Ange-rené Ravault (1766-1845) Portrait Of A Family From The Montargis Or Pithiviers Region

Ange-René RAVAULT
(Montargis, 1766 – Montargis, 1845)
Portrait of a family from the Montargis or Pithiviers region
Oil on canvas
H. 73 cm; W. 60 cm
Signed and dated lower left
1819

Provenance:
- Sale of December 9, 1999, Tajan, Paris, Important Old Master Paintings, lot 24 in the catalogue, sold for 70,000 francs (approximately €10,800) excluding fees
- French private collection

Described by some sources as the lord of Corquilleroy, Ange-René Ravault des Gombeaux is best known as a close friend of his fellow Montargis native, Girodet. After a brief military career (he studied at Brienne alongside Napoleon Bonaparte) and a short period of emigration, he received his artistic training from Benoît Suvée. His work as a miniaturist during the Revolution initially allowed him to survive, and later to earn a very good living, thanks to his considerable skill in the field. The art historian Paul Mantz (1821-1895) described his style as "delicate" and did not hesitate to compare him to Perin-Salbreux, "though somewhat inferior." We know of a portrait of Cambacérès by him, dated 1794, now in the Cincinnati Art Museum, and another of Louis XVI, in the Chartres Museum, both miniatures. But despite Girodet's advice, Ravault, averse to Parisian life or to leveraging his connections, exhibited drawings and miniatures at the Salon only in 1795, and in 1799, a history painting depicting Bonaparte invoking Fortune before landing in Egypt, before his eventual retirement to his native lands. Apart from portraits, there are some religious subjects, intended for church decorations (such as in 1791 the fresco The Concert of Angels, adorning the choir of the chapel of the former Hôtel-Dieu of Pithiviers, a Passage of the Red Sea and a Magdalene at the feet of Jesus), or allegorical, such as his lithograph The Awakening of Greece, published in 1822, in the midst of the Philhellenic movement, as well as representations of monuments from his region.