Alexis Simon Belle (1674-1734) Studio-presumed Portrait Of James Stuart

Alexis Simon Belle (1674-1734) Workshop-Portrait of a young man around 1700.

Canvas of 75 cm by 62 cm
Superb fully carved old frame of 91 cm by 78 cm

Our painting represents a very beautiful bust portrait of a young man possibly from the Stuart family of England. Note this superb carved wooden frame

Alexis Simon Belle (1674-1734)

Belle first studied with her father, then he entered as a pupil of François de Troy, painter at the court of King Jacques II of England at that time in exile in Saint Germain en Laye. He began to work in Saint-Germain from 1698 until 1701 (in the meantime he obtained the Prix de Rome in 1701). Troy was then the only painter to the court of James II and needed the help of Belle, his best pupil, to be able to carry out the paintings which he was commissioned. Alexis Simon Belle would go on to become the main painter of the Jacobite court, where he and his wife settled. During the 1720s, Belle had a lot of work from the French nobility. He painted the young King Louis XV, and much of his work has been engraved, indicating that he then enjoyed high status in France. He also worked for the Jacobites in France, and in 1724 he signed a portrait of Marie-Charlotte Sobieska (sister-in-law of James Edward Stuart) with the mention “pictor regis Britann.” (painter to the King of Great Britain) As a portrait painter, Belle's style follows that of her masters François de Troy, Hyacinthe Rigaud and Nicolas Largillière. As for him, he was the teacher of Jacques Andre Joseph Aved (1702-1766). Belle's son Louis-Clément has become a history painter.