Lehmann executed several portraits, both painted and drawn, of his first cousin Faustine Léo. This portrait clearly emulates the example of his master, Ingres, notably in its smooth, polished surface and the crisply delineated contours of the figure. Yet its intensely saturated palette and intimate mood set Lehmann's work apart from that of Ingres. The portrait bears its original frame.
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Title:Faustine Léo (1832–1865)
Artist:Henri Lehmann (French, Kiel 1814–1882 Paris)
Date:1842
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:39 3/8 in. × 32 in. (100 × 81.3 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Purchase, Wolfe Fund and Mr. and Mrs. Frank E. Richardson Gift, 2004
Object Number:2004.243
Inscription: Signed, dated, and inscribed (lower right): 'Henri Lehmann St Cloud/20 Sept 1842, Oct 10'
the sitter, Faustine Léo, Paris (1842–d. 1865; by descent in her family, 1865–1988; sale, Sotheby's, Monaco, December 2, 1988, no. 687 for Fr 355,200 to Sayn-Wittgenstein); [Sayn-Wittgenstein, New York, 1988–89; sold to Richardson]; Mr. and Mrs. Frank E. Richardson, New York (1989–99; sale, Christie's, New York, May 6, 1999, no. 27, for $123,500); sale, Christie's, London, December 3, 2003, no. 22, bought in; John Schaeffer, Sydney (2003–4)
Paris. Salon. March 15–?, 1843, no. 753.
Paris. École Nationale des Beaux-Arts. "Exposition des œuvres de Henri Lehmann," January 1883, no. 89 (as "Léo [Mlle Faustine]").
Henri Lehmann. Livre de raison de l'artiste. June 1842, folio 15 [see Ref. Aubrun 1984], notes that he began the portrait at Saint-Cloud.
Bertal. Le Salon de 1843 . . . Paris, 1843, pp. 98, 754 [see Ref. Aubrun 1984, p. 289], possibly this picture.
"Album du Salon de 1843." L'artiste, 3rd ser., 3 (1843), p. 212.
Bathild Bouniol. Gringalet au Salon. Paris, 1843, p. 11 [see Ref. Aubrun 1984], possibly this picture.
Emile Bellier de la Chavignerie continued by Louis Auvray. Dictionnaire général des artistes de l'école française depuis l'origine des arts du dessin jusqu'à nos jours: Architectes, peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs et lithographes. Vol. 1, Paris, 1882, p. 982, lists it as one of Lehmann's entries in the Salon of 1843.
Henri Lehmann, 1814–1882. Exh. cat., Paris Gaubert. Paris, 1978, unpaginated, mentions its appearance at the Salon of 1843.
Henri Lehmann, 1814–1882: Portraits et décors parisiens. Exh. cat., Musée Carnavalet. Paris, 1983, pp. 30, 61, under no. 37.
Marie-Madeleine Aubrun. Henri Lehmann, 1814–1882: Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre. n.p., 1984, vol. 1, pp. 25, 60, no. 17; vol. 2, colorpl. 17, quotes from journals in private hands and notes that the sitter was Lehmann's first cousin.
Gary Tinterow in "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 2004–2005." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 63 (Fall 2005), p. 27, ill. (color), notes that this portrait of Lehmann's first cousin might well be his response to Chassériau's "Comtesse de La Tour-Maubourg" (MMA 2002.291), which he had seen in Rome.
Raphaël Aracil de Dauksza and Damien Dumarquez. Peintures et oeuvres préparatoires du XIXe siècle. Exh. cat., Galerie La Nouvelle Athènes. Paris, 2018, unpaginated, under no. 18, ill. (color).
Faustine Léo was a first cousin of Lehmann whom he painted in 1837 at the age of five (private collection of her family; Aubrun 1984, no. 5) and in 1842 when she was eleven (this picture). There is also a reduced-size copy of this painting still owned by her family (Aubrun 17bis). She appears in three drawings: one with her siblings Auguste-Arnold and Alfred in a group portrait made in 1844 (Aubrun D29) and two of her alone made in 1847 and 1848 (Aubrun D34 and D35; location unknown and private collection).
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