The Painting: This is a bust-length likeness of Antoine Jean Gros at or approaching the age of twenty. A broad-brimmed black hat is tilted back slightly on his head. Wavy brown hair is parted around his face, hanging loosely onto his shoulders in contrast to the constricting high collar and cravat below his chin. He wears a green coat over a red vest. The background is executed in scumbled brown paint (
frottis in French) in the manner of Jacques Louis David, which casts the figure forward and reduces the possibility of distraction beyond its silhouette. The hair, hat, and shadows in the clothing were broadly underpainted with translucent brown. The colors were applied in a second sitting. The brushwork is fluid and assured, with the paint applied wet-into-wet, betraying no signs of hesitation or correction. As the record of an encounter, this sketch gives the impression of immediacy—of having been painted with spontaneity, from life. The artist employed an economical technique, seen in the highlight at the front of the hat brim, made by removing paint with a deft stroke of the brush, to expose the lighter underlayer, and in the impasto in the highlights on the ear, forehead, nose, eyes, and below the right eye socket, as well as on the shirt, cravat, and vest.[1]
The painting likely served as the model for a larger rendition executed by Gros about 1790, now in the Musée des Augustins, Toulouse (see fig. 1 above). The latter version was presumably lined at an early date, at which time strips of canvas were added to all four sides of the face of the picture and the composition slightly extended, but whether these additions restore the painting to something like its original appearance or are the invention of a restorer cannot be deduced based on existing evidence.
The origins of The Met’s painting are untraced, but when it surfaced in 1986 its similarity to the Toulouse picture was recognized almost immediately.[2] Yet the historiography of the Toulouse picture is complicated. Some writers have claimed that it is a self-portrait by Gros, which is how the artist’s widow described it as early as 1838. Others, for nearly as long, have claimed that it is a portrait of Gros by François Gérard. There is now scholarly consensus that the Toulouse picture is a self-portrait.
Gros and Gérard: The lives of Antoine Jean Gros and François Gérard were intertwined during the formative period of their training in David’s intensely active atelier, the most cutting-edge studio in Paris in the years leading up to and succeeding the 1789 Revolution. Gros, the son of Parisian miniaturists, was already a gifted portraitist when he became David’s pupil in 1785. The slightly older Gérard, who was raised largely in Rome, arrived in David’s atelier in 1786. David and his followers forged an iconography and style that would serve as the cornerstone of French identity for a century. Gérard would become the premier portraitist of the Empire, while Gros would propagandize its triumphs on the battlefield. Each painter was highly accomplished in the other’s characteristic genre.
In the charged atmosphere surrounding David, portraiture intersected with pedagogy in a very particular way. As recalled by another former pupil, Étienne-Jean Delécluze (1781–1863), by the mid-1790s the practice of making head studies known as
têtes d’expression (expressive heads) was replaced by making studies of heads from life, for which pupils posed for one another. This activity naturally extended to portraiture.[3] That is the historical background for Gros’s portrait of Gérard in The Met (The Met
2002.441), a gift from painter to sitter, which commemorated their friendship, either on the eve of Gérard’s September 1790 departure for Rome or, as recently proposed by Katharine Baetjer (2019), following his return in mid-1791. Gérard kept this portrait for the rest of his life, and it descended through his family until the end of the twentieth century.
Gros, who was somewhat younger than his compatriots in David’s studio, had long wished to follow in their footsteps by studying in Rome. By early 1793, however, the gathering forces of the Revolution made it difficult to leave Paris, where Louis XVI was guillotined on January 21. The window of opportunity to leave France was quickly closing, yet even so Gros was then preparing, with David’s support, to undertake a study sojourn in Italy. Gros and Gérard seem to have remained on good terms until that time. But on January 25 or 26, overcome by the furor of the moment and perhaps a trace of jealousy, Gérard publicly denounced Gros for contemplating emigration, which was then tantamount to treason. Realizing the danger—Gros was particularly vulnerable owing to his moderate political views—David interceded to help secure the required passport. Gros left Paris on January 31.[4]
Gros and Gérard maintained a cool distance from that point onward, but their mutual respect seems to have endured. At first, this was due to the strength of the bond forged under David and his ongoing support of their progress. It was sustained later by their equally indispensable roles in the regimes of Napoleon and, after his downfall in 1815, the restored Bourbon kings, resulting in state honors and elevation to the nobility. Each man’s growing prestige, it seems, inevitably rubbed off on the other. Yet the early rupture managed to outlive both Gros, who would die a suicide on June 25, 1835, and Gérard, who died one-and-a-half years later, on January 11, 1837.[5] Their exalted reputations—and their animus—help to explain why the attribution of the Toulouse picture was contested well past living memory of Gros and Gérard themselves.
