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Oil on canvas signed N. Gosse * and dated 1832 representing the portrait of a Marshal of France, most certainly Marshal-General Jean-de-Dieu Soult **, then on that date Minister of War and President of the Council under the July Monarchy, XIXth century.
This painting is in good condition. Signed and dated above the left shoulder.
A note: traces of restorations visible on the back, wear ud time, see photos.
or François Nicolas-Louis Gosse is a French painter of portraits and historical subjects (1787-1878).
He was a student of François-André Vincent, who taught him the art of precise drawing, brilliant touches and contrasting tones. His portraits are of great distinction in the firmness of the graphics. The subjects of the “troubadour” genre that he sent to the Salon from 1808 to 1870 show an ingenious conception of theatrical composition as confirmed by the scenes of the Napoleonic epic, and those of the reign of Charles X and Louis-Philippe (gallery history of Versailles). He obtained a third class medal in 1819, then a second class medal in 1824. In 1828 he was knighted in the Legion of Honor then promoted to officer in 1870. Source: Dictionary of the Little Masters of Painting (1820-1920) by Pierre Cabanne & Gerald Schurr.
Artist well on Artprice.
Duke of Dalmatia and Marshal of the Empire.
Unlike some of his fellow marshals, such as Jourdan or Kellermann, Soult was first and foremost only the spectator of the great battles of the Revolution. An officer from 1792, he was commander at the battle of Fleurus on June 26, 1794 and very quickly a brigadier general. Until 18 Brumaire, he had the privilege of being under the orders of future marshals like Lefebvre, Gouvion-Saint-Cyr and finally Masséna, who compliments him without restraint. Taken prisoner by Austria during the second Italian campaign, he was released after Marengo and assigned to Murat's troops.
He was one of the first eighteen Marshals of the Empire on his return to France and played a decisive role in Austerlitz, by sending his divisions to occupy the Pratzen plateau, and contributed to the victories of Jena and Eylau, before seizing from Koenigsberg. The following year saw him in a less honorable light: appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Spain after the Emperor's departure for Austria, he planned to become King of Lusitania (Portugal) then of Andalusia under the name of Nicholas I. But he was driven from the peninsula after the successive defeats of the French army and joined the Emperor in Germany in 1813. He then replaced Marshal Bessières, at the latter's death, at the head of the Imperial Guard, but was soon reassigned to Spain. In 1814, while the Emperor broke the Allied offensive in the North, Soult defended the South of France meter by meter after having had to evacuate Spain. Defeated in Toulouse by Wellington, he only accepts surrender on the orders of the King, who makes him Minister of War. He was dethroned by Davout on his return from Elba Island: he tried to resist for a moment but ended up rallying to the Empire. Napoleon appointed him major-general in place of Berthier on May 9, 1815; alas, he did not have the talents required for the task and quickly became one of those responsible for the defeat of Waterloo on June 18. When the Bourbons returned, he was forced into exile in Germany before being rehabilitated by Louis-Philippe, of which he became President of the Council. The last honor of a busy life, he was made Marshal General of France, an exceptional title, before passing away in 1851, on the eve of the Second Empire.
