(Malmö 1718–1793 Paris)
Portrait of Adrien Jacques Puissant (1699–1782),
signed and dated lower right: Pt. par le Chev: Roslin/1780,
oil on canvas, 80.5 x 64.8 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Sotheby’s, Monaco, 26 June 1983, lot 506;
sale, Bruun Rasmussen, Copenhagen, 23 February 1999, lot 270

Literature:
G. W. Lundberg, Roslin, Liv och Verk, Malmö 1957, vol. I, pp. 212 and 310, vol. III, p. 95, cat. no. 528;
O. Levertin, Niklas Lafrensen, Stockholm,1999, p. 153

Exhibited:
Paris, Salon, 1781, no. 5

The present sitter, Adrien Jacques Puissant, was a ‘fermier général’, a tax collector, who had come to great riches and lived a luxurious life in the rue Saint Marc in Paris. That he had Roslin paint his portrait is hardly surprising, he simply chose the leading portraitist of the day. To sit for Roslin was a mark of social distinction. Alexander Roslin was born in Sweden, where he initially trained before travelling to Italy in 1750 and eventually settled in Paris in 1752. At an early date he was befriended by François Boucher, Maurice Quentin de la Tour, and the celebrated antiquarian, Comte de Caylus. He rapidly established his reputation as a portrait painter at the court of Louis XV. He was one of the most fashionable painters in France, renowned for his extraordinary technical skill, especially in the depiction of drapery, and his intimate characterizations of his sitters. His cool tones, keen observation, and rococo grace made him the principal rival of the great official portraitists in France, notably Elisabeth Vigée Lebrun and Jean Marc Nattier. Having received the Order of Vasa in 1772 by one of his most important patrons, the enlightened King Gustavus III of Sweden, which elevated him to the rank of the nobility, he began to include ‘le Chevalier’ in his signature. The nobility of Russia, Austria, Sweden and Poland were equally enthusiastic in their pursuit of his redoubtable talents. His prodigious output, despite an exceptionally meticulous technique, made him one of the most celebrated, and certainly one of the wealthiest artists in Europe.