François-Pascal-Simon Gérard, later Baron Gérard (1770–1837) | Baron Antoine-Jean Gros | All | European Paintings | Collection Database | Works of Art

Gallery LabelBoth Gros and Gérard were favored students in the rough and tumble fraternity that was the atelier of Jacques Louis David. Intense friendships and near-fatal rivalries developed in the heady environment that mixed revolutionary politics with cut-throat professional competition. In the late 1780s, Gros and Gérard were close friends; later, in the early nineteenth century, Gérard would become court portraitist to Napoleon and Josephine while Gros would become the chief propagandist of the Empire's military exploits. But the friendship was broken in January 1793 when Gérard denounced Gros for contemplating emigration, an accusation that could result in trial for treason.

Gros probably made this sensitive and delicate portrait in Paris before Gérard departed for study in Rome in 1790. Despite the subsequent rift in their friendship, Gérard kept his portrait for the rest of his life, and it remained with his descendents until recently.

Provenancethe sitter, baron François-Pascal-Simon Gérard, Paris (1790–d. 1837); his nephew, Henri-Alexandre Gérard, later baron Gérard (by 1848–d. 1882; inherited directly from the sitter or from the sitter's widow, Mme Marguerite-Françoise Gérard, d. 1848); his son, Maurice-Henri-François Gérard, Maisons, Calvados; his son, François Gérard, Maisons; his daughter, the duchesse François-Charles-Jean-Marie d'Harcourt; her sister, the comtesse Élie-Marie-Gabriel Dor de Lastours; [Eric Turquin, Paris, by November 1997]; [Marlborough Fine Art, London; until 1998; sold to Wrightsman]; Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, London and New York (1998–2002)

Exhibition History

Paris. Palais du Trocadéro. "Première exposition française des portraits nationaux [Exposition universelle de 1878]," 1878, no. 662.

Paris. École des Beaux-Arts. "Portraits du siècle (1783–1883)," 1883, no. 120.

Paris. location unknown. "Exposition de tableaux de maîtres anciens au profit des inondés du midi," [1886 or 1887], no. 64.

Paris. Galerie des Champs-Élysées. "Exposition historique et militaire de la révolution et de l'empire," 1895, no. 774.

Paris. Palais des Beaux-Arts. "David et ses élèves," April 7–June 9, 1913, no. 169.

Paris. Maison de Victor Hugo. "La jeunesse des romantiques," May 18–June 30, 1927, no. 1064.

Paris. Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris. "Gros: Ses amis, ses élèves," May–July 1936, no. 3.

References

H.[enri] G.[érard]. "Gravures à l'eau-forte. Collection des 83 portraits historiques en pied." Œuvre du baron François Gérard, 1789–1836. 1, Paris, 1852–53, unpaginated, ill. (engraving by Vallot).

H[enri]. G[érard]. "Esquisses peintes, tableaux ébauchés." Œuvre du baron François Gérard. 3, Paris, 1857, unpaginated.

J[ustin]. Tripier le Franc. Histoire de la vie et de la mort du Baron Gros, le grand peintre. Paris, 1880, p. 608.

[Gaston Brière]. "Note sur des portraits de Gros, Girodet et Gérard." Bulletin de la société de l'histoire de l'art français (1911), pp. 209–12, ill. opp. p. 212.

Raymond Escholier. Gros: Ses amis et ses élèves. Paris, 1936, pl. 9.

Alan Wintermute in 1789: French Art During the Revolution. Exh. cat., Colnaghi. New York, 1989, pp. 217–18 n. 8, fig. 2.

Colta Ives with Elizabeth E. Barker in Romanticism & the School of Nature: Nineteenth-Century Drawings and Paintings from the Karen B. Cohen Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2000, p. 16 n. 2.

Gary Tinterow. "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 2002–2003." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 61 (Fall 2003), pp. 28–29, ill. (color).

Gary Tinterow in The Wrightsman Pictures. New York, 2005, pp. 268–71, ill. (color).

Valérie Bajou. "Visages de Gros. À propos de quelques portraits d'artistes de l'époque révolutionnaire." Jean-Baptiste Wicar et son temps: 1762–1834. Villeneuve d'Ascq, 2007, pp. 414–15, 425 n. 22, fig. 4.

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