156 - French school, first half of the 19th century, probably after Jean-Joseph ESPERCIEUX (1757–1840)

French school, first half of the 19th century, probably after Jean-Joseph ESPERCIEUX (1757–1840) Presumed portrait of Senator Guillaume Lazare Lejeans (1738–1803) Plaster bust. (Soiling, scratches, and chips.) Height: 65 cm This plaster bust of a senator in formal attire displays all the characteristics of an official Neoclassical portrait from the First Empire. The original model was created as part of the famous commission launched in 1806 to honor deceased senators, in the same spirit as the commission for portraits of the Generals of the Empire for the Tuileries. This resulted in a series of 36 busts by the end of the Empire, the creation of which was entrusted to the period’s most prominent sculptors—artists accustomed to imperial commissions, such as Boizot, Chaudet, Deseine, Delaistre, and Bridan. In an article published in the *Gazette des Beaux-Arts* in 1998, Dominique Jardillier provides a detailed account of the history of this commission and undertakes the difficult task of identifying all the portraits. As regimes changed and the Palace’s layout was rearranged, the busts were in fact moved numerous times or relegated to storage, where they lost their identity. This is the case with the marble version of our bust, illustrated as No. 27 in Jardillier’s article, without identification. The list of portraits held by the Senate that remain unidentified is, according to the specialist’s research, quite short: the bust of Crassous by Taunay, that of Levavasseur by Bouillet, and that of Papin by Lesueur. However, other busts left the Senate during the Restoration as part of the rearrangement of the spaces, at the request of the families of deceased senators. Among these, no known illustrations had previously allowed for the identification of the busts of Lejeans by Espercieux, Morard de Galle by Cartellier, or Senator Sers by Bridan. The provenance of our plaster copy allows us to propose a name for the anonymous bust cataloged as 91-01761. It could be a portrait of Senator Guillaume Lazare Le Jeans (1738–1803)—from whom the current owners are descended—created by the Marseille sculptor Jean Joseph Espercieux. Senate archives do indeed indicate that the bust was presented to the deceased’s wife on January 9, 1817. As things stand, we therefore do not know whether our work is indeed the one that was presented (as a replacement for the marble? ), or if the plaster cast was made later at the family’s request in exchange for the return of the marble bust to the Senate, which is believed to have taken place before 1852—the year in which a policy of standardizing all bust profiles was implemented. A native of Marseille, like Lejeans, Jean-Joseph Espercieux—who was a student of Bridan—was renowned for his portraits, which he exhibited regularly at the Salon between 1793 and 1836. He also participated in major public commissions for the Consulate and the Empire (the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, the Fontaine de la Paix, the Palais Bourbon, and the Palais du Sénat). Provenance: - Family of Lazare Le Jeans (1784–1840), a Marseille merchant and senator of the Empire, married to Catherine Clary (related by marriage to the Bernadotte and Bonaparte families), and subsequently through descent. Related work: - Anonymous artist, bust of an unknown man, marble, Paris, Palais du Sénat, inv. no. 91-01761 (original version of the bust). Related literature: - Dominique Jardillier, “The Busts of Senators of the First Empire at the Palais du Luxembourg,” in *Gazette des Beaux-Arts*, November 1998, vol. CXXXII, pp. 213–234. Descendants in the families of Chaumont-Quitry, the Courtils de Merlemont, Dufaure de Lajarte, Eudeline, Fraye, Kabis de Saint-Chamas, de La Fontaine de Fontenay-Le Lièvre de La Grange, de La Poëze d’Harambure, de Lambilly, du Pouget de Nadaillac, de Villeneuve Esclapon, de Villaines, Saint-Olive, de Mollerat du Jeu, du Peyroux, de Lapasse, de Froment, Goupil de Bouillé, de Boissieu, Cotteau of Simencourt, Tavernost of Saint-Trivier, Boucharlat, Richard of Soultraitait, du Sordet, Beaumont of Verneuil d’Auty... Expert: LACROIX-JEANNEST Law Firm