The Cabildo the Louisiana State museum part 2

Portrait of Antoine Jacques Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville in his officer’s uniform from the Orleans Lancers of the Louisiana Militia. Oil on canvas by Jean Joseph Vaudechamp, New Orleans, 1833.

Portraiture

The Louisiana State Museum is the repository of an important collection of southern regional American art. In keeping with the Museum’s mission statement, the collection primarily consists of paintings by artists who worked in Louisiana from colonization through the twentieth century. During the Museum’s early years, Dr. Isaac Monroe Cline, United States Weather Service meteorologist, art collector, and honorary curator at the Louisiana State Museum, was instrumental in shaping the direction of the painting collection. Numerous nineteenth-century portraits were acquired as a result of Dr. Cline’s legendary taste and vision, among them the well-known self-portrait of free person of color Julien Hudson. Other notable areas of the collection encompass marine and early twentieth-century paintings.

Portrait of Antoine Jacques Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville in his officer’s uniform from the Orleans Lancers of the Louisiana Militia. Oil on canvas by Jean Joseph Vaudechamp, New Orleans, 1833.

Antoine Jacques Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville, c.1833, as painted by Jean Joseph Vaudechamp. Marigny de Mandeville, the son-in-law of W.C.C. Claiborne, became an officer in the Orleans Lancers and served as colonel in 10th Louisiana Regiment during the Civil War. The portrait is considered Vaudechamp's most important painting.

Portrait of Antoine Jacques Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville in his officer’s uniform from the Orleans Lancers of the Louisiana Militia. Oil on canvas by Jean Joseph Vaudechamp, New Orleans, 1833.

Mrs. Leonard Wiltz 

Luigi Marie Sotta

1841

Oil on canvas, 31 15/16 x 25 ½ inches

Signed lower right in dark red, "Luigi Maria Sotta 1841"

Louisiana State Museum, 08415.07

Like Vaudechamp's portraits of mature women, Sotta's subjects often appear as corpulent or rail thin, perhaps to emphasize the honesty of self-presentation. Sotta was perhaps most adept at capturing the traces of old age upon the countenance, notably his portrait of Mrs. Leonard Wiltz.

Mrs. Leonard Wiltz 

Luigi Marie Sotta

1841

Oil on canvas, 31 15/16 x 25 ½ inches

Signed lower right in dark red, "Luigi Maria Sotta 1841"

Louisiana State Museum, 08415.07

Like Vaudechamp's portraits of mature women, Sotta's subjects often appear as corpulent or rail thin, perhaps to emphasize the honesty of self-presentation. Sotta was perhaps most adept at capturing the traces of old age upon the countenance, notably his portrait of Mrs. Leonard Wiltz.

Creole Woman

Charles-Jean-Baptiste Colson

1837

Oil on canvas, 32 x 25 ½ inches

Louisiana State Museum, 05792

This portrait reflects a romantic conception of feminine beauty popular in Louisiana during the mid-nineteenth century. The strikingly animated young woman seems lost in reverie, carelessly holding a folded fan as if in anticipation of an outing to the opera or a ball.

Creole Woman

Charles-Jean-Baptiste Colson

1837 

Charles-Jean-Baptiste Colson 

French, fl. 1810-1851

Colson was in the first wave of artists trained at École des Beaux Arts in Paris who came to New Orleans during the winter to meet Louisianans' insatiable demand for portraiture. In contrast to the crisper neoclassical style practiced by French colleagues such as Jean Joseph Vaudechamp (1790 - 1866) or Adolphe Rinck (1810 - 1871), Colson's softer and more emotive style of portraiture gained popularity in France during the reign of King Louis-Philippe (1830-1848).  

