François Brunery (Italian, 1849-1926). Portrait of an elegant lady, full-length, 1889. Oil on canvas. 82-3/4 x 42-1/2 in...

Description

François Brunery (Italian, 1849-1926)
Portrait of an elegant lady, full-length, 1889
Oil on canvas
82-3/4 x 42-1/2 inches (210.2 x 108.0 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: F. Brunery 89

Property of a Distinguished Texas Collector

PROVENANCE:
Christie's South Kensington, London, July 18, 1991, lot 129;
Kurt E. Schon, Ltd., New Orleans, Louisiana, acquired from the above;
Private collection, acquired from the above, 1992;
Sotheby's, New York, June 6, 2008, lot 103;
Frank Partridge, London;
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 2010.

Today, the artist of this striking society portrait, François Brunery, or Francesco Bruneri as he was christened in his birthplace in the northern Italian city of Turin, is known primarily for his paintings of cardinals misbehaving. They were, in fact, not truly behaving badly as much as comically; Brunery cast them in slightly satirical, undignified situations most people can relate to at times: flirting mercilessly, drinking a wee bit too much and falling off a chair, gossiping, or cheating at cards. Enormously popular in the late nineteenth century, his cardinal paintings were prized both in Europe and in the United States in the 1880s and 1890s when Brunery's artistic reputation apparently took a leap across the pond.

The painter's remarkable ability to render the beauty of fabrics, textures, and decorative objects, plus capture the convincing expressions so admired in his cardinal paintings, can be traced to his rigorous academic training in Paris under Jean-Léon Gérôme (see lot 69125) and Léon Joseph Bonnat, two Orientalist artists who had a profound influence upon him. Interestingly, the influence also worked in the other direction with Bonnat, as Brunery's genre scenes influenced him to produce some of his own in the 1870s.

The artistically versatile, multilingual Brunery moved with ease and panache between French and Italian cultures. He became a darling of the French Salon where he exhibited a variety of paintings from Orientalist subjects and anecdotal history painting to genre, landscape, and portraiture. (In 1880, he exhibited his first portrait at the Salon, a work titled simply Portrait of Mme. A. L...). Indeed, the artist was able to apply his considerable abilities in rendering fabrics, textures, and likenesses to society portraiture, as this ambitious full-length portrait of a woman in her evening finery amply demonstrates. Proudly dressed in the type of evening reception dress very much in vogue during the late 1880s and 1890s both on the continent and in the United States, the subject of this portrait could possibly be American. At the time, the color ivory was au courant as were the bustles, short, capped sleeves revealing bare arms and providing the opportunity to wear long silk gloves, extensive beadwork-seen here adorning the bodice-the applied asymmetrical garland of silk flowers running from the bustle along one side of the skirt, and the oval-shaped fan of feathers held by the woman. Owing to the disruption of World War I, there is less information on Brunery's later artistic career, though he seems to have continued painting until shortly before his death in 1926.

We are grateful to Craig Schermer for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the sitter's costume in the present painting.


More information about Brunery, François. See also: Brunery, Francois, Francesco Brunery Artist.

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