Important Pair Of Aristocratic Portraits After Jb Santerre. Regency. Early 18th Century

Superb pair of portraits and their lightly gilded molded wooden frame. This pair of portraits is attributed to Jea-Baptiste Santerre, painter of the Louis XIV and Regency era (1715-1723). They represent an aristocrat still wearing his gray "in folio" wig recalling the reign of the old king. Clad in armor partly covered with a red cape, he wears a white tie. Even if it is not possible to identify it, it belongs to an old family of the nobility of the sword, the same one which distinguished itself on the battlefields at the time of the extension of the royal crown and which gives its current geographical limits to the metropolis (apart from Corsica, acquired under Louis XV). His wife still wears a dress with puffed sleeves and the colors of her tunic cleverly recall and complement those of her husband. The oak frames and flower outlines are remarkably elegant. The painting has not been re-canvased but cleaned. The colors are shimmering and the facial expressions are second to none. This work is attributed to Jean-Baptiste Santerre, an admirable easel painter, with a true and tender color. The man who died in his home-studio in the Louvre on November 21, 1717 was an academician and protégé of Philippe d'Orléans, regent of the kingdom after the death of Louis XIV. His works are sought after and prized, his reputation important and lasting. Trained with François Lemaire, then with the Boulogne brothers, the artist first devoted himself to portraiture and would later count among his models Boileau or Racine as well as princely figures like the Duchess of Burgundy or the Regent, alone or accompanied by his mistress. If his style is marked by the art of the Bolognese and Van Dyck, Santerre revisits the Nordic subjects treated by Rembrandt and his followers and offers a very personal interpretation which made his success. Esteemed for the accuracy of his anatomical renderings (he assisted in dissections), his qualities as a colorist, the great care taken in his work, in his technique itself, and the finish of his drawings, a large part of which he burned - nudes – before dying, he appeals to our curiosity: little biographical data, a production of the beginnings and the first maturity which we still miss. His official career was late: approved by the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1698, at the age of forty-seven, he was admitted in 1704 and participated in the Salon. It should be noted that his paintings now preserved, or known through prints, are concentrated on the last twenty years of his life. A contemporary of Jouvenet (1647-1717), Santerre stood out from the artists of his time by exploring genre figures or idealized portraits. He instills in his paintings a “cold” and refined elegance that belongs only to him. This is a very "beautiful pair" of portraits and of significant dimensions. The canvas alone 75 cm/ 68 x2.