Early References, Multiple Paintings: Upon Gros’s death in 1835, an inventory of the contents of his house in Paris was undertaken. Among a group of family portraits to be retained by the artist’s widow, Augustine Dufresne, baronne Gros (1789–1842), two were set aside for future placement in public collections. One of these was described as "The portrait of Gros in his youth painted by himself," and the other was a marble portrait bust of Gros by Jean-Baptiste-Joseph De Bay
père (1779–1863). According to a marginal notation in the document, "The bust of M. Gros in marble and the portrait of M. Gros in youth painted by himself will remain with Madame Gros with life interest, to be delivered as follows: the bust to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the portrait to the Louvre, in keeping with intentions that, according to Madame Gros, her husband had declared formally." The marble bust, exhibited at the Salon of 1827, entered the collection of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, in 1842.[6] Also in 1842, the self-portrait (fig. 2), which was painted in Genoa in 1795, was presented to the Louvre, eventually entering the collection of the château de Versailles.[7] No portrait or self-portrait of Gros wearing a hat was recorded as having been in Gros’s house upon his death.
There is evidence to suggest that—at an unknown date, presumably before the artists’ falling-out—Gérard seems to have come into possession of the Toulouse picture. A manuscript note written by Gérard’s studio assistant and follower Marie-Éléonore Godefroy (or Godefroid, 1778–1849) to Gérard’s nephew and biographer Henri Alexandre Gérard (1818–1885) describes an incident involving Gros’s widow, Augustine Dufresne, and Gérard’s widow, Marguerite Françoise Mattei (d. 1848). Godefroy wrote: "Based on your uncle’s face and clothing in this portrait [The Met
2002.441], I think he was about nineteen or twenty years old. The portrait of Gros that we had, and which dates to the same period, feels like it’s from just before the Revolution. It was in exchange for this portrait of Gros, which his wife claimed, that she gave your aunt [baronne Gérard] a bad sketch. You’ll find it in Paris." This exchange must have occurred after Gérard’s death in 1837 and before 1840, when the painting entered the Musée des Augustins. Madame Gros’s first will and testament, dated June 2, 1838, states: "In keeping with the wishes of Gros, my illustrious husband, . . . I am disposed in favor of the Museum in Toulouse, whence Gros originated . . . [to give] the bust-length portrait of Gros wearing a hat, which he himself painted . . . . "[8] On the basis of the will, it can only be assumed that baronne Gros learned of the existence of the Toulouse painting from her husband, that it was he who identified it as a self-portrait, and that he told her where it could be found.
Less certain is the identity of the "bad sketch" described by Godefroy. It is possible that she was referring to The Met picture, in which case her low appraisal could be explained as having been prejudiced by enmity for Gros inherited from Gérard. It is also possible that Godefroy was referring here to another picture, an anonymous copy of the Toulouse picture (fig. 3) that would be sold by a Monsieur Le Blanc to the Château de Versailles for its Galeries Historiques on July 16, 1844, for 150 francs. Although the somewhat stilted execution of the latter painting suggests that it is a replica rather than a sketch, this same quality might have prompted Godefroy to denigrate it. Then again, perhaps she was referring to yet another, unlocated version.
Gros or Gérard? The Legacy of the Artists’ Rupture: The reasons underpinning the former attribution of the Toulouse picture to Gérard are deeply rooted in that artist’s biography as it intersects with Gros’s. In effect, their rupture outlived them, resulting in seemingly contradictory and irreconcilable claims about the painting that have until now adhered to The Met’s picture as well. This is borne out by a brief review of the literature.
