Jean-jacques Bestieu (1754-1842) Painter Of The Revolution Portrait Historical Souvenir

Jean-Jacques Bestieu (1754-1842) Portrait of the Magistrate of the Trial March 18, 1811.

Montpellier painter son of the lawyer Guillaume Bestieu, in 1778, when he was 24 years old, Jean Bestieu decided to enter the Academy of Fine Arts in Coustou where he obtained his diploma. After a stay in Rome, he returned to his hometown in 1786 where he was offered, following Jacques Gamelin, the position of director of the Société des beaux-arts de Montpellier: under the Ancien Régime, the city of Montpellier has a Fine Arts society which trains numerous painters, some of whom acquired undeniable fame, around Vien, David's master. Artists of the caliber of Pajou or Demoulin reside in the city at this time.
During his career, Bestieu also taught drawing at the Central School of the Hérault department. Alongside a teaching career, he also showed a strong political commitment because from 1796, he was associated with the Popular Society of Montpellier and became a member of the municipality; he is among the most committed, actively participating in the sessions of the popular society of Montpellier. His artistic work testifies to his convictions, with paintings in a neoclassical vein, such as Brutus condemning his son to death or Cincinnatus and the envoys of the Senate.
In 1797, ten years after his appointment as director, Jean Jacques Bestieu was chosen to succeed Abraham Fontanel as curator of the art collection of the Central School of Montpellier, whose collection he was able to enrich by 1803 of around thirty paintings offered by Jean-Antoine Chaptal, who became Minister of the Interior. This collection, added to the thirteen works present kept in the Town Hall, represents the beginning of a museum which was abolished during the Restoration period, before the establishment of the Fabre museum in 1824.
Despite his deep commitment to providing his hometown with a real museum, Montpellier never gave him the honors; the exhibition "The Museum before the Museum at the Fabre Museum" only exploits the big names, much more resounding, devoting a few lines to the fellow citizen that this museum had given birth to under the patriotic impulse of the Revolution.

The painting in question represents the portrait of the magistrate who participated, on March 18, 1811, in the trial between the General Contractors of military beds and the sub-contractors. The painting  has undergone some old restorations, sold in its original state.

Measures
cm 75 x 62

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