Ignacio de Balderes 

Attributed to José Francisco Xavier de Salazar y Mendoza

c. 1790

Oil on canvas, 45 1/2 x 33 1/2 inches

Louisiana State Museum, Gift of Mr. Harvey Truxillo, M141.2

Born in Salamanca, Spain, in 1757, Balderes entered military service as a private at the age thirteen as a private. He was sent to West Florida to work as a surveyor and rose through the ranks. As a sergeant in 1779, he earned distinction by capturing a post at Pass Manchac during the Battle of Galvez-Town. Balderes was knighted by the king of Spain and given a large land grant near Pensacola.

In the early 1790s, Balderes was a Sub-Lieutenant of the Grenadiers, Second Battalion of the Regiment of Louisiana, and commander at Balize, an outpost guarding the mouth of the Mississippi River. The single epaulette - which is in the Museum's collection - indicates his rank as a lieutenant. Balderes was respected for his zeal and leadership. Francisco Bouligny, his commander, wrote "I believe it is always fitting to provide officers of well-known courage, good conduct, assiduity and who are intelligent" with promotion when he became adjutant-major of the Third Battalion in 1793. Balderes eventually reached the rank of captain in 1798, and died in 1815 at the age of fifty-eight.

Senora de Balderes and Her Daughter 

Attributed to José Francisco Xavier de Salazar y Mendoza

c. 1790

Oil on canvas, 45 x 33 inches

Louisiana State Museum, Gift of Mr. Harvey Truxillo, M141.1

Senora de Balderes holds a single red rose, a Baroque-era symbol of procreation and maternal attentiveness. In both style and format, Salazar's style resembles portraits commissioned throughout the Spanish colonies in the late eighteenth century, especially the work of Puerto Rican artist José Campeche y Jordán (1751-1809) and Mexican artist Joseph Mariano Lara (fl. 1760 -1790).

Census records indicate that the Balderes family lived on Royal Street in 1791. At the time, New Orleans had about 5,000 residents.

Pierre Verloin DeGruy Jr. 

Attributed to John Vanderlyn

c. 1821

Oil on canvas, 30 x 25 inches

Louisiana State Museum, Gift of Mrs. Grace von Schneidau Brown, 1955.077

A native of New Orleans, DeGruy was born in 1799 to Joseph Verloin DeGruy and Marianne Courturier. He served during the Battle of New Orleans before marrying Francisca Azélie St. Amant. DeGruy built a humble grocery into one of the most successful commission merchant businesses in the city during the 1840s. He died in 1858. The hazy background and pink tones are consistent with known works by Vanderlyn from the period.

The Davidson Family

William Rumpler

1858

This painting depicts the Davidson children and their nurse at Poydras Plantation in St. Bernard Parish.

Gift of Mrs. Davidson

The Davidson Family

William Rumpler

1858

This painting depicts the Davidson children and their nurse at Poydras Plantation in St. Bernard Parish.

Gift of Mrs. Davidson

The Davidson Family

William Rumpler

1858

This painting depicts the Davidson children and their nurse at Poydras Plantation in St. Bernard Parish.
Gift of Mrs. Davidson

Children of Comte Louis Amedée de Barjac 

François Fleischbein

1839

Oil on canvas, 35 3/4 x 29 inches

Louisiana State Museum, Gift of Gift of Mrs. Zuma Salaun, 09461

The two little girls in the painting, Laure and Celine, were the daughters of Louis Amedée DeBarjac, a New Orleans commission merchant. The infant was their cousin, Aristée Louis Tissot. Fleischbein painted the elegantly dressed children in an intimate setting around the piano.

Franz Joseph (François Jacques) Fleischbein 

German, 1801-1868

Better known as François in the U.S., Franz was born in Godramstein, Bavaria. Although often confused with a naïve artist, he was academically trained, having studied with Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (1767-1824) at the École des beaux-arts in Paris. In 1833, Fleischbein immigrated to New Orleans with his wife, Marie Louise Tetu (1802-1895), and four children. He remained in Louisiana until his death. Jean Joseph Vaudechamp (1790 - 1866) first encouraged Fleischbein to visit.

