Alexandre-françois Caminade (1783-1862) - Portrait Of Madame And Mademoiselle Kuhmann

Trained among the last generation of students of Jacques-Louis David, whose work was recently the subject of a major retrospective at the Louvre Museum, and of Léonor Mérimée, Alexandre-François Caminade was a precocious talent. He won the third prize in the Prix de Rome for painting in 1806 with "The Return of the Prodigal Son" and the second prize in 1807 with "Theseus Victorious over the Minotaur."

Beyond historical subjects, he was also a landscape painter, close to Corot, and an excellent portraitist who earned a second-class medal for this aspect of his work as early as 1812. Caminade was, in fact, one of the leading portrait painters of the Restoration before becoming the portraitist of the July Monarchy.

It is this talent for portraiture that we share through a work from 1811, the portrait of Madame and Mademoiselle Kuhmann.

Painted against a deliberately dark background, it depicts two women with similar features: a mother affectionately placing her hand on her daughter's shoulder, and a daughter leaning her head forward slightly as if to protect her mother. We know nothing more about them, nor about the sadness emanating from their gaze, which makes this painting a beautiful example of nascent Romanticism.

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Details:
Oil on canvas, on its original canvas.
Signed and dated: "Alexandre Caminade fecit 1811".
Sold framed, in a beautiful period frame.
On the reverse, the mark of the canvas merchant Belot, rue de l'Arbre sec in Paris.
Excellent condition.