Amazon - H Frageau End Of 19th Century

Dimensions on sight Height: 41.5 cm Length: 32.5 cm Dimensions on frame Height: 52.5 cm Length: 45 cm Format Oval Signature Bottom right Material Oil on panel Frame gilded wooden frame with a garland of flowers centered on a rose. This charming painting, very inspired by the work of Alfred de Dreux, is signed H. Fragueau, but this painter does not appear in any of the great biographical dictionaries of the 19th century (Benezit, Auray, Bellier de la Chavignerie, Clarétie… It is always a little frustrating not to be able to know the life and career of a painter, but let us focus instead on this delicate oil on panel. Perched on a mount with a rare chocolate-colored coat with washed mane, a young amazon leads her mount at a trot. Wearing a pretty little gray hat adorned with a beautiful ostrich feather boldly tilted to the side, a red rose pinned in the headband of her raven-black hair. She wears a long Guimet blue (ultramarine blue) amazon skirt and a navy blue velvet jacket decorated with an elegant braid. Her hands, dressed in white gloves, firmly hold the reins of her mount. saddle The left thigh of The Amazon is held by a fork, which we cannot see, hidden by the skirt. This fork had been invented during this 19th century, in order to facilitate the mounting of the riders by ensuring them more safety. They could thus ride intrepid steeds, and no longer peaceful hackneyed horses as in times gone by. Centered on the Amazon and her mount, this oil expresses the mastered control of the rider towards her horse, all in her impeccable posture and her prettiness. Genre scene or portrait? Without doubt a bit of both! Because in this second half of the 19th century, the genre of the portrait is completely renewed. Until then, the art of the portrait was reserved for power (we think of the paintings representing the kings and queens of France of the 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th centuries), or for the nobility (which made it possible to establish the dynastic history of the families of knights). Symbol of authority, the portrait represents its subject in full length, most often life-size, munificent, and bearing the attributes of power or proudly riding a mount whose strength and character can be guessed. From the end of the 18th century, but especially in the 19th century, with the birth of a new social class, but especially in the 19th century, with the birth of a new social class, the greedy desire of the bourgeoisie to transmit the triumphant image of its success, democratizes the art of portraiture. Certainly the official portraits of politicians, heroes of the Nation, artistic celebrities persist, copied, lithographed, engraved, sculpted (busts) to ensure a wide diffusion of the image of power. Photography now comes to the aid of the diffusion of these portraits which all remain very academic in their representation. The private portrait which develops in parallel, highlights the great figures of finance, industry, the arts, the liberal professions in a more private sphere. The portrait in a frame all the more overloaded as the subject of the painting has a high awareness of his fortune and his value adorns his office, his library, while the portrait of his wife, or even his children, decorates, between two heavy hangings, the walls of the living room, and reception rooms. In the vestibule, the winter garden, in the corner of the fireplace, on the chest of drawers of a bedroom, the marble busts for the wealthiest, in plaster for the most modest give the feeling, in the absence of being able to boast of a long prestigious lineage, of transmitting to his posterity the image of their success.

To go further: https://www.lestresorsdegamaliel.com/tableaux/513-amazone-h-fragueau.html