The Toulouse picture was published as a work by Gros as early as 1850, when the author of the catalogue of the Toulouse museum, P.-T. Suau, described it as a self-portrait by Gros painted when the artist was David’s pupil; he wrote that Gros gave it to Gérard as a gesture of friendship, erroneously stating that this was when the latter left Paris "pour aller à l’armée d’Italie."[9] The painting continued to be identified as a self-portrait by Gros: in George’s 1864 catalogue of the Toulouse collection[10]; in the 1867 edition of the first Gros biography by the painter’s pupil Jean-Baptiste Delestre (1800–1871) [11]; in the well-researched 1880 monograph by Justin Tripier-Le-Franc (1805–1883), who became acquainted with Gros during the years 1830 to 1835, at salons hosted by his aunt, the painter Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun [12]; and in twentieth-century publications, including those by Germaine Barnaud and Yves Sjöberg [13]; Raymond Escholier [14]; and Gaston Delestre (1913–1969), a descendant of Jean-Baptiste Delestre.[15]
Parallel to the Gros camp is a line of writers committed to the attribution of the Toulouse picture to François Gérard. His nephew Henri Alexandre Gérard, mentioned above, published two authoritative monographs on his uncle, in 1857 and 1886, in both of which the Toulouse picture is listed as a work by Gérard.[16] These were followed by an unsigned article in the
Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire de l’Art Français in 1911, usually credited to Gaston Brière (1871–1962) but also, at times, to comte Fernand Foy (1847–1927), who was married to Henri Alexandre Gérard’s grand-niece.[17] This last article is the first instance in which the Toulouse picture was described as a portrait of Gros by Gérard painted in exchange for Gros’s portrait of Gérard, a story which was accepted by Alain Latreille, author of a catalogue raisonné produced as a doctoral thesis in 1973.
Following its rediscovery in 1986, The Met’s picture was first published by Virginia Tillyard in her 1987 review of an exhibition at Stair Sainty Mathiessen Gallery in New York as a work by Gros. But, by 1989, when it was included in an exhibition at Colnaghi in New York, Alan Wintermute considered it to be a sketch of Gros painted from life by Gérard, which served as the model for the painting in Toulouse, also considered to be by Gérard; this was reaffirmed by Latreille in 1992, and accepted by later scholars including Colta Ives (2000) and Gary Tinterow (2005).[18]
As noted above, in recent years a consensus has emerged that the Toulouse painting is indeed a self-portrait. At the same time, scholars have begun to question long-held assumptions about the authorship of the other versions. In a fine article, attentive to nuance, Valérie Bajou (2007) considers the painting in Versailles to be a copy by Gros after the Toulouse picture and The Met’s picture to be a copy by Gérard of the one in Toulouse.[19] Xavier Salmon (2014) has written that both The Met and Versailles paintings are anonymous copies of the Toulouse picture. Finally, Katharine Baetjer (2019) tentatively attributes the present work to Gros, calling it a sketch related to the Toulouse picture. Two further versions are known to exist, both in private collections.[20]
Asher Miller 2020
[1] Technical observations adapted from Charlotte Hale, examination report, January 2020 (The Met Conservation files).
[2] When the present work surfaced on the art market in 1986, it bore the inscription "Louis David." This putative signature—the painting was evidently assigned a wishful attribution by an unscrupulous dealer at an unknown date—was subsequently removed. Another trace of its past is a fragmentary wax seal on the stretcher, an indication that the picture was once in a private collection, one that remains unidentified.
[3] See E. J. Delécluze,
Louis David: Son Ecole et Son Temps (Paris, 1855, repr. 1873), pp. 52–53, cited by Wintermute in New York 1989, p. 216.
