(Gorizia 1790–1866 Gradiscutta)
Portrait of Jacob Coen (1782-1852), grain merchant from Trieste, inscribed on the paper in the hand of the sitter “VIGLIETTO DI STABILIMENTO / DEL PUBBLICO PATENTATO SENSALE E GIURATO PERITO / ISACH Q GIUS. PINGHERLE / Trieste da 15 Giugo 1839 / VENDITOR Sigr Jacob Coen / COMPRATOR Sigri Fratelli Grant è Co / MERCI Frumen[to], oil on canvas, 108.5 x 83 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection, France.

We are grateful to Prof. Enrico Lucchese for confirming the authenticity on the basis of a high-resolution photograph and for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

The image of Justice is engraved in the centre-top of the frame in the pre-printed ‚viglietto di stabilimento del pubblico patente sensale e giurato perito Isach qnm Gius. Pincherle’, which is inscribed with the date ‘Trieste, 15 June 1839’ and the ‘vendor’ and ‘buyer’,’ Sigr Jacob Coen’ and ‘Sigri Fratelli Grant e’CoI’ respectively, followed by the specification of the ‘goods’ being traded, i.e. ‘grain’, represented by individual grains placed, with remarkable pictorial virtuosity, in a green handkerchief open on the table. This detail means that the man depicted cannot be the authorised broker and legal advisor Isach aka Giuseppe Pincherle, whose signature must be imagined in the half of the sheet hidden from our view. The name of ‘Jacob Coen’, on the other hand, is recorded in the then free port of the Austrian Empire among the ‘firms registered at the entrance’ as early as 1817 and associated with no fewer than nineteen shiploads of merchandise. He was among the leaders of Trieste’s Jewish community who celebrated the return of the Austrian government in 1814.

Jacob Coen is portrayed at the age of 57 in a dark blue tailcoat with large gold buttons, which echo the gold of his earring and the fine chain from which a pendant with personal seals and watch-winding key emerges from under his jacket. A green-stoned brooch in the form of flower is pinned to his shirt, and a diamond-studded ring in the shape of a snake is visible on the index finger of his right hand: an image of refined elegance. Coen is depicted against a balustrade flanked by a smooth column. Jacob Coen exhibits the restrained satisfaction of the bourgeoisie and its values, and shows us yet another completed business deal with the goods that made his fortune resting beside him, while a sailing ship with a red flag at its stern passes in the Adriatic. The sea’s horizon, under the sky of the Gulf of Trieste, is almost magnetic.