BESSON Faustin (Dôle, 1821 - Paris, 1882). Painting... Lot 423

BESSON Faustin (Dôle, 1821 - Paris, 1882). Painting lesson in a painted oval and Weighing in a painted oval. Pair of original canvases. 45 x 71 cm. Our canvas is a reproduction of Faustin Besson's painting, dated 1849, acquired by the State in 1850 and presented at the 1852 Salon, now kept at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Besançon (frame with oval spandrel, 145 x 235 cm). A legend, forged in the 19th century, was that the painter Simon-Mathurin Lantara (1729-1778) was a self-taught man living in the Fontainebleau forest. These false anecdotes also told us that he was crippled with debts and spent his life in the dances, drawing drawings to pay his creditors. He thus appeared as the prototype of a bohemian artist, ending his life in a drunken hospital (see Georges Levitine, "les origines du mythe de l'artiste bohème en France: Lantara", Gazette des beaux-arts, September 1975, pp.49-60). The pendant represents an episode from the youth of the painter François Boucher, who fell in love with a pretty fruit merchant. Expert: Cabinet TURQUIN - Mrs DUCHER: 01.47.03.48.78. Visible in the expert's office.