[4] The story seems to have been presented for the first time in print by J[ean].-B[aptiste]. Delestre,
Gros et ses Ouvrages, ou Mémoires Historiques sur la Vie et les Travaux de ce Célèbre Artiste, 1st ed. (Paris, 1845), pp. 17–18; 2nd revised and enlarged ed. (1867), pp. 23–24. Delestre’s account was more or less repeated by Charles Blanc in "Antoine-Jean Gros,"
Histoire des Peintres de Toutes les Ecoles: Ecole Française, vol. 3 (Paris, 1863), pp. 2–3. It was recounted in far greater detail, with Gérard named as Gros’s accuser, by J[ustin] Tripier Le Franc,
Histoire de la Vie et de la Mort du Baron Gros, le Grand Peintre (Paris, 1880), pp. 72–77.
[5] Gros drowned in the Seine just outside Paris, near Meudon.
[6] Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris (MU 1239).
[7] Gros gave his 1795 self-portrait to Girodet, in exchange for Girodet’s self-portrait wearing a hat. Gros regained his self-portrait when he bought it from Girodet’s estate sale in 1825; on the subject of its presentation to the Louvre, see Tripier Le Franc 1880, p. 654. The Girodet self-portrait was included in Gros’s estate sale, where it was purchased for the French state; it is now in the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (MV 4642).
[8] Gros was born in Paris, but his father was born in Toulouse.
[9] P.-T. Suau,
Notices des Tableaux Exposés dans le Musée de Toulouse (Toulouse, 1850), p. 132, no. 257.
[10] George,
Catalogue Raisonné des Tableaux du Musée de Toulouse (Toulouse, 1864), p. 250, no. 333.
[11] Delestre,
Gros: Sa Vie et ses Ouvrages, 2nd revised and enlarged ed. (Paris, 1867), p. 371. In the list of paintings in public collections, he calls the painting in Toulouse "portrait de Gros dans sa jeunesse." The painting is not mentioned in the first edition, published in Paris in 1845, which has no such list. On Delestre, see the biographical entry (2011) by Martial Guédron in
Dictionnaire Critique des Historiens de l’Art, online resource consulted November 15, 2018 [https://www.inha.fr/fr/ressources/publications/publications-numeriques/dictionnaire-critique-des-historiens-de-l-art/delestre-jean-baptiste.html?search-keywords=Delestre].
[12] Tripier Le Franc’s description of the Toulouse picture is worth quoting at length: "Vers cette époque, c’est-à-dire en 1785 ou 1786, Gros s’est peint lui-même, ayant quatorze ou quinze ans. Il est vu, presque de face, en buste, coiffé d’un chapeau noir recouvrant une longue et abondante chevelure châtain foncé. Il porte un habit vert olive, gilet rouge, une cravat blanche, et une chemise à jabot. La ressemblance de Gros était parfaite et sa peinture d’une excellente couleur. David fut très satisfait du portrait de son élève, et la famille de Gros fut bien heureuse de posséder une œuvre aussi réussie et lui reproduisant si fidèlement l’image de son fils. Ce portrait a été peint pendant que Gros étudiait dans l’atelier de David. La touche est ferme, incisive, hardie même en certains endroits. Elle semble accuser la présence d’une main plus exercée que celle d’un jeune homme de quatorze ou quinze ans, et l’on pourrait supposer, dit M. George, l’ancien expert du musée du Louve, que David a quelque peu retouché le travail de son élève de predilection. L’ensemble de ce portrait est charmant de vérité et de naturel . . . . " Tripier Le Franc 1880, p. 38. The early date assigned by Tripier was repeated by scholars who attributed the work to Gros through the mid-twentieth century. Whatever the case with respect to dating, the origin of the story regarding the gift of the painting by Gros to his parents has never been reckoned with, and George’s speculation that the picture may have been retouched by David is unsubstantiated. Also worth noting is that Tripier calls the painting in Versailles a copy by an unidentified hand. On Tripier Le Franc, see the biographical entry (2008) by Claire-Marie Barreau in
Dictionnaire Critique des Historiens de l’Art, online resource consulted November 15, 2018 [https://www.inha.fr/fr/ressources/publications/publications-numeriques/dictionnaire-critique-des-historiens-de-l-art/tripier-le-franc-justin.html].
