Jean-martial Frédou (1710-1795) Portrait Of A Clergyman

Jean-Martial FRÉDOU (de la BRETONNIÈRE)
(Fontenay-Saint-Père 1710 – Versailles 1795)
Portrait of an ecclesiastic
Oil on canvas
H. 73 cm; L. 59 cm
Signed lower right

Provenance: March 21, 2006, lot 49, Delorme et Collin du Bocage, Drouot; Private collection

Jean Martial Frédou is an important portrait painter of the 18th century who was a painter, draftsman and pastellist. He settled near the court, at Versailles, in 1752. His artistic career, of great longevity, remains little known due to the loss, in the 19th century, of his book of reasons which listed all of his works. Although many of the artist's works are only known today through their engravings, Frédou was an eminent portrait painter of the royal family in the second half of the 18th century and a valuable witness to the young pretenders to the French throne. Very early on he worked for the royal family, at the beginning of the 1760s, at the request of the Dauphine, Marie-Josèphe de Saxe, he created eleven portraits of the Children of France. From 1776, he was named First Painter to Monsieur, brother of the King and future Louis XVIII.

What a shame that this abbot remains anonymous... His good nature and his smile let us imagine a confessor making good food in the great houses of this world. In its treatment and physiognomy we find all the details that make the charm of Frédou's works, well rooted in the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI, with smiling models and round, rosy faces.