Claude Marie DUBUFE (Paris, 1790 – La Celle-Saint-Cloud, 1864) Portrait...
Claude Marie DUBUFE (Paris, 1790 – La Celle-Saint-Cloud, 1864)
Portrait of Adrien Dauzats Wearing a Turban
Canvas (enlarged by 6 cm at the top during the artist’s lifetime)
Height: 87 cm - Width: 65 cm
Signed and inscribed on the right: “Dubuffe / to his friend / Dauzats.”
Previous restorations
Bibliography: exhibition catalog, Claude-Marie, Edouard, and Guillaume Dubufe, Portraits of a Century
of Parisian Elegance (by Emmanuel Bréon), Délégation à l’Action Artistique de la Ville de Paris, 1988, p. 70
(mention of the date 1831).
G. Plessier, *Adrien Dauzats or The Temptation of the Orient: A Catalog Raisonné of His Paintings*, Bordeaux, Musée
des Beaux-Arts, 1990, p. 91.
Related work: Portrait of Adrien Dauzats (1808–1868), lithograph by Louis Delteil in the journal *L’Artiste*,
vol. XI, April 1896.
The rediscovery of this iconic portrait of Romanticism and Orientalism is also a story of friendship.
69 Rue Sainte-Anne - 75002 Paris - Tel: 01 47 03 48 78 - eric.turquin@turquin.fr - www.turquin.fr
Turquin et Associés, with capital of 50,000 euros - Paris Trade and Companies Register (RCS) B 930 083 993 - APE Code 7490B - SIRET 930 083 993 00012 - VAT ID: FR 43 930 083 993
In 1826, Claude Marie Dubuffe opened a studio on the former Rue d’Orléans and, together with Adrien Dauzats and
Baron Taylor, founded a mutual aid association for artists. They remained close friends until their deaths. Adrien Dauzats was
introduced to Baron Taylor in 1824, and three years later, Baron Taylor included him in the group of illustrators for his work
*Picturesque and Romantic Journeys Through Ancient France*. After a first journey to
Franche-Comté and a second to Auvergne, Baron Taylor was appointed the king’s commissioner to the Pasha
of Egypt, Mehmet Ali, with the aim of acquiring works of art and antiquities for the Louvre’s collections, and
succeeded in securing the transfer of the Luxor Obelisk, which was erected in 1836 on the Place de la Concorde. It was
probably because Dauzats accompanied the writer on this journey to the East that Dubuffe, in 1831, depicted his friend in Ottoman attire.
The artist was then at the height of his fame; both his portraits and his genre scenes were acclaimed at several
salons. Critics regarded him as standing at the crossroads of the Davidian tradition—which he carried forward—and
Romanticism. Several of his portraits of women from the 1830s feature large Oriental turbans, which were then
in vogue during the Restoration. Also worth noting in this exotic vein is the famous portrait of Hassan, the keeper
of the giraffe—an animal that Mehmet Ali had given to Charles X—which has been housed at the Louvre since 2017.
The strong fascination with Hellenism that developed during the Greek War of Independence at the beginning of the century
began to fade in the 1830s. Artists now turned their attention to more distant destinations, such
as Constantinople or Cairo.
By depicting Adrien Dauzats wearing an oversized Turkish turban, Claude Marie Dubuffe embraced this fascination
with the Near East, which was in vogue in the 1830s. Nevertheless, he reinvents the tradition of the
turbaned portrait, which—from Rembrandt and Rigaud, through the 18th-century French painters Jean-Honoré
Fragonard and Jean-Baptiste Leprince, had continued with Baron Gros, Girodet, and Géricault all the way to
Delacroix. By choosing to dress his friend in this opulent costume, the painter delivers a portrait far removed from the
conventions of the genre. The turban, animated by a spectacular interplay of curves and enhanced by vibrant colors,
illuminates the entire composition, playing on a vivid vermilion red, a purple, and shades of orange and saffron, thereby bringing
great dynamism to the composition, in which the numerous tassels cascading down the model’s
shoulders contrast with the parallel patterns on his caftan.
