Property of a Gentleman Jacques Wilbaut or Wilbault (1729 -...

Hammer

£11,500

Property of a Gentleman

Jacques Wilbaut or Wilbault (1729 - 1816)
Portrait of a Gentleman in fine dress holding a sealed letter
Oil on canvas 
Signed upper right 'J. Wilbaut fct 17--'
In a fine carved Louis XIV revival giltwood frame decorated with floral and shell motifs
With inscriptions verso

Lot Essay:
Jacques Wilbaut came from a family of glassblowers in the Ardennes region. A nineteenth-century biographer reported that from childhood Wilbaut had attached himself to his uncle, the decorative painter Nicolas Wilbaut, who combined the artist Jean Jouvenet's classicizing Baroque style with an emphasis on studying from nature. His uncle's recommendation earned Wilbaut acceptance to the Académie Royale in Paris, where he studied for two years beginning in 1750. Wilbaut then worked with his uncle until Nicolas' death in 1763. Wilbaut primarily painted religious pictures for churches and monasteries and, to a lesser extent, landscapes, and historical subjects. 

Wilbaut's numerous portraits are often considered his best works; among them are images of such important figures as King Louis XV and Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, representing both the monarchy and post-Revolutionary governments in France. For many years, Wilbaut proudly used the credentials 'student of the Académie Royale of Paris' and 'citizen of Château-Porcien'. Both under the monarchy and after the French Revolution, Wilbaut was active in government and public life in his hometown. Many of his paintings disappeared during the Revolution.

Provenance:
Giancarlo Baroni (1926-2007) Florence, dealer and connoisseur

Dimensions:
(Canvas) 29.5 in. (H) x 24 in. (W)
(Frame) 38.25 in. (H) x 33 in. (W)