Portrait of Charles Joachim Lefebre at Newmarket 1872(Jean-Leon Gerome)
JEAN-LEON GEROME
(Vesoul 1824-1904 Paris)
Portrait of Monsieur Charles-Joachim Lefèvre at
Newmarket in 1872, wearing a tie in his racing colours
Oil on canvas, unlined, on the verso: Winsor and Newton/35 Rathbone Place/London
61 x 46 cm. (24 x 18 ¼ in.)
Signed lower right: J.L. GERÔME
PROVENANCE: Formerly in the collection of Charles-Joachim Lefèvre, domaine de Chamant, and thence by descent
LITERATURE: Les Collections de Chamant, privately printed at the end of the 19th Century and produced for the owners of the Haras de Chamant, vol. II, illus. p. 1;
To be included in the supplement to the catalogue raisonné of the paintings and drawings of Jean-Léon Gerôme being prepared by Dr Gerald Ackerman.
RELATED WORKS: Portrait of Madame Lefèvre, Jean-Léon Gerôme, oil on canvas, 54 x 36, Private Collection, New York.
Jean-Leon Gerôme served his apprenticeship in the workshop of Paul Delaroche, the renowned painter of troubadour and historical subjects. In this studio, Gerôme joined a small group of young artists interested in a revival of classicism known as the neo-Grecs. Early in his career he exhibited his first works at the Salon, where he enjoyed significant success.
An ardent traveller, Gerôme visited Egypt on a number of occasions, as well as Turkey, Italy, and North Africa. His most noted success was in adopting an almost photographic form of academic realism, which continued a style made popular by Ingres and which was then integrated with Orientalist subject matter. At the same time he executed portraits, historical paintings such as The Reception at Fontainebleau of the Ambassadors to the Court of Siam (Musée National de Versailles). This work was exhibited at the 1865 Salon, the same year he was nominated to become professor at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. This academic and public success brought Gerôme many commissions with private and official patrons. He was particularly popular with the newly rich bourgeoisie.
When war with Germany broke out in 1870, Gerôme was working at his studio in Bougival and as the German troops closed on Paris, Gerôme was forced to leave France with is family for England. He set up a studio at 17 South Hampton Street, near Covent Garden in London and immediately enjoyed noted success amongst a circle of artists and collectors. He exhibited at the Royal Academy both in 1870 and 1871. A sculptor as well as a painter, Gerôme enjoyed a close friendship with Carpeaux, who was also an exile in London and who made a bust portrait of Gerôme between 1872 and 1873.
Our painting was executed in England as is indicated by the Winsor and Newton stamp on the verso of the unlined canvas. It is here, while at Newmarket, that he made this portrait of Charles-Joachim Lefèvre, portraying him standing on the turf and leaning against the racecourse railing, while the horses in training can be seen in the background. In the Lefèvre family archives at Chamant, in the Oise, there is a photograph of our painting with a manuscript note attached stating Portrait of M. CJ Lefèvre-L. Gerôme-Newmarket 1872. It was in this year that Lefèvre himself had enjoyed major success and when he won the Newmarket 1000 Guineas with his horse Reine, T. Jennings was the trainer and H. Parry was his jockey. Indeed in 1872, Lefèvre topped the list of winning owners in England achieving a prize money chest of 600,000 francs.
Lefèvre had made his fortune in South America, returning to France in the 1860s. He then bought the domaine of Chamant near Senlis, together with 600 hectares of land (1,250 acres). In order to establish there a stud, which he intended to be the non plus ultra of the genre and the best of its kind in France. In 1870 he secured part of the renowned stables of the Comte de Lagrange, while in the same years participating in the main events during the British season. Only later in his career did he compete under his colours on the racecourses of France.
It was also in 1872 that he married Marie-Anne dEscoubleau de Sourdis, a woman of renowned beauty. The following year, he commissioned her portrait from Carpeaux, which the sculptor first executed in plaster before completing a version in marble. Almost certainly the friendship that existed between Carpeaux and Gerôme lead to the latter meeting the Lefèvre family. Gerôme executed several paintings for Lefèvre, which are listed in the Chamant archives. The most striking is a magnificient portrait of Madame Lefèvre standing by a mantelpiece (Private Collection, New York), which Dr Ackerman in his biography of Gerôme in error publishes as being a portrait of Madame Goupil . In the mantelpiece mirror behind Madame Lefèvre, one can clearly see an oval portrait Charles-Joachim. Lefèvre, who, as well as being a lover of horses, was also an art collector possessing no less than ten works by Alfred de Dreux and numerous equine portraits of the winners of the various Grand Prix by such celebrated equine painters as Harry Hall and Geo Arnell.
Oil on canvas, 128 x 260 cm, MV 5004; MI 744, Chateau de Versailles.
Height: 53.5 cm; R.F. 1826, Musée dOrsay, Paris.
Ink stamp on the verso: Winsor and Newton/ 35, Rathbone Place/ London.
Height: 81.5 cm., Musée Lecuyer de Saint-Quentin, RF 1058, Musée dOrsay, Paris.
Height: 82 cm; dated 1871, R.F. 23.99, Musée dOrsay, Paris.
G. Ackerman, La vie et luvre de Jean-Léon Gerôme, Paris, 1992, p. 220, no. 167, illus.pp . 73 and 221.
Lefebre Family by descent
Matthiesen Gallery, London
To be published by Ackermann