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
Claude Marie DUBUFE (Paris, 1790 – La Celle-Saint-Cloud, 1864)
Portrait of Adrien Dauzats Wearing a Turban
Canvas (enlarged by 6 cm at the top during the artist’s lifetime)
Height: 87 cm - Width: 65 cm
Signed and inscribed on the right: “Dubuffe / to his friend / Dauzats.”
Previous restorations
Bibliography: exhibition catalog, Claude-Marie, Edouard, and Guillaume Dubufe, Portraits of a Century
of Parisian Elegance (by Emmanuel Bréon), Délégation à l’Action Artistique de la Ville de Paris, 1988, p. 70
(mention of the date 1831).
G. Plessier, *Adrien Dauzats or The Temptation of the Orient: A Catalog Raisonné of His Paintings*, Bordeaux, Musée
des Beaux-Arts, 1990, p. 91.
Related work: Portrait of Adrien Dauzats (1808–1868), lithograph by Louis Delteil in the journal *L’Artiste*,
vol. XI, April 1896.
The rediscovery of this iconic portrait of Romanticism and Orientalism is also a story of friendship.
69 Rue Sainte-Anne - 75002 Paris - Tel: 01 47 03 48 78 - eric.turquin@turquin.fr - www.turquin.fr
Turquin et Associés, with capital of 50,000 euros - Paris Trade and Companies Register (RCS) B 930 083 993 - APE Code 7490B - SIRET 930 083 993 00012 - VAT ID: FR 43 930 083 993
In 1826, Claude Marie Dubuffe opened a studio on the former Rue d’Orléans and, together with Adrien Dauzats and
Baron Taylor, founded a mutual aid association for artists. They remained close friends until their deaths. Adrien Dauzats was
introduced to Baron Taylor in 1824, and three years later, Baron Taylor included him in the group of illustrators for his work
*Picturesque and Romantic Journeys Through Ancient France*. After a first journey to
Franche-Comté and a second to Auvergne, Baron Taylor was appointed the king’s commissioner to the Pasha
of Egypt, Mehmet Ali, with the aim of acquiring works of art and antiquities for the Louvre’s collections, and
succeeded in securing the transfer of the Luxor Obelisk, which was erected in 1836 on the Place de la Concorde. It was
probably because Dauzats accompanied the writer on this journey to the East that Dubuffe, in 1831, depicted his friend in Ottoman attire.
The artist was then at the height of his fame; both his portraits and his genre scenes were acclaimed at several
salons. Critics regarded him as standing at the crossroads of the Davidian tradition—which he carried forward—and
Romanticism. Several of his portraits of women from the 1830s feature large Oriental turbans, which were then
in vogue during the Restoration. Also worth noting in this exotic vein is the famous portrait of Hassan, the keeper
of the giraffe—an animal that Mehmet Ali had given to Charles X—which has been housed at the Louvre since 2017.
The strong fascination with Hellenism that developed during the Greek War of Independence at the beginning of the century
began to fade in the 1830s. Artists now turned their attention to more distant destinations, such
as Constantinople or Cairo.
By depicting Adrien Dauzats wearing an oversized Turkish turban, Claude Marie Dubuffe embraced this fascination
with the Near East, which was in vogue in the 1830s. Nevertheless, he reinvents the tradition of the
turbaned portrait, which—from Rembrandt and Rigaud, through the 18th-century French painters Jean-Honoré
Fragonard and Jean-Baptiste Leprince, had continued with Baron Gros, Girodet, and Géricault all the way to
Delacroix. By choosing to dress his friend in this opulent costume, the painter delivers a portrait far removed from the
conventions of the genre. The turban, animated by a spectacular interplay of curves and enhanced by vibrant colors,
illuminates the entire composition, playing on a vivid vermilion red, a purple, and shades of orange and saffron, thereby bringing
great dynamism to the composition, in which the numerous tassels cascading down the model’s
shoulders contrast with the parallel patterns on his caftan.
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
