French School II Empire "Portrait of a Young... Lot 8

French School II Empire "Portrait of a Young Man in Hunting Gear" 1855 Ink and watercolor on paper, dated in black ink "October 10, 1855" on the lower right. Unsigned. Size : 29,5 x 23 cm On the back of the frame, handwritten mention "Prince Poniatowski by Peccard, painter from Lyon, estate of my mother, deceased in 1980". It is most probably Joseph Poniatowski, born in February 1816. He would have been 39 years old at the time of this portrait in 1855. The man was a tenor and then an opera composer. A citizen of the Holy Roman Empire, he did all his studies in Florence, and was made Prince of Monterotondo in 1847 by the Grand Duke of Tuscany Leopold II. In 1848 he was appointed minister plenipotentiary in Paris by Leopold. He was confirmed as Prince of the Empire by Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria by a diploma dated 19 November 1850. He was then naturalized French under the Second Empire. We know a photographic portrait of him by Nadard, older but which may resemble the young man in our portrait. He died in London in 1873. The attribution is therefore based on the handwritten note on the back of the frame, and on the real resemblance with the known photos of the prince. The work is characteristic of a Second Empire portrait, with a certain naturalness and dignity, and a somewhat worldly pose.