Joseph-désiré Court (1797–1865) - Woman Nestled In An Armchair - Oil

Joseph-Désiré COURT
(Rouen, 1797 – Paris, 1865)

Woman nestled in an armchair

Oil on canvas
Signed and dated lower left
81 x 65 cm
1834

Exhibition: in all likelihood, number 50 of the Second Annual Exhibition of the Rouen Museum of 1834 under the title Woman nestled in an armchair.
Related work: lithograph by Maile around 1839 titled Catherine Rebuffe.

A descendant through his mother of the portrait painter Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659–1743), Joseph-Désiré Court was a student of Baron Gros at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and, like his master, built up a fine reputation as a history painter and portraitist. Winner of the Prix de Rome for historical painting in 1821, he became director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Rouen, his hometown, in 1853. When he died in 1865, his remains were, according to his wishes, brought back to Rouen to rest in the Monumental Cemetery of Rouen in a tomb built by a subscription opened by the Society of Friends of the Arts. Joseph Désiré Court was made a knight of the Legion of Honor in 1838 and was a member of the Academy of Sciences, Belles-Lettres and Arts of Rouen.

Museums: Alençon, Chantilly, Châteauroux, Dijon, Louviers, Lyon, Montpellier, Paris (Mus. du Louvre), Rouen, Versailles, Saint Petersburg…

In all likelihood, our painting was exhibited at the "Second Annual Exhibition of the Rouen Museum" in 1834 under the title "A Woman Nestled in a Shepherdess" (no. 50). A priori, the lithograph by Maile must have been printed around 1839, the date of its registration in the Cabinet des Estampes of the BnF. The title Catherine Rebuffe could have been attributed at that time, by mutual agreement between the painter and the engraver. It is a character from the novel Le Vicomte de Béziers, also published by Frédéric Soulié in 1834. Court illustrated a second female character by this author, Sathaniel, based on the eponymous novel from 1836.