Jacques Guillaume Lucien Amans (French/Louisiana)

Jacques Guillaume Lucien Amans (French/Louisiana, 1801-1888) , "Portrait of Pierre 'Pedro' Landreaux (1845-1917) Wearing a Black Hat and Drawing", oil on canvas, unsigned, 45 1/2 in. x 32 in., framed. Provenance: Descended in the family of the sitter and artist. Note: Pedro Landreaux* was born in New Orleans in 1845 to Marguerite Heloise Lavigne and Pierre Frederic Landreaux, whose sister Azoline was married to the artist Jacques Amans. With relatives in both New Orleans and Paris, the family traveled between the two cities often. Landreaux spent his childhood in New Orleans, where his uncle, Amans, worked as a well-known portrait painter. Married in Paris in 1887 to Mary Charlotte Communy, also a New Orleans native, Landreaux and his wife had at least one child, Roger Emile Landreaux. The family resided primarily in France after the marriage, while maintaining property in Assumption Parish near New Orleans, according to Louisiana land documents. In the important canvas presented here, Pedro is depicted alongside an American Classical reeded, vasiform-leg stool and a Louisiana basket, two objects that would have been typical to a New Orleans antebellum interior. With his talent for delicately depicting his subjects, both in their homes and at his studio, Amans was widely sought after for his portraits. One could easily imagine, however, that this painting is something more than a standard commission – a sentimental portrayal of a beloved nephew, enshrined on a monumental scale in a painter’s smock and with a pencil and piece of paper - perhaps to follow one day in his uncle's artistic footsteps. Ref.: New Orleans, Louisiana Birth Records 1790-1915; Paris, France & Vicinity Marriage Banns, 1860-1902; Succession of Pierre Landreaux, September 23, 1865, Succession Records, 1846-1880, Louisiana, District Court (Orleans Parish), Orleans, Louisiana; United States Federal Census 1850 *Sitter identified by Cybele Gontar.