Robert-Jacques-François Lefèvre

By descent in the sitter's family;

By whose Estate sold, Cologne, Lempertz, 19 November 2011, lot 1422;

Where acquired.

Milan, Palazzo Kiton, The Elegant Man: from Van Dyck to Boldini, 17–22 April 2018.

K. Chrisman-Campbell, in The Elegant Man: from Van Dyck to Boldini, C.H. Miner (ed.), exh. cat., Milan 2018, pp. 28 and 53, fig. 11, reproduced in colour.

This elegant likeness of the young merchant Michael Elias Meyer, was executed in 1804 by Robert Jacques François Lefèvre, one of the most celebrated and prolific French portrait painters of the Napoleonic period. Enjoying the protection and patronage of Dominique Vivant-Denon (1747–1825), the first director of the Louvre museum, Lefèvre became Napoleon’s (1769–1821) official portrait painter. In addition to creating many portraits of the Emperor and the imperial family, the artist was also much in demand by the members of Paris society, as evidenced by the present work.

The French Revolution incited a corresponding revolution in fashion, which had particularly lasting effects on menswear. The present portrait exemplifies the new simplicity and practicality of post-Revolutionary attire, characterised by precise tailoring, sober colouring, and sporting influences, such as Meyer’s tall boots and tailcoat, originally designed for riding. These elements also attest to the widespread popularity of English culture and politics in France, when it was observed by Gouverneur Morris (1752–1816), American minister to the court of Versailles, that 'everything is à l'anglaise, and the desire to imitate the English prevails alike in the cut of a coat, and the form of a constitution'.¹ In addition to this, many of the new fashions also expressed the general fascination with the austere aesthetics and democratic governments of classical antiquity. Here, Meyer's naturally-coloured hair is cropped and curled, much like that of an antique bust, marking a bold departure from the wigs and powder worn for most of the eighteenth century.

A watercolour of the sitter's wife, Miga Levy Calmer (b. 1783) was sold at auction in 2011.²

¹ Milan 2018, p. 28.

² Anonymous sale, Cologne, Lempertz, 19 November 2011, lot 1391; https://www.lempertz.com/en/catalogues/lot/987-1/1391-unknown-artist-circa-1800.html