[13] Germaine Barnaud and Yves Sjöberg,
Gros: Ses Amis, Ses Elèves, exh. cat. (Paris, Petit Palais, 1936), pp. 41–42, no. 1. The authors call the painting in Toulouse a self-portrait by Gros at the age of fifteen or sixteen.
[14] Raymond Escholier,
Gros, Ses Amis et Ses Elèves: Soixante-dix Reproductions dont Deux en Couleurs (Paris, 1936), pl. 8; he calls the painting in Toulouse a self-portrait by Gros. In
La Peinture Française, XIXe siècle, de David à Géricault (Paris, 1941), p. 41, Escholier calls the painting in Toulouse a self-portrait at the age of twenty by Gros.
[15] Delestre calls the painting in Toulouse a self-portrait by Gros and dates it about 1786, but erroneously reproduces the Versailles version. Gaston Delestre,
Antoine-Jean Gros (Paris, 1951) [London ed., 1954], pl. 13.
[16] Henri Alexandre Gérard,
L’Oeuvre du Baron François Gérard, 1789-1836: Gravures à l'Eau Forte (Paris, 1857), vol. 3, unnumbered ill. Gérard reproduces a line engraving after the painting, which the caption describes as a portrait of Gros by François Gérard, dated 1790; he also includes it in the list of portraits under "Portraits en buste" as "Gros," dated 1790. In Gérard's late publication, he includes it as "Gros (1790)" under list of "portraits en buste" by Gérard. The date of 1790 has been accepted by most subsequent scholars. See Gérard,
Lettres Adressées au Baron François Gérard, Peintre d’Histoire, par les Artistes et les Personnages Célèbres de son Temps, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1886), vol. 2, unpaginated.
[17] Unsigned, "Notes sur des portraits de Gros, Girodet et Gérard (Musées de Versailles et de Toulouse),"
Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire de l’Art Français (1911), pp. 209–15. This source calls the painting in Versailles an "ébauche faite d’après nature" for the Toulouse portrait, claiming that both are likenesses of Gros by Gérard and presents a case for the Toulouse picture being part of a reciprocal exchange with Gros for Gros’s portrait of Gérard in The Met (2002.441). The author is most often identified in the literature as Gaston Brière (1871–1962), who published another article in the same number of
BSHAF, but from time to time he has also been identified as comte Fernand Foy (1847–1927), who was married to Henri-Alexandre Gérard’s grand-niece. The clever argument hinges on baronne Gros’s second will, dated March 5, 1841, which employs slightly different wording from the first one (1838) quoted above: "Following the wish expressed to me by Gros, my illustrious husband . . . I give and bequeath to the royal Museum of the city of Toulouse, where Gros originated . . . his portrait in which he is shown wearing a hat . . . . " ("D’après le désir de qui m’a été exprimé par Gros, mon illustre mari . . . . Je donne et lègue au Musée royal de la ville de Toulouse, dont Gros est originaire . . . plus son portrait coiffé d’un chapeau . . . . ") The difference in wording is cited as evidence that baronne Gros had learned during the interim that the Toulouse portrait was not a self-portrait—that it was, in fact, by Gérard.
[18] Nor did the present author question the attribution to Gérard at the time he contributed research to Tinterow’s entry in Everett Fahy, ed.,
The Wrightsman Pictures (New York, 2005).
[19] Bajou does not recognize Gros’s hand in The Met’s picture (p. 416), seeing it instead as a virtuosic copy of the Toulouse version. The Versailles version, which she attributes to Gérard, had long been considered anonymous; see, for example, Eudore Soulié,
Notice du Musée Impérial de Versailles (Paris, 1861), vol. 3, p. 147, no. 4643.
[20] Sale,
Successions, H., R. et à divers tableaux XIXe et modernes . . . ., Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 29, 2000, no. 110, ill., as "école française du XIXe siècle," oil on canvas, 56 x 45.5 cm; and private collection, Paris, in 2005, formerly owned by the Debat-Ponsan family (see Salmon 2014, p. 38).
