Lot 26: Jean-Francois Legillon (1739-1797)

a. River landscape with a ruined mill
signed:Le gillon in pencil lower left
black chalk
197 x 265mm
b. Landscape with a watermill
signed Legillon in black ink at lower right
black chalk
197 x 258mm
(a pair)

fter viewing submissions by Jean-Francois Legillon (or Le Gillon) to the Salon of 1789, Charles-Nicolas Cochin wrote in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Descamps: "M. Legillon a de petits tableaux excellens, bonne couleur, animaux bien dessines, effect ingenieux et harmonieux (E. and J. de Goncourt, L'art du dix-huitieme siecle, Paris, 1882, vol. II, p. 83). Descamps had taught Legillon in Rouen, where he had arrived as a young art pupil of 21 from his native town of Bruges. There, he had entered the drawing class of the Academie at the age of 12. Legillon later studied in Paris and Marseilles before setting off to Rome, in 1770, where he stayed for two years. He travelled throughout Europe and returned to Paris, where he died. Drawings by Legillon are comparatively rare.