21 - Roch Jean-Baptiste DONAS (1762–1849).

Roch Jean-Baptiste DONAS (1762–1849). Portrait of a Lady with a Love Note, 1818. Pastel on paper, signed and dated in the lower right corner. H. 64 – W. 53 cm (visible area). The note that the subject is holding in her hand reads: “To the most charming little darling anyone has ever seen, whom I love a thousand times more than myself.” Roch Jean-Baptiste Donas, a painter who remains something of an enigma, is mentioned among the circle of David d’Angers. Trained in Paris, he was himself born in Angers, where he worked until his death, creating historical and monumental works as well as other academic drawings and paintings. In the correspondence annotated by Henry Jouin in 1890, David d’Angers advises his friend Victor Pavie to “visit Mr. Donas often and ring that old, rusty bell.” The accompanying commentary provides Donas’s dates of birth and death, which we reproduce here. INCLUDED: A collection of handwritten poems and notes from the same period, found on the back of the frame. Most of them are addressed to “Adèle.”