Lot 387: Jean Joseph Vaudechamp (French, 1790-1866, active

Jean Joseph Vaudechamp (French, 1790-1866, active New Orleans, 1831-39), "Portrait of Charles Victor Foulon, Notary (1805-1892)", oil on canvas, signed and dated "1834" upper right, 28 3/4 in. x 23 1/2 in., in a period giltwood frame.

Provenance: Descended in the family of the sitter. Note: Jean Joseph Vaudechamp, the premier portrait painter in 19th century New Orleans, was born in Vosges, France in 1790. After a brief period painting in the highly competitive Paris market, Vaudechamp decided to move to New Orleans and quickly became a great success. He continued to travel back and forth between France and New Orleans, painting the elite Creole families of the city, between 1831 and 1839. Charles Victor Foulon, a native Frenchman who became an American citizen in 1829, was a notary in the city of New Orleans, where he lived on the corner of Orleans and Rampart with his wife, Marthe Eugenie Grandchamps, and their children, Alice, Eugene, Louise, and Emma. With connections to some of the most prestigious families in the city, it is no wonder Foulon had his portrait painted by Vaudechamp. His father-in-law, François Julien Grandchamps, was a prominent New Orleans pharmacist associated with Dr. Yves Lemonnier, whose portrait by Louis Antoine Collas (French, 1775-1856, active New Orleans 1822-1829) was sold on these premises on October 11, 2008 as lot 297. Dr. Lemonnier, a New Orleans physician, owned the now-famous "first skyscraper" of New Orleans, the three-story Maison Lemonnier at 640 Royal Street in the French Quarter. François Grandchamps¹ Pharmacy was located nearby at 501 Royal Street and the painter John Vanderlyn rented the rooms above the pharmacy for his studio.