Paul Francois Quinsac (French, 1858-1932)

Paul Francois Quinsac
(French, 1858-1932)

"La Sculpture", 1896

oil on canvas
signed and dated lower right, titled on "Michelle Rosenfeld, New York" gallery label en verso.
Framed.
98-1/2" x 53", framed 108-1/2" x 63"

Provenance: Michelle Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, New York; Sotheby's New York, October 12, 1994, lot 175; Estate of Norma Crawford Myers, Dallas, Texas

Notes: Paul Quinsac was an accomplished painter, trained in the 19th-century canon of the French Academy that privileged classically drawn figures executed in mythological and historical genre scenes over the avant-garde experimentation of the Romantics and later Impressionists.

He studied under Jean-Leon Gerome and regularly exhibited at the Salon, winning honorable mentions at the Salon of 1884 and the Universal Exposition of 1900, and a third class medal at the Universal Exposition of 1900. In 1901, Quinsac became a professor of art and drawing at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux, and was awarded the prestigious Legion of Honor in 1908.

This stunning allegory of sculpture was part of a larger commission/series Quinsac painted on the theme of the Arts. Two other allegories (Music and Painting) of the same scale, size and execution were also sold at Sotheby's New York in 2015 and 1993, respectively.
Condition Report: In overall very good professionally restored condition.
Evidence of past restoration: scattered areas of inpainting throughout, especially at lower half. Small losses to paint surface: 1/4" area at mid-left edge, 1/8" mid-right edges, several small areas in folds of cloth of main figure, scattered pinprick-sized other areas. Craquelure. Faint surface soiling.
Frame with marks, nicks, abrasions, small losses and cracks.