Fleischbein style fused French neoclassicism with German Biedermeier emphasis on pattern. As result, his paintings appear mannered, with schematic drawing, suppressed transitions of light and shade, and odd anatomical distortions. Patrons appreciated his paintings, and Fleischbein advertized that the "greatest correctness of drawing and painting is guaranteed, as well as the likeness of Portraits."

George David Coulon (1823 - 1904) studied painting briefly with Fleischbein about 1837. In addition to portraits, Fleischbein painted genre, mythological, religious, and historical paintings. He was listed as a purveyor of daguerreotypes and ambrotypes shortly before his death on November 16, 1868.

Children of Comte Louis Amedée de Barjac 

François Fleischbein

1839

Oil on canvas, 35 3/4 x 29 inches

Louisiana State Museum, Gift of Gift of Mrs. Zuma Salaun, 09461

The two little girls in the painting, Laure and Celine, were the daughters of Louis Amedée DeBarjac, a New Orleans commission merchant. The infant was their cousin, Aristée Louis Tissot. Fleischbein painted the elegantly dressed children in an intimate setting around the piano.

Mrs. Victor DeJan née Clara Abat 

Adolphe Rinck

1841

Oil on canvas, 32 x 26 inches

Signed upper right in red paint, "Rinck 1841"

Louisiana State Museum, Gift of Mrs. Victor Dejan, 09864.03

Josephine Clara Abât was born in New Orleans in 1819, four years after the marriage of her parents, Antoine Abât (1770-1832) and Anne Marie Victoria Félicité Durel (b. 1766). She married Victor Dejan in 1832. Their only two children did not survive to adulthood. The portrait shows the clarity, precision, and finish associated with neoclassicism, together with a softer, more Romantic treatment of the sitter's features.

Mrs. Victor DeJan née Clara Abat

Adolphe Rinck

1841 

Louis Nicholas Adolphe Rinck 

French, 1802 - 1895

Born in Metz, France, Rinck's father was a Hessian officer, suggesting that German was the first language. His full name is Louis Nicolas Adolphe Rinck, though he has often been misidentified as "Adolph D. Rinck." He studied at the Berlin Academy in the mid-1820s, and enrolled in the École des beaux-arts in Paris in 1835.

Rinck moved to New Orleans in 1840 and was soon earning about $2,000 per year, describing himself as an "ami de M. Vaudechamp" in the New Orleans Bee. He remained in New Orleans for thirty years. Margarette, his wife, owned a shop located in the Pontalba Buildings during the early 1850s. After 1869, Rinck spent many years seeking support from the State Legislature for a model farm he intended to establish on property he purchased in Algiers. He published a detailed plan to bring "Happiness to Millions," but was disappointed with the response. Rinck left New Orleans for New York City about 1871.

Rinck painted portraits of Judah Benjamin Charles Alexandre and Charlotte Euphemie Mathilde Grevemberg, Judah Touro, Jean Baptiste Dejan, as well as of unheralded individuals - most famously Free Woman of Color, New Orleans (University Art Museum, University of Louisiana at Lafayette), probably representing an unidentified woman in Rinck's employ. Rinck's example had evident impact on artists such as George David Coulon (1822-1904) and Julien Hudson (1811-1844).



Napoleon 

In imitation of French king Louis XIV, Napoleon worked hard to develop his own legend and fashion his persona. He used the press, the arts, and the church to boost his fame.

Like most legends, the Napoleonic one is part fact, part fiction. Presented in the Cabildo exhibit are aspects of Napoleonic legend that mainly deal with Louisiana. 

Napoleon Crossing the Alps

Early 19th century

Attributed to the Studio of Jacques-Louis David

Napoleon commissioned many large-scale portraits of himself to help create a legendary persona. This large painting is a version of one created by the famous French neoclassical artist, Jacques-Louis David and communicates the subject's strength by showing him maintaining control of a fiery steed crossing the Alps.

