exhibited the work kept in the Grenoble museum at the Salon. It was this same year that the painter let go of his brushes and returned to Caen where he lived his last days in 1752. Charles de Beauharnais preceded him in the grave in 1749. Did he have time to admire all the versions of his vibrant portrait executed by the painter? At seventy-eight, our man is represented still fresh, his face luminous and rosy, enhanced by the red of the cord. The wig, marvelously detached from the brushed gray background, has the characteristic touch of Levrac-Tournières, very fluffy and not sculpted as with other painters of the time. He is precise in the details and works in glaze in the flesh to give them more depth and transparency.
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