Anicet Charles Gabriel Lemonnier (attributed To) - Venus And Adonis

Anicet Charles Gabriel LEMONNIER (Attributed to)Rouen, 1743 – Paris, 1824Venus and AdonisOil on wood panel24 x 20 cm (35 x 31 cm with the frame)Very beautiful period frameVery good conditionVisible at the galleryThis is a modified copy of an Italian painting, “Venus and Adonis” by Veronese. An interesting copy (in the sense of the painting), with variations, of a lost painting by Veronese but known from the engraving. The painter has chosen here a different range of colors, a different position of the dogs and Cupid as well, as well as a much more important place given to the landscape. The variations compared to the original painting by Veronese show that the painter sought to draw inspiration from Veronese by bringing his own style to it. Our painting, which we attribute to Lemonnier, presents many characteristics of this artist's art. A painter little known today but who nevertheless won the Prix de Rome in 1772, Lemonnier was elected a member of the Académie de peinture in 1789 and was housed in the Louvre from 1792. He was strongly influenced by Italian painting from the 1770s when he was a student of Vien. He then spent a long time in Italy between 1774 and 1784. There is a very Roman side to his style in the very classical and very serious canon of his figures and in the very detailed work of his folds (very tight folds in a manner characteristic of Lemonnier; see in particular the "Albanian Greek" in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen, painted in the 1770s). And at the same time, there is a very French side in the choice of very pastel colors and the very theatrical expressions of his characters. We can compare our painting with, for example, the painting in the Rouen museum "The Children of Niobe Killed by Apollo and Diana" dated 1772 where we find all these characteristics and which would make us lean towards a fairly early dating, in the 1770s.