Alexandre Jean-Baptiste Hesse Paris 1806 – 1879 27 Portrait of a Young Man Pen and brown ink over traces of black chalk Signed Hesse at right centre 195 x 135 mm (7 11 /16 x 5 5 /16 in.) Alexandre Hesse was directed to painting from an early age and almost in spite of himself. His father, Henri Joseph Hesse (1781 – 1849), who was a remarkable painter of portraits and miniatures himself, had studied with David and Isabey. His uncle Nicolas-Auguste Hesse, also a painter and member of the Académie <strong>de</strong>s Beaux-Arts, had been Gros’s pupil and had won first prize at the Prix <strong>de</strong> Rome in 1818. Although of mo<strong>de</strong>st origins – Henri Joseph’s father was a tailor – the Hesse family was intellectually ambitious. Henri Joseph was keen on learning languages: Italian, which he even used for notes in his commonplace book, and <strong>English</strong>, still rarely spoken at the time. In this stimulating environment, Alexandre “was looked on (…) as a boy who would never accomplish anything”, “one of those young people whom one never knows where to propel in or<strong>de</strong>r to find him a career” 1 until his father finally sent him to study landscape painting in Bertin’s workshop in 1821. Following in the footsteps of his uncle, the young man studied with Gros in 1823 and entered the École <strong>de</strong>s Beaux-Arts where he atten<strong>de</strong>d classes with much diligence. A very gifted draughtsman, a handsome and witty person, and an excellent musician, he rapidly became a master of drawing sought for by the high society of which his father was one of the most favourite portraitists. In 1830, on his own initiative, he left for Italy, visiting Rome and Venice. This city inspired his first ambitious work, Funeral Honours Paid to Titian, Perished in Venice during the 1565 Plague (Musée du Louvre, Paris). This work was exhibited at the 1833 Salon and enjoyed conspicuous success <strong>de</strong>scribed by Théophile Gautier: “he <strong>de</strong>buts in the most outstanding manner in which others would be eager to finish” 2 . After this success he returned to Italy for a journey during which he befrien<strong>de</strong>d Léopold Robert, whose painting style must have influenced him in several respects. Upon his return to France, Alexandre Hesse received several commissions, both private and official. Among the most important, Henry IV’s Body Taken to the Louvre after his Assassination (1836, <strong>de</strong>posited at the Château <strong>de</strong> Pau) which was to <strong>de</strong>corate the Louvre Galerie d’Apollon, and The Adoption of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1097 by the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (1842) for the Musée <strong>de</strong> l’Histoire <strong>de</strong> France that Louis-Philippe created at Versailles (today in the Musée national <strong>de</strong>s châteaux <strong>de</strong> Versailles et <strong>de</strong> Trianon). After his third journey to Italy in 1842, Hesse <strong>de</strong>finitively settled in Paris and received numerous commissions for works for the Senate, the Bank of France and the hall of the Stock Exchange in the Palace of Commerce in Lyon. Specialist in large <strong>de</strong>corations, both allegorical and religious, he worked on the <strong>de</strong>corations of numerous Parisian churches, including Saint-Séverin, Saint- François <strong>de</strong> Sales, Saint-Sulpice, and Saint-Gervais- Saint Protais. Most of his works are still in situ. There is an important group of drawings in the École <strong>de</strong> Beaux-Arts donated by the artist’s wife: large sheets of excellently executed aca<strong>de</strong>mic studies, studies of draperies, of anatomic <strong>de</strong>tails, which all reveal a powerful and skilful draughtsmanship. The fund also has his magnificent landscapes in watercolour. There are few portraits among the artist’s graphic works, but there are some executed in painting. It seems likely that this Portrait of a Young Man was executed early in the artist’s career, probably in the 1820s when he gave numerous drawing classes. <strong>On</strong> the one hand, his signature is characteristic for the stem and extremely large <strong>de</strong>scen<strong>de</strong>r of the central “s” and can in effect be compared to that of the works dating to these years. <strong>On</strong> the other hand, it seems logical that Hesse first assimilated the art of portraiture as he had the opportunity to watch his father at work throughout his childhood and his youth. The beauty of the sitter, the clearness of his glance and his <strong>de</strong>ep and confi<strong>de</strong>nt expression are emphasized by a very nice graphic technique, which combines subtle pencil lines and a fluid brown wash. Drawing inspiration in the layout of miniature portraits executed by his father in the 1810s, Alexandre Hesse ad<strong>de</strong>d already quite romantic impression of boldness and freedom to a miniaturist’s precision of line and search for resemblance. 90
Actual size
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Jean-Luc Baroni & Marty de Cambiair
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Works On Paper 2019
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Works on Paper Catalogue by Alexand
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Bernardino Lanino Vercelli or Morta
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Federico Zuccaro Sant’Angelo in V
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Jacopo Ligozzi Verona 1547- Florenc
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Rutilio Manetti 1571-1639 Siena 5 A
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Domenico Za_mpieri, called Il Domen
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Fig. 3 Domenichino, St. Mark, drawi
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Jacob Jordaens Antwerp 1593 - 1678
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Simon Vouet Paris 1590 - 1649 8 Hea
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Claude Gellée, called le Lorrain C
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89. Sketch for Paris Café; Man sea
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F G H I J C E F G H I J D
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Study for Slavic Composers: A Stand
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Studies of Figures, probably for Wa
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Study for A Paris Café : A Seated
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Study for A Paris Café : A Woman S
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Study for A Paris Café : A Seated
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Study for A Paris Café : Man in a
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Study for A Paris Café : Man in a
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7 8 9 10 11 12 Jacob Jordaens 1 J.
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2 Mémoires secrets pour servir à
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35 36 37 Sir William Orpen, R.H.A.,
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Index Bossoli, C. Boucher, F. Canal
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Jean-Luc Baroni London Marty de Cam