FRANÇOIS-GABRIEL LEPAULLE

Versailles, 1804 - Ay, 1886 The Letter Signed G Lepaulle and dated 1835 at lower left Oil on canvas, 100X80 cm The canvas under consideration depicts an elegant young woman seated in an armchair upholstered in fiery red damask silk, which gives the composition a vibrant note of color, in an interior decorated with precious fabrics and furnishings. The woman holds a letter in her hands; her gaze is proud and regal, expressing a strong personality as she turns toward the viewer, as if to establish a connection between her world and the surrounding reality. Lepaulle, a pupil of Jean-Baptiste Regnault, Horace Vernet, and Jean-Victor Bertin at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, made his debut at the Paris Salon in 1824 with the painting The Invention of the Lyre, gaining considerable acclaim. His fame is confirmed by the creation of a series of portraits for the gallery of the Palace of Versailles, including those of Napoleon III and Admiral Henri de Rigny. In the following years he decorated a number of Parisian churches, including Saint-Merri and Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, and created scenes with costumes for James Meyerbeer's Robert the Devil, performed at the Paris Opera in 1835.