Jean-joseph Vaudechamp (1790-1864) - Portrait Of A Child

Jean-Joseph Vaudechamp
(Rambervilliers, 1790 - Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1864)
Portrait of a young girl
1831.
Oil on canvas.
H: 40 ; W: 31 cm.
Exhibition: Probably Salon des Artistes Vivants, Paris, 1831, no. 2060: “Portraits, same number”, listed at no. 196 in the Register of Works from the 1831 Salon: “1 Tableau Portrait d'enfant / Height: 52 ; Width: 43 cm [frame included].”


Leaning against a windowsill, a young girl turns a frank, mischievous gaze towards the viewer. Wearing long black braids, in which a red ribbon contrasts with the color of her hair, the child wears few accessories: an earring and a necklace, but these have been made with a meticulousness that adds a sober preciousness to the portrait.

This portrait is particularly apt to be compared with another of the artist's 1841 works, the presumed double portrait of the children of Count de Lasalle, now in the Dallas Museum of Art.

Born in Rambervillers, Vosges, France, in 1790, Jean-Joseph Vaudechamp moved to Paris with part of his family during his childhood. He stayed with his paternal aunt, Marie-Jeanne Vaudechamp, married to Jacques Delille, an influential poet and translator of John Milton. Delille was a friend of Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson (1767-1824), and the young Vaudechamp was admitted to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1811, at the age of 20, where he became Girodet's pupil[1].
Vaudechamp exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon from 1817 to 1848, and was noticed as early as 1819, by the Comte de Keratry in his review of the Salon[2]. Girodet also recommended him, as a particularly gifted pupil, to copy his portrait of General Bonchamp[3].
 
Affected by the July Days, the scarcity of official commissions and the stiff competition from portrait artists in Paris, Vaudechamp decided to set sail for Louisiana in 1830, settling in the winter of 1831 in the city of New Orleans. Here, he found a Creole clientele of French origin, eager to have their portraits painted by artists with as fine an artistic education as Vaudechamp.

His works, executed in an elegant neoclassical style, accurately captured the features and social status of his models. His portraits of members of the New Orleans elite, such as Antoine Jacques Philippe de Marigny, are still preserved in prestigious museums and private collections.
He traveled between France and New Orleans, painting in the winter months and returning to France in the summer to avoid yellow fever epidemics, until his final departure in 1839. In this way, he was also able to exhibit works at the Salon, aimed at a French clientele.

Illustration: 
Portrait présumé des enfants du comte de Lasalle, 1841, oil on canvas, 116.8x89.5 cm, Dallas Museum of Art, inv. 2008.19.

[1] William Keyse Rudolph , Jean-Joseph Vaudechamp (1790-1864) in France and Louisiana, Submitted to the Faculty of Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, 2003, p. 14-15.

[2] Kératry, Auguste-Hilarion de, Annuaire de l'École française de peinture, ou Lettres sur le Salon de 1819. Maradan, Paris, 1820.

[3] William Keyse Rudolph, Vaudechamp in New Orleans, Historic New Orleans Collection, 2007.