Lot 56: Claude Lefebvre (Fontainebleau 1632-1675 Paris) Portrait of an artist, half-length, in a black mantle with a white lace collar, drawing a portrait of a young lady on a sketch pad

Portrait of an artist, half-length, in a black mantle with a white lace collar, drawing a portrait of a young lady on a sketch pad
oil on canvas
65.9 x 49.4cm (25 15/16 x 19 7/16in).

Claude Lefebvre was the son of the painter, Jean (1600-1675), and joined the studio of Claude d'Hoey (1585-1660) at Fontainebleau. In Paris he became a pupil of Eustache Le Sueur (1617-1655) in 1654 and of Charles Le Brun (1619-1690)in 1655. It was the latter who advised him to specialise in portraiture. Apart from his celebrated Portrait of Colbert, Lefebvre's painted portraits are largely best known today through the work of such engravers as Gérard Edelinck, Nicolas de Poilly and Pierre-Louis van Schuppen. Among works attributed on the basis of such evidence is the Portrait of Charles Couperin with the artist's daughter at Versailles. Lefebvre was also a talented engraver, an example of his work in this medium being a Self-portrait.