Antoinette-cécile-hortense Haudebourt-lescot, *gil Blas* Presented To Licentiate Sedillo, 1827

Country: France

Artist: Madame Hortense Haudebourt-Lescot, 1784–1845

Subject: A 19th-century painting depicting a narrative interior scene, directly inspired by Alain-René Lesage’s famous picaresque novel, *The Story of Gil Blas de Santillane*. The composition faithfully illustrates the episode from Book Two, at the moment when the young and naive hero Gil Blas is introduced to his new master, Licentiate Sedillo, a wealthy, elderly clergyman suffering from gout. This work is part of a prestigious artistic commission placed around 1824 by the famous Parisian art dealer and publisher Claude Schroth with the renowned genre painter Hortense Haudebourt-Lescot. The initial project called for the creation of a series of four paintings intended to be reproduced as luxury engravings. The original composition of this subject was successfully exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1827. Following the dealer’s sudden bankruptcy shortly after the exhibition, the publication project was abandoned, and the works were dispersed among private collections. The painting presented here strictly adheres to the historical dimensions of fifty-five by forty-four centimeters, corresponding to the standardized stretcher sizes used by the artist and her studio during the Restoration. Given its exact composition and dimensions identical to the cataloged work—55 cm x 46 cm—could this be a second version or a faithful studio copy commissioned for a collector passionate about Hortense’s work? 

Original frame in good condition (see photo)

Dimensions: 55 cm x 46 cm unframed; 65 cm x 73 cm framed

Medium: oil on canvas (The canvas had to be reinforced because it was too thin and there was a tear in the center of the folding screen...