Albert de Belleroche:
Le Secretaire Louis XVI, circa 1890
Framed (ref: 2658)

Oil on canvas

Tags: Albert de Belleroche oil interiors still lifes 1.Belleroche 1.PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST

Provenance: with Arthur Tooth and Sons Ltd, London, Ruth Wittman

Literature: Llewellyn, Sacha, and Paul Liss. Portrait of an Artist. Liss Llewellyn, 2021, p.20.

The mise-en-scène in this studio scene shows a variety of the artist’s favourite props, with various paintings in different stages of completion, including a piece of unstretched canvas, in the background. Of Belleroche’s still lives Frank Brangwyn commented: "... he had carried the tradition of Chardin a step further and it is not surprising that Degas thought so highly of these works."

Exhibited Arthur Tooth & Sons LTD, Albert de Belleroche Early Paintings, January 13th . February 5th 1955, Number 6

In a Louis IV gilded frame.

"His still-life pictures - with the glimmer of light on silver and other objects, the shadows full of rich and reflected tones - has bough a new note into this kind of painting.  One might say that he had carried the tradition of Chardin a step further, giving immediacy to his effects of light and colour, crystallizing the emotion of a particular moment.  In this work one feels that, with his lively and nervous handling of paint, he makes the objects before him live in the moving light that plays on them, and it is not surprising that Degas though so highly of these works."  Frank Brangwyn, Foreword to Albert de Belleroche by Julian A Millest, Apollo, 1935, XXI 124 April