Napoleon Crossing the Alps

Early 19th century

Attributed to the Studio of Jacques-Louis David

Napoleon commissioned many large-scale portraits of himself to help create a legendary persona. This large painting is a version of one created by the famous French neoclassical artist, Jacques-Louis David and communicates the subject's strength by showing him maintaining control of a fiery steed crossing the Alps.

Napoleon Crossing the Alps

Early 19th century

Attributed to the Studio of Jacques-Louis David

Napoleon commissioned many large-scale portraits of himself to help create a legendary persona. This large painting is a version of one created by the famous French neoclassical artist, Jacques-Louis David and communicates the subject's strength by showing him maintaining control of a fiery steed crossing the Alps.

According to popular legend, some of Napoleon's former officers who were residing in New Orleans schemed to rescue him from exile on the island of St. Helena and bring him to Louisiana. Three days before a ship manned by Louisiana pirates and waiting off the coast of St. Helena could sail, Napoleon died. The ship was to carry Napoleon to New Orleans, where he would have lived in a house in the French Quarter given to him by the city's mayor. This famous building is now a bar and restaurant known as the Napoleon House.

One of the most legendary artifacts on display in the Cabildo is the death mask of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. 

Napoleon Crossing the Alps

Early 19th century

Attributed to the Studio of Jacques-Louis David

Napoleon commissioned many large-scale portraits of himself to help create a legendary persona. This large painting is a version of one created by the famous French neoclassical artist, Jacques-Louis David and communicates the subject's strength by showing him maintaining control of a fiery steed crossing the Alps.

City authorities moved the death mask, along with their offices, from the Cabildo in 1853. During the tumult that accompanied the Civil War, the mask disappeared. A former city treasurer spotted the mask in 1866 as it was being hauled to the dump in a junk wagon.

Rather than return the mask to the city, the treasurer took the mask home and put it on display there. Eventually Napoleon's death mask wound up in the Atlanta home of Captain William Greene Raoul, president of the Mexican National Railroad.

Finally, in 1909, Napoleon's death mask made its way back to the Crescent City. Captain Raoul read a newspaper article about the missing mask and wrote to the mayor of its whereabouts. In exchange for suitable acknowledgement, Raoul agreed to donate the death mask to New Orleans. The mayor transferred the mask to the Louisiana State Museum that year.

Embroidered Bee

Attributed to Picot

c. 1804

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred D. Pardee

This bee is believed to have been a portion of Napoleon's coronation mantle when he crowned himself emperor of France in 1804.

Embroidered Bee

Attributed to Picot

c. 1804

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred D. Pardee

This bee is believed to have been a portion of Napoleon's coronation mantle when he crowned himself emperor of France in 1804.

Death Mask of Napoleon

c. 1821

Dr. Antommarchi presented the death mask of Napoleon to the City of New Orleans shortly after he immigrated in 1834. City officials displayed the mask in the Cabildo, along with the instruments Antommarchi had used at the autopsy of Napoleon. Antommarchi practiced medicine in New Orleans before moving to Mexico in 1838.

Death Mask of Napoleon

c. 1821

Dr. Antommarchi presented the death mask of Napoleon to the City of New Orleans shortly after he immigrated in 1834. City officials displayed the mask in the Cabildo, along with the instruments Antommarchi had used at the autopsy of Napoleon. Antommarchi practiced medicine in New Orleans before moving to Mexico in 1838.

Death Mask of Napoleon

c. 1821

Dr. Antommarchi presented the death mask of Napoleon to the City of New Orleans shortly after he immigrated in 1834. City officials displayed the mask in the Cabildo, along with the instruments Antommarchi had used at the autopsy of Napoleon. Antommarchi practiced medicine in New Orleans before moving to Mexico in 1838.

Death Mask of Napoleon

c. 1821

Dr. Antommarchi presented the death mask of Napoleon to the City of New Orleans shortly after he immigrated in 1834. City officials displayed the mask in the Cabildo, along with the instruments Antommarchi had used at the autopsy of Napoleon. Antommarchi practiced medicine in New Orleans before moving to Mexico in 1838.