(1667-1752)
Portrait of a gentleman
Oil on canvas
130.5 x 96.5 cm
Framed : 164 x 130 cm
Inscribed on the reverse on a piece of canvas: R. Tournière / 1728
In 1762, Dezallier d’Argenville wrote the first biography of Robert le Vrac Tournières. After initial training with Frère Lucas, he joined the community of master painters and sculptors at the Académie de Saint Luc, which he attended until 1695. The young artist then joined the studio of history painter Bon Boulogne, where he also rubbed shoulders with his famous brother, Louis de Boulogne, as well as the young artists in their studio on rue sainte Anne: Santerre, Bertin and Jean Raoux.
The young Tournières then joined the studio of Hyacinthe Rigaud, of whom he was one of the best students, along with Jean Ranc. Tournières is mentioned several times in the Livre de raison du maître, in 1698 and 1699, for commissions to copy Rigaud’s works.
The young artist’s first clients thus included those whom Rigaud was unable to satisfy, as well as members of the bourgeoisie who could not afford the high prices charged by the famous portraitist.
Tournières’ success was immediate, and he was admitted to the Académie in 1701 with the Portrait du Chancelier de Pontchartrain. The following year, he was accepted with portraits of academicians Pierre Mosnier and Michel II Corneille, both now lost.
Appointed painter to the king in 1703, he took part in the Salon of 1704, organized by the Académie to celebrate the birth of the Duke of Brittany, great-grandson of Louis XIV. Le Vrac Tournières exhibited no fewer than 21 portraits and 2 historical paintings in the Louvre’s main gallery.
He also produced a large number of copies of works such as Correggio’s famous Leda, then on display in the Orléans painting gallery in the Palais Royal, showing that Tournières already had access to the most important collections. He was commissioned to paint a bust portrait of Philippe d’Orléans, now lost but engraved in 1709, and Dezallier reports that towards the end of Louis XIV’s reign, the Duke and his court frequented his studio.
Tournières received numerous commissions for portraits of lawyers and magistrates in the 1710s, who came to pose in his studio on rue de Richelieu.
Wishing to be recognized as a history painter, a more prestigious status than that of portraitist, Tournières submitted a Dibutade to the Académie, which enabled him to be approved in 1714, and he was accepted as a history painter in 1716.
A successful artist, he exhibited six portraits and two history paintings at the 1725 Salon, his first since 1704.
In 1736, he married Françoise Dauvin, daughter of the King’s draftsman François Noblesse, a young widow who was the mother of the young François Le Moyne.
Tournières worked a little less after the age of 40, but received his most prestigious commission when he was approaching 80: an ex-voto dedicated to Sainte Geneviève. It was offered by the aldermen of the city of Paris in gratitude for Louis XV’s convalescence, but this painting, a major one in the artist’s corpus, unfortunately disappeared from Saint Geneviève during the revolutionary troubles.
The painter attended the Académie for the reception of his portrait by the young Pierre Le Sueur in 1747.
Wishing to be recognized as a history painter, a more prestigious status than that of portraitist, Tournières submitted a Dibutade to the Académie, which enabled him to be approved in 1714, and he was accepted as a history painter in 1716.
A successful artist, he exhibited six portraits and two history paintings at the 1725 Salon, his first since 1704.
In 1736, he married Françoise Dauvin, daughter of the King’s draftsman François Noblesse, a young widow who was the mother of the young François Le Moyne.
Tournières worked a little less after the age of 40, but received his most prestigious commission when he was approaching 80: an ex-voto dedicated to Sainte Geneviève. It was offered by the aldermen of the city of Paris in gratitude for Louis XV’s convalescence, but this painting, a major one in the artist’s corpus, unfortunately disappeared from Saint Geneviève during the revolutionary troubles.
The painter went to the Académie for the reception of his portrait by the young Pierre Le Sueur in 1747.
Unfortunately, the end of his life was a difficult one, as he had to go and live with his nephew. He died in 1752, childless.
A recluse and, according to Dezallier d’Argenville, a difficult character, he never really had any pupils, collaborating only a few times with Pierre-Nicolas Huilliot.
Wishing to be recognized as a history painter, a more prestigious status than that of portraitist, Tournières submitted a Dibutade to the Académie, which enabled him to be approved in 1714, and he was accepted as a history painter in 1716.
Remaining famous for his elegant portraits, we owe him a number of history paintings, such as the Moses Laid on the Waters in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Caen, the Resurrection of Christ in a private collection, and a landscape, now lost, which he presented at the Salon of 1742, Vue de la ville de Genève et du lac. He also executed a number of compositions influenced by Grimou, one of which is signed R. Tournière 1726.
Among his most famous portraits is the beautiful Portrait of Count Ferdinand Adolf von Plettenberg, framed and inscribed on the reverse, like ours, “R.Tournière. 1726 à Paris, Ferdinand Graff von Plettenberg Wittem”, the fantastic Portrait of Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis in Lappish garb, unfortunately in poor condition, dating from 1740 and now conserved at Charlottenburg Palace.
Our elegant portrait follows a very traditional Tournières pattern, with the sitter depicted from ¾, mid-leg. Here, he is portrayed in a landscape, similar to the background of Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat (ill. 4; Wildenstein 1958). It is similar to the Portrait of Jean Duc’s Son, sold in 1908.
The signature retranscribed on a piece of canvas on the reverse of our painting is almost certainly the signature hidden when our portrait was relined. It was indeed the artist’s custom to sign his paintings with the initial of his first name, followed by his surname (without the ‘s’) and the date of the painting.