Lot 33: ATTRIBUTED TO JEAN-BAPTISTE-JOSEPH DUCHESNE DE GISORS (FRENCH, 1770-1856)

ATTRIBUTED TO JEAN-BAPTISTE-JOSEPH DUCHESNE DE GISORS (FRENCH, 1770-1856)
Molière (1622-1673), in the role of Caesar in Pierre Corneille's The Death of Pompey, in blue-bordered gold tunic simulating fish skin, red cloak draped over his right shoulder, long curling wig and moustache
enamel on copper
oval, 2 3/8 in. (60 mm.) high, gilt-metal mount

Abc, Paris, April 1974, no. 14, included in the front cover illustration.

A large-scale oil on canvas portrait of Molière in the role of Caesar in Pierre Corneille's The Death of Pompey by Nicolas Mignard (1606-1668) is in the Louvre (inv. no. CARP2258). The play premiered in Paris in 1642 with Molière in the lead role. In 1840, Duchesne was commissioned by the government of King Louis-Philippe to 'continue' the collection of Petitot enamels for the Louvre, in order to produce a 'panthéon inaltérable de grands hommes', a task thwarted by the Revolution of 1848 (H. Clouzot, La miniature sur émail en France, Paris, n.d. [c. 1928], pp. 175-176).