04/02/2002
by Alex Kearney

It certainly isn’t every day that a Baron Gérard (1770-1837) portrait as fine as Catherine Worlée, Princesse de Talleyrand-Perigord, c.1804–1805, comes on the market. Yet, this towering painting (oil on canvas, 225.7 x 164.8 cm) had more than just good looks going for it when it sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a premium price $1,875,750 (€2,170,800) (estimate $1,400,000-$1,800,000, €1,620,200-2,083,100) on the 24^th of January at Sotheby’s, New York. It had a story and a provenance hard to beat, a heady mix of politics, romance and the French Imperial highlife.

The sitter, born to French parents in India in 1762, on moving to Europe became known as ‘La Belle Indienne’. Her extraordinary beauty won hearts from an early age but it was her marriage in 1802 to the noble-born ex-priest and political operator par excellence, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord (1754-1838) that finally established her place in the elite of French society. However, it was a position from which she precipitously fell (Talleyrand, who had long since tired of her, tartly observed of her death in 1835, "this simplifies my position a lot"), but the Gérard portrait remained in the sitter’s family until the present day. Indeed, a large number of Gérard’s portraits still remain in private hands, despite his stature as the greatest French portraitist of the Napoleonic era next to David and Ingres. Most of the paintings that appear on the market betray the hands of assistants and so rarely reflect his true ability. Those works that rise above this standard can be well rewarded.

On the 2^nd of November 2000 an autograph version of The Three Ages of Man (oil on canvas, 110.5 x 144.8 cm) went comfortably above its estimate range of $100,000-$200,000 (€115,750-231,500) and hammered for $230,850 (€267,150) at Christie’s, New York. A relatively unexceptional Portrait of the Comtesse Jeanne de Pourtales (oil on canvas, 65 x 55 cm) more than doubled its upper end estimate (estimate $70,000-$90,000, €81,000-104,150) to reach a hammer price of $210,000 (€243,000) at Sotheby’s, New York on the 30^th of January 1998. However, even affirmed works don’t always hit the mark as when a Portrait of a Lady, Bust Length, Wearing a White Dress (oil on canvas, 65 x 55 cm) fell slightly short of its lower end estimate (estimate $80,000-$120,000, €92,550-138,850) at Christie’s, New York to make a hammer price of $75,000 (€86,800) on the 31^st of January 1997. The sitter’s plainness, as well as her anonymity, most likely counted against her.

The Princesse de Talleyand-Perigord portrait aside, the past year has been a quiet year for Gérard, comprising mainly of studio work and that of followers. A drab ‘circle of’ Portrait of King Louis Phillipe, Half-Length, in Uniform, (oil on canvas, 78.8 x 64.8 cm) hammered for just $2,850 (€3,300) at Phillips, London on the 24^th of April 2001, against an estimate of $4,250-7,100 (€4,900-8,200). However, a more enticing subject with a slicker finish will go for much more, as witness an attributed Portrait of Napoleon I (oil on canvas, 81.2 x 64 cm), which rose to a hammer price of $37,100 (€42,950) (estimate $11,700-20,450, €13,500-23,650) at Koller, Zurich on the 30^th March 2001. While a sumptuously regal studio work, Portrait en Pied de Charles X en Costume du Couronnement (oil on canvas, 250 x 188 cm) also made an impressive hammer price of $29,000 (€33,550) against an estimate of $15,800-19,750 (€18,300-22,850), on the 18^th of December 2000 at Tajan, Paris.

Falling between the two stools of autograph and studio works are those where the artist is reckoned to have worked with assistants. These can be polished, like a version of one of Gérard’s most seductive pieces, Cupid and Psyche (oil on canvas, 194 x 182 cm) that hammered for $50,000 (€57,850) (estimate $50,000-$70,000, €57,850-81,000) at Sotheby’s, New York on the 22^nd of May 1997, or the case of the rather lifeless Portrait of the Comtesse Morel-Vinde and her Daughter (oil on canvas, 206 x 147 cm), which also hammered for $50,000 (€57,850) at the same auction house on the 30^th of January 1998, but the sum was considerably less than its estimate of $70,000-$90,000 (€81,000-104,150).

For those making their first steps into Gérard’s market, drawings are a good start and can be bought for comparatively modest sums. A series of studies of muses and other allegorical figures, all in black lead (185 x 200 mm and smaller) sold for a modest premium price of $2,750 (€3,200) (estimate $2,100-2,850, €2,450-3,300) at Sotheby’s, London on the 7^th of July 1999.

As to the future of Gérard’s market, a catalogue raisonné is currently being prepared, a daunting task considering the 85 or so full-length portraits and numerous half-lengths and busts assumed to exist. Its publication should give owners a chance to look again at what they have, and collectors a preview of what might yet lie in store at the showrooms.