Portrait of painter Pierre-Narcisse Guérin (1774-1833)

The eighteen years that separated Robert Lefèvre from his younger brother Pierre-Narcisse Guérin did not prevent them from forging an enduring friendship from the moment they met in Jean-Baptiste Regnault's studio. From the Salon of 1791 onwards, Lefèvre made a name for himself with worldly portraits of refined detail, placing him among the great portraitists of his time. His success continued unabated: under the Empire, he became the official painter to the imperial family, then, during the Restoration, the first painter to King Louis XVIII. Guérin's career was in full bloom when Lefèvre sent his portrait to the Salon of 1801, at the age of 27. He had been awarded the Premier Prix de Rome in 1797 (he would not leave for Italy until 1803), and he continued to enjoy success, in 1799 with "The Return of Marcus Sextus" (Paris, Louvre) and the following year with the presentation in the Louvre of his "envoi de Rome" made in Paris, "Orphée pleurant la mort d'Eurydice" (Orléans, MBA). The portrait was warmly received, and the press unanimously praised both the likeness and the austere elegance of the model, the figure of a fashionable painter painted in a refined shade of gray. The "Mercure de France" considered it Lefèvre's best work, with an absolute elegance that soon earned him the nickname of the French Van Dyck." Lefèvre first produced a study of Guérin's head, preserved at the ENSBA, treating his friend's face more realistically, against a rubbed background that he replaces in the final composition with a dark background against which the young painter's graceful silhouette stands out. The overall effect relies on the finesse of the broad, luminous coloring, which focuses attention on Guérin's melancholy face, as he ponders his next painting with brush in hand. With this three-quarter stance, Lefèvre enhances the presence of Guérin, "of small stature and more than delicate consistency", to make him a figure of the modern artist. Their friendship did not end there. Guérin remained very close to Lefèvre, supporting him at the end of his life, right up to the painter's suicide in 1830, which Guérin followed to the grave. The painting passed into the collection of Cogniet, who acquired numerous works at the sale of his master Guérin's legatee.