4 - Henri-Pierre Danloux (1753–1809)

Henri-Pierre Danloux (1753–1809) Three-quarter-length portrait of a young woman wearing a bonnet and ribbons, depicted from the waist up, seated on a chair with a medallion-shaped backrest; ink, charcoal, and stump on paper Signed and dated lower right: Danloux 1793 21 x 16.8 cm (image size), in an oval mount Provenance: - Galerie Georges Petit, Auction of June 7 and 8, 1928, Georges B.-Lasquin Collection, drawings, gouaches, pastels, 15th–19th centuries [...], lot no. 44 “Portrait of a young woman wearing a bonnet with a ribbon, her curly hair falling over her shoulders; she is seated in an armchair with a medallion-shaped backrest.” Dated 1793, this portrait belongs to a particularly significant period in Henri-Pierre Danloux’s career. After leaving France in early 1792 amid the turmoil of the Revolution, the artist settled in London, where he built a substantial clientele among French émigrés as well as among the British aristocracy. The work attests to Danloux’s talent for drawn portraiture, particularly evident in the delicate modeling of the face, the psychological intensity of the gaze directed toward the viewer, and the subtle rendering of the fabrics. It can be compared to several portraits executed during the same period, notably in the model’s pose—depicted from the front, slightly in three-quarter profile—as in the Portrait of Monsieur Delaval, a former banker and diplomat who emigrated to England in 1792 and was a friend of the artist, now in the Louvre Museum in Paris (inv. RF 1545), or in the *Portrait of Madame de Nauzières in Turkish Costume*, dated 1793. The costume allows us to precisely date this portrait to the turning point of the revolutionary years: the light-colored dress, the lightly powdered hairstyle, and above all the bonnet adorned with ribbons correspond to the new feminine styles of the early 1790s, as the highly elaborate hairstyles and ornaments of the Ancien Régime gradually gave way to a simpler, more natural appearance. Our drawing is a particularly captivating example of Danloux’s portraiture during his exile in London. Expert: Mégane OLLIVIER