Édouard Dubufe (Paris 1819 - 1883 Versailles) Portrait of an - Lot 14

Édouard Dubufe (Paris 1819 - 1883 Versailles) Portrait of an elegant woman, possibly Lucile Ursule Lemachois (1817-1849), wife of Levavasseur Oil on canvas, oval format 145 x 90 cm. Signed and dated lower left: 1847 Presented in an exuberant stuccoed and gilded wooden frame, with neo-rocaille decoration and garlands of roses and pomegranates Exhibition: - possibly Salon de 1848, no. 1351, "Portrait de Madame L. L".L" In the artist's archives published in "Claude-Marie, Édouard et Guillaume Dubufe: portraits d'un siécle d'élégance parisienne" (Paris, 1988), mention is made of the ladies whose portraits Dubufe executed in 1847: Madame Archedeacon [presumably Jeanne Labbé (1796-1865, wife of Charles-Maurice Archdeacon (1781-1843) in 1813], Madame Saint-Ange Léger [presumably the daughter of the former, Louise Marie Charlotte Archdeacon (1814-1848), wife of Saint-Ange Legé (1802-1862) in 1834], Madame Martineau [no information available], Madame Levavasseur [most likely Lucile Ursule Lemachois (1817-1849), wife of Alphonse Hortencius Théodore Levavasseur (1801-?) in 1841], Madame Vandeuil [possibly Marie Charlotte Holtermann (1817-1843), wife of Eugène Abel François Caroillon de Vendeul (1812-1870) in 1836 - often spelled "Vandeuil"], Comtesse de Marguerite [title non-existent - certainly a transcription error], Madame le Marchand [no information available]. Among these candidates, the most plausible is Lucile Ursule Lemachois (1817-1849), wife Levavasseur, then aged 30, who had a close family relationship with the painter. She was the first cousin of Charles Gounod (1818-1893), his brother-in-law by marriage. In 1847, she celebrated her new status as a mother, having given birth to her only daughter, Lucile, born in October 1846.