Benjamin perronnet V5 - Flipbook - Page 30
produit une série de onze dessins des enfants
princiers, aujourd’hui conservés au Musée d’Art
et d’Histoire de Genève5, qui sont unanimement
considérés comme ses chefs-d’œuvre dans
le domaine des arts graphiques. La présente
feuille ne peut être considérée comme
faisant partie de cette série, ses dimensions
étant légèrement inférieures à celles des
dessins genevois (généralement 32 x 25 cm.).
Néanmoins, il est dessiné, tout comme
la série de Genève, sur un papier du fabricant
hollandais Honig et partage avec plusieurs
feuilles de celle-ci, la particularité d’avoir le
fond de son verso passé à l’estompe de pierre
noire.
The Emperor is dressed in the white o昀케cer’s uniform of
the Croatian Regiment (also known as the uniform of
the Order of Maria Theresa) with wide red facings and
lapels. He wears the Order of the Golden Fleece and a
broad red-white-red ribbon of the Military Order of Maria
Theresa (founded by her in 1758).
An engraving (Fig. 1) by Jacob Matthias Schmutzer (17331811), dated 1769, echoes the present drawing. Its 昀椀rst state
bears the inscription «Nach dem Leben gezeichnet von
Liodart (sic) 1762...», which undoubtedly indicates the date
of execution of the drawing. A pastel of this composition
and in the same direction as the drawing and engraving,
but showing the Emperor’s hands, one of which holds a
marshal’s baton, is at the Hofburg in Vienna, on loan from
the Bundesmobiliendepot. Its pendant is a Portrait of
Maria Theresa wearing a black lace mantilla. Both pastels
are considered by Roethlisberger to be copies after lost
originals.
Franz Stephan (1708-1765) was the ninth child and fourth
son of Duke Léopold I de Bar and Lorraine and ÉlisabethCharlotte d’Orléans. He became Duke of Bar and Lorraine
on his father’s death in 1729. He was made viceroy of
Hungary in 1731 by Emperor Charles VI, whose daughter
and heiress, Maria Theresa (1717-1780), he married on
February 12, 1736. They had sixteen children, including
the future emperors Joseph II and Leopold II, and MarieAntoinette, future wife of King Louis XVI. In 1745, following
the War of the Austrian Succession, he was elected
Emperor.
Liotard 昀椀rst stayed in Vienna from 1743 to 1745. During
this period, he portrayed the imperial couple on several
occasions, and two original pastels of the Emperor are now
in Weimar and Brunswick, while many versions and copies
are known. Liotard returned to Vienna seventeen years
later, in 1762. During this second sojourn, at the age of
sixty, he painted several portraits of di昀昀erent types of the
imperial couple. In addition to the Hofburg pastel, a large
pastel in the Albertina, showing the Emperor seated and
depicted up to his knees in a richly embroidered costume.
On the Albertina and Hofburg pastels, the Emperor is
represented, as on the pastels from the 昀椀rst stay, in threequarter turned to the left, with his head almost full-frontal.
According to Roethlisberger and Loche, «the heads of
the di昀昀erent versions from 1762 remain unchanged and
identical in size, while the overall dimensions of each
portrait di昀昀er. Once again, Liotard repeats a single
head type for each sovereign, that of Franz being almost
unchanged from 1744». This immutability of the Emperor’s
face (one could speak of his eternal youth) can also be
observed in the present drawing.
During this same stay in 1762, Liotard produced a series
of eleven drawings of the princely children, now in the
Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva. They are unanimously
considered his masterpieces in the 昀椀eld of drawing. The
present sheet cannot be considered part of this series,
as its dimensions are slightly smaller than those of the
Geneva drawings (generally 32 x 25 cm.). Nevertheless, it
is drawn, like the Geneva series, on paper from the Dutch
manufacturer Honig, and shares with several of the sheets
in this series the particularity of having the background of
its reverse side painted with black chalk stumping.
Fig; 1. Jakob Matthias Schmutzer d’après Liotard,
François-Étienne, empereur du Saint-Empire,
gravure
5
. Cat. exp. Dessins de Liotard, Genève, Musée d’art et d’histoire et Paris, Musée du Louvre, 1992, n°112-122 et Roethlisberger et Loche, op. cit., n°401-411.
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