Lot 83: ARY SCHEFFER (Dordrecht 1795-1858 Argenteuil)

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Description: Portrait of General Lafayette (1757-1834), full-length, in a great coat over a stripped waistcoat, holding a hat and a stick oil on canvas 921/2 x 51 1/8 in. (235 x 130 cm.) PROVENANCE Otis A. Mygatt, by 1934, and by inheritance to his nephew Kenneth Mygatt, from whom purchased in 1951 by Tony Bouilhet. Bouilhet-Christofle collection, Paris (on deposit at the Mus‚e Bouilhet-Christofle, Saint-Denis, inv. no. 898. LITERATURE L. Ewals, Catalogue de l'oeuvre de Ary Scheffer, Nimeg—e, 1986, pp. 399-400. EXHIBITION Paris, Salon, 1819. Paris, Mus‚e de l'Orangerie, Exposition du centenaire de La Fayette 1757-1834, 1934, p. 145 (catalogue by Andr‚ Girodie) NOTES This grand, full-length portrait of Lafayette is one of nearly a dozen paintings of the celebrated general and hero of the American and French revolutions by his friend Ary Scheffer. While several of these paintings exist in variants and replicas, the present canvas appears to be a unique composition. According to L‚on Ewals, it was at one time signed and dated: 'Ary Scheffer, … La Grange, 1819'; however, the inscription is no longer evident.