Paul Baudry (La Roche-sur-Yon 1828 - 1886 Paris) - Lot 23

Paul Baudry (La Roche-sur-Yon 1828 - 1886 Paris) Portrait of Henry vicomte Greffulhe (1848 - 1932), on a blue background Oil on panel 40 x 33 cm Signed lower left and dated lower right: 1885 On the back, annotations in blue chalk identifying the model. (Epidermures) Presented in a fine carved blackened wood frame Bibliography - Eugène Guillaume, Catalogue des oeuvres de Paul Baudry..., Paris, École des Beaux-Arts, 1886, p. 83. - Charles Ephrussi, Paul Baudry, sa vie et son oeuvre, Paris, Baschet, 1887, p.274. Exhibition: - Exposition au profit de l'Association des artistes peintres, sculpteurs... et du monument à élever à la mémoire de Paul Baudry, Paris, École Nationale des Beaux-Arts, 1886, under no. 164: "Portrait du vicomte Greffulhe". Four years after his triumph at the 1881 Salon, at which he was awarded a Médaille d'Honneur, and following the completion of the decorative works for the Château de Chantilly, Baudry devoted himself to a series of society portraits "marking a complete evolution in his aesthetic", according to his biographer Charles Ephrussi. Alongside Viscount Greffulhe, Baudry's studio included the Duc de Montebello, Countess Masséna, Messrs Singer, Fould, Schneider and others. The painter survived only a few months, making this portrait suite his last creative cycle.