Unframed portrait of an older gentleman in a red coat with a white stock and lace jabot, wearing a powdered wig, turned slightly to the right against a dark brown ground, the canvas shown flat with its tacking edges visible

‹ ›

1 / 13

French School, Portrait of a Gentleman in a Red Coat, 18th Century Oil on Canvas, Unframed

French School

Price $2,800 USD

Free shipping to the US and Canada
1,114 paintings sourced in France since 2017
14-day returns
To return, from delivery14 days
Restocking feeNone
Return postage to FranceAt your expense
Shipping, customs and returns

Ask about this painting

Room view mockup showing the unframed portrait hung on a dark blue panelled wall above an oak desk with a green shaded brass lamp, books, a globe and a leather armchair, staged to suggest scale in a study interior

The unframed canvas seen at an angle, showing the sitter in a red coat and powdered wig against a dark ground, with the painted surface wrapping the tacking edge along the left side and the stretcher depth visible at the top

The unframed canvas seen from above at a slight angle, the raking light picking up the relief of the paint surface and the slack of the canvas across the lower half, with the painted edge turning over the tacking margin on the left

Close-up of the sitter's face showing the heavy pink flesh tones and grey brows, the eyes set beneath drooping lids, with a fine craquelure running across the forehead and cheek and the weave of the canvas reading through the thinner passages

Macro detail of the eyes, nose and mouth, the flesh built in warm pink over a cooler ground with a fine craquelure running throughout, the lower lids and the corner of the mouth modelled in soft transitions and a single light touch marking each iris

Macro detail of the eyes and brow, the grey brows laid in with separate hairs, the blue irises picked out with a fine highlight, warm pink worked into the eyelids and the corner of the nose, with fine craquelure visible across the forehead

Detail of the lower left tacking edge showing the red paint of the coat carried over the turn of the canvas, two flat headed tacks set into the stretcher edge, and small losses and abrasion along the fold with the bare canvas showing through

Detail of the upper left corner showing the dark ground carried over the turn of the canvas, two flat headed tacks in the stretcher edge, an open craquelure network across the background paint and abrasion along the fold with the canvas fibre exposed

The unframed canvas seen in three quarter view, the sitter in a red coat and powdered wig against a dark ground, with the tacking edges and the shallow depth of the stretcher visible along the left and lower sides

Detail of the upper tacking edge showing a row of rusted flat headed tacks set into the pale canvas fold, the dark ground of the painting stopping short of the turn, with abrasion and small losses along the edge

Raking light on the lower edge showing the pronounced craquelure network across the red and dark passages, the paint layer lifting and flaking along the fold with the pale canvas exposed beneath, and a rusted tack in the tacking margin below

Reverse of the painting showing a plain relining canvas of regular weave stretched over a hand cut wooden stretcher with lapped corner joints, the wood darkened with age and bearing old nail holes along the lower member, with no stamps or labels present

Portrait of a Gentleman in a Red Coat

Oil on canvas, relined, 15 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches, unsigned, French, second half of the 18th century, unframed. Offered for sale.

A mature man turned slightly to the left, in a deep red coat open at the collar over a white stock with a lace fall, a powdered grey wig curling at the sides, against a dark olive ground. The coat is a flat mass of red with almost no drawing in it. Everything the painter had went into the head: the heavy brow, the weight of the upper eyelid, the ruddy flush across the cheek. Somebody wanted this face recorded exactly as it was, and the painter obliged without flattering him.

The canvas has been relined and carries a fine surface craquelure. The paint layer is stable.

A Note on the Name

This canvas has previously circulated as a portrait of Louis XVI. We do not retain that identification: the sitter appears considerably older than the king ever was, he wears none of the royal orders such a portrait would carry, and nothing on the canvas, on the stretcher or in the provenance supports the name. What we have is a very good French portrait of an unidentified gentleman, and we prefer to sell it as that.

Provenance ▾

Private collection, France

Artist

French School

Period

Second half of the 18th century (1750-1799)

Origin

France

Style

Rococo, Portrait

Medium

Oil on canvas, relined

Signature

Unsigned

Frame

Unframed

Features

Original, one of a kind, unframed

Painting

15 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches

Condition

Surface craquelure, old relining, stable paint layer. Sold unframed.

Free Shipping to the US and Canada

This painting ships free to the United States and Canada, professionally packed and fully tracked. Original paintings enter both countries duty-free.

Shipping, customs and local taxes