Portrait Of A Young Man, Pastel On Paper, Signed And Dated E. Bouchardy, 1819

Portrait of a Young Man, pastel on paper, signed and dated E. Bouchardy, 1819

31 x 25.5 cm framed; oval 19 x 15 cm

Portrait of a young man executed in pastel, with soft modelling and careful attention to physiognomy. The work has undergone a very light conservation treatment.

The sheet is rectangular but conceived for an oval presentation, in keeping with early 19th-century taste. 19th-century frame.

Signed and dated at right: E. Bouchardy, 1819.

Étienne Bouchardy (Paris, 1797 – Paris, 1849) belongs to the generation of French portraitists active between the Empire, the Restoration and the July Monarchy, who adapted small-scale portraiture on paper or ivory to the taste of an expanding private clientele. His works, appreciated for their clarity of structure and restrained modelling, are now held in institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Musée Carnavalet; the Musée du Louvre also records works under his name.