LOUIS-AUGUSTE BISSON 1814-1876 Portrait of a woman painter i - Lot 63

LOUIS-AUGUSTE BISSON 1814-1876 Portrait of a woman painter in Bisson's studio, rue Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, Paris, ca. 1843. Photograph. Daguerreotype dated 1840 in ink and the author's label on the back of the original mount. Plate: 10.1 x 7.9 cm; mount: 13.7 x 11.7 cm. In June 1841, Louis-Auguste Bisson, whose first portraits date back to 1840, presented to the Académie des Sciences de Paris portraits executed "in the shade in 10 to 12 seconds". Shortly afterwards, he opened a studio on rue Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois with his father. In 1842, the yearbook mentions this portraitist activity, proof of his early commercial development. The 3/4 left face pose, characteristic of Bisson's early portraits, and the dry L.A.B. stamp on the cover, formed of interlaced initials, are clearly present. The portrait is particularly well preserved. This was made possible by Bisson's technical mastery of plate processing. E. De Valicourt noted in his 1845 "Traité complémentaire de daguerréotypie" the "inimitable proofs of Messrs. Bisson". Our portrait is doubly dated 1840, in the same old handwriting in ink on the back. This date would make it Bisson's earliest dated daguerreotype, before his famous portrait of Balzac in 1842. However, the composition and Bisson's studio label on the back suggest that it was made in 1843. The label on the back of this portrait is perfectly identical to the one on the back of the portrait of Balzac (Maison de Balzac, BAL 93). In both cases, it reads: "Portrait au daguerréotype à l'ombre à l'intérieur et en quelques secondes par Louis-Auguste Bisson Fils. Rue Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, 65, near the Pont Neuf in Paris". A portrait very similar to the one shown here depicts a man in the setting of Bisson's studio. It is kept at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF Eg.687). Dated "circa 1845", it shows the photographer's library and the moldings behind the model. Our portrait, however, is earlier. In fact, the label on the back of the Bibliothèque Nationale's daguerreotype was used from 1844 onwards. Bisson acknowledges the diversification of the workshop's activities by adding "Reproduction by daguerreotype of views, monuments, objets d'art, paintings, statues, bas-reliefs, drawings, engravings, lithographs &.&". Our daguerreotype therefore predates this change in 1844. What's more, although both men moved to this street in 1841, the portraits they produced in the early years were different. It could not have been taken between 1840 and 1842, as the photographer's compositions were freer and more uncluttered, with a simple curtain as a backdrop. This portrait was probably taken in 1843. Its composition meets the increasingly demanding needs of the wealthy clientele of the early 1840s, a far cry from the future democratization of the technique. While the subject - a woman painter in 1843 - is already highly singular, the rich composition of the decor indicates the character's social status as well as her erudition. Indeed, the Romantic movement of the 1830s, reflected in all the major cultural achievements of the decade, had a major influence on the setting chosen by the portrait. First of all, the painting to the painter's left, presumably one of her own creations, is a landscape painted in the purest Romantic tradition, far removed from the École de Barbizon. The bronze on the table is also in this taste, as it is a sculpture created in 1833 by Jean-Jacques Feuchère (1807-1852). Entitled Satan, it depicts a tormented devil in the throes of passion. A success at the 1834 Salon, this sculpture became an icon of Romanticism, influencing Rodin and Carpeaux. The increasing complexity of Bisson's portraits is characteristic of 1843. This is also the case for the few other known examples, in particular the portrait of a man leaning on two books preserved in the Rijksmuseum (RP-F-F14596) and that of a child accompanied by a statue of Joan of Arc, both dated from the same year (Beaussant-Lefèvre, Drouot, December 13, 1995). As for the female painter, she holds her palette and a brush in her left hand, while her right hand holds another. Her daytime dress is explicitly inspired by the renewed interest in the Middle Ages, which led to the triumph of the troubadour style, as well as by English fashion, with its Victorian-inspired twisted curls. The character's identity remains unknown, but Louis-Auguste Bisson's father was a friend of the painters Léon Cogniet (1794-1880)