Nicolas-Antoine Taunay

Exhibited by Nicholas Hall

Material oil on oak panel

Dimensions 52.2 × 70.5 cm

Place of Creation Paris

Status Vetted

About the Work

Formerly in the collection of Jacques Lehideux (1871–1945), descendent of an influential family of French bankers, the present painting by Nicolas-Antoine Taunay is one of his entries in the 1808 Salon, a major event which included David’s monumental Sacre depicting the coronation of Napoleon as Emperor of France. Taunay painted a second version with much smaller dimensions two years later for the banker Perregaux, which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Taunay specialised in genre scenes, often depicting soldiers. The majority of his larger-scale paintings are on canvas whereas this is executed on a fine panel from the Parisian supplier Malaine. Several of Taunay’s 7 entries in 1808 were acquired by Napoleon and the Empress Josephine, to whom Taunay was close. Another entry that year was Louis-Léopold Boilly’s painting representing a billiard game, which was bought by Prince Youssoupov (1750–1831), now in the Hermitage. There were numerous billiard rooms in the area around the Palais Royal, which attracted a bohemian audience of writers and artists. It has been suggested that this panel features specific artists, among them David, Girodet and Baron Gros.

After the fall of Napoleon in 1815 Taunay went to Brazil to help found the Academy of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro. He was made a Baron by King John of Portugal and remained in Rio until 1821.

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Provenance

(Possibly) Paul Lehideux (1806–1888), and thence by descent to
Jacques Lehideux (1871–1945) collection, Paris, by 1927
with Maurice Segoura, Paris
Private collection, Paris

Literature

Bibliothèque nationale, Cabinet des Estampes, Collection Deloynes, t. 43, no. 1136; t. 44, no. 1144 (signed A.P.), no. 1148.
Baron Jean-Baptiste Boutard, ‘Salon de 1808, N. VII’, Journal de l’Empire, 13 November 1808.
Affonso d’Escragnolle Taunay, ‘Documentos sobre a vida e a obra de Nicolau Antonio Taunay (1755–1830)’, in Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico Brasileiro, Volume LXXVIII, 1915 Part II, Rio de Janeiro, 1916, p. 89.
André Girodie, Un peintre de fêtes galantes: Jean-Frédéric Schall, Strasbourg, 1927, p. 17.
Claudine Lebrun Jouve, Nicolas Antoine Taunay (1755–1830), Paris, 2003, pp. 70–71 and cat. P.545, reproduced pp. 70, 253.
Étienne Bréton, Pascal Zuber, Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761–1845): Le peintre de la société parisienne de Louis XVI à Louis-Philippe, vol. I, Paris, 2019, p. 69, reproduced p.67, fig. 22.
Carole Blumenfeld, ‘La Partie de billard, miroir de la vanité des hommes’, La Gazette Drouot, Paris, 14 November 2025, no. 40, pp. 22–24.