Portrait Of Two Children Playing With A Dog (1845). Raymond Monvoisin. Lima Peru.

Although he had begun a career in the army, at the suggestion of his father, Raymond Auguste Quinsac Monvoisin chose, in 1808, to devote himself fully to painting. He left Bordeaux to go to Paris where he was employed in the studio of Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, with whom he worked on mythological themes in a neoclassical style, which attracted all the attention of artists and scholars of the time. He studied at the École de Beaux-Arts in Versailles. His work soon earned him the support of critics. His works then enjoyed real commercial success. He was employed by merchants, bankers and other members of the new emerging bourgeoisie. He made his debut at the Salon du Louvre in 1819. He was influenced by the romantic painting of his time. After receiving recognition from all of Paris, he went to Italy, where he obtained a scholarship to study at the Académie de France in Rome, located at the Villa Medici. Interested in the opportunities offered by the newly independent states of South America, Monvoisin went to Argentina and, from there, to Chile. There he received an official invitation from the Chilean government to direct the Academy of Fine Arts of Santiago, which had been officially founded on March 17, 1848. He arrived in Santiago penniless. Preceded by his fame, he was introduced to prominent families; he acquired a reputation as a successful portrait painter. His works had a decisive influence on the new Chilean society, which had acquired the inclinations of European fashion, particularly French. He devoted his efforts to many different activities during his stay in Chile. He traveled throughout the country and neighboring countries such as Peru, invested in mines, and created a livestock farm. His early years as a drawing teacher in Paris, where he had Charles Carey as a student, among others, helped him train artists such as Francisco Mandiola, Procesa Sarmiento and the French painter Clara Filleul, with whom he was a driving force in pictorial art in Chile and Argentina. Raymond Quinsac Monvoisin returned to France in 1858, but his fame had faded. He died in poverty on March 26, 1870, in Boulogne-sur-Seine. He painted the Chilean and Latin American elite such as President Juan Manuel de Rosas of Brazil or President Ramon Castilla of Peru. The children dressed in French fashion are probably the children of an important French diplomat based in Lima. The work is signed, dated and located in Lima in 1845. The picture is available in Lima, Peru.