Fine French Revolutionary Era Pencil Portrait of César Ledoux, c. 1795
A superb and remarkably characterful French pencil portrait, dating to the turbulent final years of the 18th century and identified in period manuscript on the reverse as “Mr César Ledoux.” Beautifully drawn, the sitter emerges from a softly worked dark ground, his face rendered with extraordinary delicacy and psychological presence. His dress is wonderfully of the moment: high turned collar, dark coat and waistcoat, a substantial cravat wrapped high at the neck, and that marvelous fashionable hair—long oreilles de chien, or “dog’s ears,” at the sides and quite possibly drawn back into a queue at the nape. These exaggerated fashions flourished among the stylish young men of post-Revolutionary France, particularly the Incroyables of the Directoire, and suggest a date around 1795–1800. The artist has caught more than costume, though: those enormous direct eyes, slightly parted lips and wonderfully individual face make César feel startlingly alive more than two centuries later.
The name on the reverse has led us down a fascinating historical path. Archival records document a César Ledoux marrying in Besançon on January 17, 1787, while later records identify a César Ledoux of Besançon as an important figure in French Freemasonry, eventually Grand-Maître Provincial of the Directoire de Bourgogne of the Rectified Scottish Rite, whose death in 1846 occasioned a formal Masonic funeral and published funeral oration. Research continues to establish conclusively whether these records belong to our sitter. There is an additional tantalizing question surrounding the celebrated Neoclassical architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736–1806), who was working extensively in the Besançon region during precisely this period, including his celebrated theatre there. We have not established a familial relationship, and make no such attribution, but the shared name, place and period certainly make further genealogical research irresistible.
Quite apart from the mystery of César's identity, this is simply a wonderful late-18th-century French portrait—intimate, sophisticated and exceptionally expressive. The circular drawing remains housed in its handsome antique black and gilt frame, a particularly effective foil for the monochromatic portrait. There is something enormously appealing about owning not the generalized handsome face of an anonymous gentleman, but César Ledoux himself, his name still preserved on the back and his rather extraordinary gaze coming straight through the centuries.
