I am pleased to present a set of eight intimate drawings by French artist Jean-Baptiste Isabey (1767–1855). Throughout a career marked by the highest success and prestige, Isabey concentrated on producing grand images of the French State and its leaders. These eight playful, informal drawings, by contrast, reveal a more personal side of his work. He made them around 1824, when he was secure in his stature, employed by the court of Louis XVIII. Executed in bistre, a brown pigment made from boiled wood soot, the drawings feature everyday people, including members of Isabey’s family. He likely made them for his own pleasure, as attested by their satirical and affectionate tone.

Active from the end of the Ancien Régime through the Second Empire, Isabey deftly navigated the rapidly transforming, often tumultuous political environment of France. He left his hometown of Nancy in 1786, and moved to Paris to seek out an apprenticeship with the most prominent artist of the time, Neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David. Isabey soon began receiving commissions for portraits and interior designs from Marie Antoinette and other members of the royal family. His earnings afforded him lessons with David, who, as a proto-revolutionary, apparently disapproved of the royal source of Isabey’s income.

After the French Revolution brought the monarchy down, Isabey lost many of his clients. Capitalizing on his connections within David’s circle, he pivoted to becoming a sought-after portraitist for the deputies in the newly formed Legislative Assembly. He also began to show his work in the Salon, earning a reputation as the most important miniaturist in France. In 1804, after Napoléon became emperor, Isabey was appointed court painter. He made miniatures and portraits of the royal family and foreign dignitaries, produced the official decorations for major events, and helped shape public perception of the regime. His painting, Napoléon Bonaparte, First Consul at Malmaison, 1801, is considered to be one of the most accurate extant likenesses of the emperor. Isabey continued to work with the rulers of France as court painter after the fall of Napoléon’s empire in 1815, and was ultimately declared Commandeur of the Légion d'honneur.

Our set of eight drawings, likely kept together since they were first purchased, has a distinguished provenance. They were first owned by the Marquis Philippe de Chennevières, a French art historian and collector, curator at the Louvre, and organizer of the Salon from 1852–70. Chennevières is considered to be among the most knowledgeable 19th-century collectors. The drawings then entered the collection of Austro-Hungarian physician Adam Politzer, who was a founder of otology and a significant collector in turn-of-the-century Vienna. In 1922, Politzer put his collection up for auction, which is likely how the drawings came into the collection of the Austrian industrialist August Lederer, who was an important supporter of the Vienna Secession.

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Achim Moeller