John Bennett Fine Paintings
London, England, UK
London, England, UK
GRESELY, Gabriel (Follower of)
FOLLOWER OF GABRIEL GRESELY
Circa 1790
French School
A Trompe l`Oeil Portrait of a young Girl behind a broken
Pane of Glass
Oil on canvas
39.7 x 33 cms
155/8 x 13 ins
Born on 8th January 1712 in L`Isle-sur-le-Doubs, near Montbéliard, Gresely was a self- taught artist who came to Paris to improve his artistic technique.
He was shocked to discover that one of his paintings had preceded him to the city and was being sold as the work of a renowned master. Exposing the fraud gained him considerable notoriety making his reputation and consequently he was inundated with work.
He was forced to leave Paris because of poor health and he moved to Besancon in his native province. He continued to work there producing portrait, genre still life and trompe l`oeil subjects until his death in 1756.
Museums where his work can be seen include Dijon and Besancon, holding works such as: “Young girl with a basket of grapes”, “Swiss drinker”, “Trompe l`oeil”, “Two young girls training a dog” and “A young boy and a young girl giving cherries to a bird”
Trompe l`oeil paintings tell us as much about their creator`s virtuosity as about the taste of the period and were often tributes to the artist`s own talent and to that of others, becoming a kind of punning with images.
Another artist of the time who painted trompe l`oeils was the eminent portraitist Louis Leopold Boilly (1761-1845) whose “Self Portrait with Broken Glass” can be seen in the Musée-Hôtel Sandelin, Saint-Omer.
