Aukcja poloników w paryskim Ader. Było kilkanaście bardzo ciekawych obiektów prezentowanych ze wdziękiem przez p. Magdalenę Marzec. Jednym z nich był portret Stanisława Małachowskiego w wykonaniu Antonine-Jean Grosa. Pomimo, że artystą nie był Polak to porzeważyło nazwisko osoby namalowanej. Portretów Stanisława Małachowskiego w bardziej dostojnych strojach, w ładnych peruczkach jest kilka znanych. Jak widać portret ‘rozczochranego’ Małachowskiego, w domowym stroju, cieszył się zainteresowaniem skoro sprzedano go za 10,000 euro.
Lot 164. Antoine-Jean GROS, known as Baron GROS (Paris 1771 – Meudon 1835) Portrait of Marshal Stanislas Malachowski (1736-1809) Canvas. Height: 28.2 cm; width: 24 cm Inscribed on the reverse of the stretcher “Fait à Florence / Bron Gros (le mal Malakowski)”. Numbered on the reverse “126”. Provenance : – Commissioned by Marshal Malachowski in Florence, August 1793. – Catalog des Tableaux, Esquisses, Dessins et Croquis de M. Le Baron Gros, Paris, 14 quai des Fossés-Saint-Germain-des-Près, November 24, 1835, no. 30 (sketch of the portrait of Marshal Malakowski, made in Florence). – Delestre Collection, 1867.
Bibliography: – J.-B. Delestre, Gros: sa vie et ses ouvrages, Paris, 1867, cited p. 27 and p. 373. – J. Tripier Le Franc, Histoire de la vie et de la mort du Baron Gros, Paris, 1880, quoted p. 93 and p. 671. – G. Dargenty, Les artistes célèbres. Le Baron Gros, Paris, 1887, quoted p. 9 and p. 81. – D. Wrotnowska, “Gros et ses rapports avec les émigrés polonais en 1830”, in Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire de l’Art Français, Paris, 1949, quoted p. 133. – D. O’Brien, Antoine Jean Gros, Chine, 2006, quoted p. 24.
A pupil of Jacques-Louis David, Gros is best known today as a portraitist of Empire and Restoration figures, but also for his depictions of battles and the Napoleonic gesture. In 1793, Gros left France and began an Italian sojourn lasting almost ten years. In Genoa, following in his father’s footsteps, he devoted himself to the production of miniatures and portraits. In Florence, he met the Polish Marshal Stanislas Malachowski, also forced into exile by political unrest. Marshal Stanislas Malachowski was at the origin of the Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791, alongside Ignacy Potocki and Hugon Kollataj. Opposed to the Targowica Confederation, he left Poland in 1792 for Vienna and Italy, notably Florence. It was in Florence that he met Baron Gros, who stayed there from 1793-1794. This meeting was prompted by the Polish poet Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, who himself posed for Gros in 1793 (his portrait is kept at the National Museum in Krakow, ref. MNL XII-408). The marshal returned to Poland in 1796, becoming president of the Duchy of Warsaw’s Administrative Commission in 1807, then a member of the Council of Ministers and a senator. On the ring finger of Malachowski’s left hand, we can make out a ring that is certainly the “Fidis manibus”, worn by the defenders of the Constitution of May 3, 1791. In the same hand, the sitter is clutching a scroll, probably the text of the act. Another portrait of Stanislaw Malachowski from this period is in Krakow’s National Museum, painted in Florence in 1794 by François-Xavier Fabre. We would like to thank Cabinet Turquin for appraising this lot. Antoine-Jean Gros (Baron Gros), portret marszałka Stanisława Małachowskiego, ok. 1793 we Florencji. Cytowany w katalogu po śmierci artysty (1835).
Estimate 10,000 – 15,000 euro. Ader. 05/16/24. Sold 10,000 euro
Polish Art Corner 