Lot n° 199
Estimation :
8000 - 12000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 21 760EUR
Hilaire LEDRU (Oppy, 1769 - Paris, 1840)
The... - Lot 199 - Ader
Hilaire LEDRU (Oppy, 1769 - Paris, 1840)
The Painful Farewells said Lesurques' Farewells to his family
Black stone, chalk, white chalk and white gouache highlights on several sheets of paper.
Signed and dated lower left: "Hilaire Ledru 1795".
81,5 x 94 cm
Provenance:
Anonymous sale, Hôtel des ventes de Monte-Carlo, June 9, 2021, n° 10.
Exhibitions:
- Paris, Salon of 1798, no. 259 ("Drawings [...] Prison Scene," entry number 165 in pen and ink on verso on original stretcher).
- Location unknown, Société des Amis des Arts, 1818 (from an ink inscription on the original frame).
Bibliography:
- H. Berthoud, "Notice biographique sur Hilaire Ledru, peintre du département du Nord," in Archives historiques et littéraires du Nord de la France et du Midi de la Belgique, vol. IV, 1842, pp. 334-336.
- R.-H. Duthillœul, Galerie douaisienne, ou Biographie des hommes remarquables de la ville de Douai, Douai, 1844, p. 218.
- J. Hédouin, "Hilaire Ledru. Détails biographiques sur ce dessinateur", in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, t. III, 16th issue, August 1859, p. 231 and 235.
- J. Renouvier, Histoire de l'art pendant la Révolution, considéré principalement dans les estampes, Paris, 1863, p. 363.
- G. Delayen, L'Affaire du courrier de Lyon. D'après les dossiers criminels et des documents inédits, Paris, 1903, p. 201.
- C. Saunier, "Les Oubliés. Hilaire Ledru ", Gazette des Beaux-Arts, t. 112, January 1913, p. 60.
- P. Bordes, Hilaire Ledru (Oppy, February 19, 1769-Paris, May 2, 1840) : Indigence et Honneur, Paris, 2015, p. 10.
Related works:
- Engraved in 1802 by Auguste-Gaspard-Louis Desnoyers, at Ramboz, Paris, under the title Pénibles adieux.
- Lithographed in 1851 by Pannel, by Simonau et Toovey, Brussels, under the title Une famille de martyrs. Last farewell of Joseph Lesurques.
- Lithographed in 1860, in Causes célèbres de tous les peuples, Paris, Lebrun et Cie éditeurs, cahier 12, under the title Les adieux de Lesurques à sa famille.
The original stretcher corresponding to the first state of the original composition, where the entry number "165" at the salon of 1798 appears, is enclosed.
Two prints are attached.
The story of Joseph Lesurques is one of the most famous judicial errors. He was wrongly sentenced to death in the affair of the Lyon mail, where a stagecoach connecting Paris and Lyon was attacked on April 27, 1796, with on board 80 000 livres and 7 millions in assignats for the army of Italy. The money disappeared, the postman and the courier were killed.
He was guillotined on October 3, 1796, after which his wife went mad and his daughter committed suicide. His case will be celebrated by Victor Hugo when he will plead for the abolition of the death penalty, in order to protect the innocent from the scaffold. Our drawing, dated 1795, that is to say one year before the affair of the Lyon mail, was engraved in 1802 as "Penibles Adieux", and only in 1815 as "Une famille de martyrs : Derniers adieux de Joseph Lesurques". Gaston Delayen reports in his Affaire du courrier de Lyon (Paris, 1905, p. 201, no. 1), that Hilaire Ledru obtained permission from the minister to take a sketch of Lesurques in his cell. It is probable that our drawing was signed and dated a posteriori, at the time of its enlargement carried out between 1798 and 1802, before the publication of the first engraving, thus being able to explain the dating problem.
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