Portrait of an artillery officer, attributable to Robert Lefévre

Beautiful portrait representing a soldier dressed in a coat and carrying a saber, he is posted on a battlefield, with his telescope in his hand.
As indicated by his blue outfit with scarlet piping, embellished with epaulets and gold buttons with intersecting barrels, our man is a senior artillery officer in the French army.
He is decorated with the Order of the Lily and the Golden Legion.

Oil on canvas.

Good state of conservation, canvas and original frame.

Vintage gilt wood and stucco frame, decorated with oak leaves.

Attributed to the painter Robert Lefévre (1755-1830), Paris first quarter of the 19th century.

Dimensions:

Frame: Height: 107 cm; Width: 85.5cm
Canvas: Height: 91 cm; Width: 70cm

Our opinion :

The neglected hair and the long sideburns of our soldier are those worn by the military elite of the empire, in particular the marshals of Napoleon.
This heritage of the great army is assumed by our man who poses in full costume with his decorations.
The telescope he holds announces the maneuvers to come and the imminence of a charge on the battlefield.
Yet his gaze is confident and he seems calm, which proves his courage and resignation.
As in most of his works, Robert Lefévre shows us here his talents as a portrait painter, with a multitude of details, whether on the costume, the decorations or even on the buttons with intersecting barrels.
The complexion of the skin is grandiose, especially on the hands where the veins are clearly visible.



Robert Jacques François Faust Lefèvre (Bayeux 1755 – Paris 1830)

After years spent in Normandy as a painter of portraits and decorative painter, he settled in Paris around 1784. A pupil of Regnault, he exhibited regularly at the Salons from 1791 to 1827. He painted a few historical subjects: Cupid disarmed by Venus ( Salon of 1795, Fontainebleau), the Death of Phocion (Salon of 1812, Rochefort museum). But he is best known as a portrait painter. After having executed portraits of Napoleon I (1806, Versailles, repeated many times) or of the imperial family (Empress Josephine, museum of Amiens), he had a brilliant official career under the Restoration; Protected by Louis XVIII, he was appointed painter to the King's Cabinet and enjoyed great favor until his death: portraits of Louis XVIII (Versailles) and Charles X (1826, Louvre). In addition to the important series of portraits kept at Versailles, we can cite those of Carle Vernet (Salon of 1804, id.), of Vivant Denon (1808, Versailles; 1809, museums of Chalon-sur-Saône and Caen), of painter Guérin (museum of Orléans), architect Percier (château de Compiègne), as well as his Self-portraits (1810, museums of Bayeux and Caen).
He received the Legion of Honor from the hands of King Louis XVIII in 1820.