(1750 Dijon 1817)
Portrait of a Young Man in Bust
Pastel on paper mounted on canvas
39 x 31 cm
Signed and dated on the left
Cde. hoin. / 1802 / V
Provenance : Collection of Madame Bouthillier-Chavigny, circa 1880, by family tradition; then by descent; private collection, Doubs.
Literature : Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, online edition. Reproduced at “Hoin, Claude” at n° f.4.2235
Claude Hoin was born in Dijon into a family of renowned surgeons. If his brother had to follow the dynastic example taken by his grandfather and father before him, the future artist was lucky enough to be able to choose his own path. Feeling from an early age an attraction for the visual arts, he was admitted, at the age of eighteen, as a student architect at the Dijon School of Drawing, created in 1765 by François Devosge (1732-1811). It must be said that the young Hoin was quite gifted, winning a few awards and finally abandoning architecture to devote himself fully to painting. On the recommendation of his Dijon master, he went to Paris to train with Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805).
Despite his departure for the capital, Hoin remained very attached to his hometown throughout his life. Wishing to join the Academy of Sciences, Arts and Belles-Lettres in Dijon, he took advantage of his teaching with the master of “virtuous” genre painting to develop his art, favouring drawing, watercolour, gouache and pastel over oil painting. Thanks to the accuracy of his pencil and his fine knowledge of allegorical figures, the artist managed, in 1776, to become a corresponding member of the institution of which he dreamed of being a member. The following years marked a real accomplishment for him as he was admitted to the Academies of the cities of Toulouse, Lyon and Rouen. In the early 1780s, he exhibited many miniatures – a technique he was particularly fond of – gouaches and pastels, which were very popular, at the Salon de la Correspondance, an exhibition accessible to young artists from outside the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture.
If the Revolution upset the institutions so dear to our artist, it had no real influence on his way of painting, although he was the painter of Monsieur, the brother of the King (future Louis XVIII), from 1785 onwards. Moreover, he seems to have been solicited for his talents as a miniaturist by a leading nobility, as evidenced by this moving miniature made on a round box, in gouache on paper, representing the portraits of Princess Elisabeth (1764-1794), sister of Louis XVI (1754-1793) and the Dauphin, Louis Joseph Xavier François de France (1781-1789).
Closer to the intellectual, socialite and bourgeois circles that emerged, the revolutionary period surprisingly brought him a fairly abundant clientele, particularly through the commissioning of portraits. At the same time, he exhibited at the new Central Museum of Arts, now the Louvre, some views of Paris, a subject that lent itself very well to his talents as a watercolourist. Our pastel is located at the heart of this period, when Houin frequented the literary and artistic society of the Athénée des Arts, at the turning point with his return to his native city of Dijon, in 1802, the year in which our work was produced. He remained there until the end of his life, and in 1811 fulfilled one of his greatest ambitions: to become curator of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon, a position he held until his sudden death in 1817.
The artist was known for his pastels, the medium best represented in his production, one of the best known being undoubtedly the Presumed Portrait of Rosalie Duthé (1748-1830), the famous dancer and courtesan, now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Our portrait presents, on a neutral background, a man in bust, three-quarter view, dressed in what appears to be a frac, a collared jacket, short at the front and with long basques at the back. The clothing can be guessed because it was typical of the period. Its midnight blue color contrasts with the white shirt with a high collar just as emblematic of the Directoire and then Empire years. These rather cold tones highlight the model’s face, with warm ochre and pink tones, skilfully blended by the artist. The deep gaze pierces this smiling face with its almond color, surrounded by a profusion of small curls of brown hair.
Hoin, succeeded, in the lively manner of Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761-1845), mixed with the softer and more intoxicating touch of his former master, Greuze, to place himself as a witness to the nobility and the bourgeoisie, at the heart of the changing society he was experiencing. In a moving yet convincing way, he conveys through his talent for pastel portraits of men and women that are as intimate as they are striking.