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Thursday 16 May at : 16:00 (CEST)

POLONICA

Ader - 01.53.40.77.10 - Email CVV

17, rue Grange Batelière 75009 Paris, France
Exhibition of lots
mardi 14 mai - 11:00/18:00, Salle Grange Batelière
mercredi 15 mai - 11:00/18:00, Salle Grange Batelière
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Lot 164 - Antoine-Jean GROS, known as Baron GROS (Paris 1771 - Meudon 1835) Portrait of Marshal Stanislas Malachowski (1736-1809) Canvas. Height: 28.2 cm; width: 24 cm Inscribed on the reverse of the stretcher "Fait à Florence / Bron Gros (le mal Malakowski)". Numbered on the reverse "126". Provenance : - Commissioned by Marshal Malachowski in Florence, August 1793. - Catalog des Tableaux, Esquisses, Dessins et Croquis de M. Le Baron Gros, Paris, 14 quai des Fossés-Saint-Germain-des-Près, November 24, 1835, no. 30 (sketch of the portrait of Marshal Malakowski, made in Florence). - Delestre Collection, 1867. Bibliography: - J.-B. Delestre, Gros: sa vie et ses ouvrages, Paris, 1867, cited p. 27 and p. 373. - J. Tripier Le Franc, Histoire de la vie et de la mort du Baron Gros, Paris, 1880, quoted p. 93 and p. 671. - G. Dargenty, Les artistes célèbres. Le Baron Gros, Paris, 1887, quoted p. 9 and p. 81. - D. Wrotnowska, "Gros et ses rapports avec les émigrés polonais en 1830", in Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art Français, Paris, 1949, quoted p. 133. - D. O'Brien, Antoine Jean Gros, Chine, 2006, quoted p. 24. A pupil of Jacques-Louis David, Gros is best known today as a portraitist of Empire and Restoration figures, but also for his depictions of battles and the Napoleonic gesture. In 1793, Gros left France and began an Italian sojourn lasting almost ten years. In Genoa, following in his father's footsteps, he devoted himself to the production of miniatures and portraits. In Florence, he met the Polish Marshal Stanislas Malachowski, also forced into exile by political unrest. Marshal Stanislas Malachowski was at the origin of the Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791, alongside Ignacy Potocki and Hugon Kollataj. Opposed to the Targowica Confederation, he left Poland in 1792 for Vienna and Italy, notably Florence. It was in Florence that he met Baron Gros, who stayed there from 1793-1794. This meeting was prompted by the Polish poet Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, who himself posed for Gros in 1793 (his portrait is kept at the National Museum in Krakow, ref. MNL XII-408). The marshal returned to Poland in 1796, becoming president of the Duchy of Warsaw's Administrative Commission in 1807, then a member of the Council of Ministers and a senator. On the ring finger of Malachowski's left hand, we can make out a ring that is certainly the "Fidis manibus", worn by the defenders of the Constitution of May 3, 1791. In the same hand, the sitter is clutching a scroll, probably the text of the act. Another portrait of Stanislaw Malachowski from this period is in Krakow's National Museum, painted in Florence in 1794 by François-Xavier Fabre. We would like to thank Cabinet Turquin for appraising this lot. Antoine-Jean Gros (Baron Gros), portret marszałka Stanisława Małachowskiego, ok. 1793 we Florencji. Cytowany w katalogu po śmierci artysty (1835).

Estim. 10 000 - 15 000 EUR

Lot 168 - Michał Szweycer (1809-1871) Adam Mickiewicz, 1853 Print on waxed salted paper. Handwritten annotations and date on vintage label attached. Illegible stamp in the upper left of the image. 20 x 15 cm Michal Szweycer emigrated to Paris after the uprising of November 1830, where he befriended Adam Mickiewicz, one of Poland's greatest poets and patriots, "the pilgrim of Liberty" (thus statufied by Bourdelle in the 8th arrondissement of Paris). Szweycer immortalized him in 1853 with a cane, symbolizing a pilgrim's staff. The image was later recovered by Félix Nadar, with whom the Polish photographer collaborated for some time. The albumen print, kept at the Musée d'Orsay (PHO 1991 2 22) and signed Nadar et Michel (for Michal), bears witness to the ties between the two men. Nadar's use (and retouching) of this image prompted Szweycer to sue him, as evidenced by an article in Le Droit: Le Journal des Tribunaux of January 5, 1860: "The Seventh Chamber of the Correctional Court was seized today with a counterfeiting complaint filed by Mr. Michel Szweyer (sic), photographer, against Mr. Tournachon, better known in the art world as Nadar. Mr. Michel Szweyer, a Polish photographer and owner of a photographed portrait of the famous Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, who died a few years ago, had this portrait reproduced by M. Tournachon-Nadar. According to Mr. Michel, the authorization given to Mr. Nadar was special and limited to these two conditions: not to publish it separately, but only in the collection of contemporaries, edited by Mr. Nadar, and furthermore, to include the two signatures: Michel and Nadard (sic), on all copies sold". (source: Le Droit : journal des tribunaux | 1860-01-05 | Gallica (bnf.fr)). A photographic portrait signed by Szweycer and dated 1853 is preserved in the Museum of Literature in Warsaw, and another in the Polish National Library (F.11947). Bibliography: Leonard Sempolinski, "Michal Szweycer (1809-1871), fotograf Adama Mickiewicza" in Fotografia, October 1962, pp. 235-238. We would like to thank Cabinet Antoine Romand for appraising this lot. Michał Szweycer, fotografia (papier solny woskowany), portret Adama Mickiewicza, 1835.

Estim. 3 000 - 4 000 EUR