Jean-Etienne LIOTARD (1702-1789) Portrait of... Lot 13

Jean-Etienne LIOTARD (1702-1789) Portrait of Jacob Tronchin (1717-1801), mid-body, circa 1758 Sanguine and black pencil H. 24.2 cm L. 17.8 cm DB Slightly insolated, some foxing, lined Provenance: Remained in the Tronchin family until the mid-20th century (bears a label on the reverse of the frame: "Property of Monsieur / Robert TRONCHIN-BESSINGE) Xavier Givaudan, Bessinge André Givaudan, Geneva Then by descent Bibliography : Anne de Herdt, Drawings by Liotard, exhibition catalog in Geneva at the Museum of Art and History, then Paris at the Louvre Museum, ed. RMN and Geneva, Museum of Art and History, 1992, p.90, under n°104, reproduced p.190. The Tronchin family was one of the most eminent Genevan families of the 17th and 18th centuries. Rémy Tronchin (1539-1609), a Protestant originally from Troyes, settled in Geneva after the Saint Bartholomew's Day. The Tronchin family gave to the Republic of Geneva a whole line of magistrates, pastors, doctors and bankers, whose fortune never ceased to grow. Uncle of Jacob, François Tronchin was a very rich banker whose fortune became the first in Geneva. His brother Jean-Robert, a banker in Lyon, recommended Voltaire to him in 1754, and François Tronchin served as his nominee to buy the Délices, in Saint-Jean, where the great man would reside. Voltaire renounced to stay there and from 1765, François Tronchin settled there. He assembled one of the most beautiful collections of paintings that Liotard had come to study and admire. 92 of the 100 paintings gathered at that time were sold in 1770 to Catherine II of Russia. Tronchin reassembled a collection that he tried to sell to Louis XVI in 1786. The set of 226 paintings was sold in Paris in 1801 by the famous dealer Lebrun, husband of Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun. Liotard's friendship with the artist was established as soon as he returned to Geneva. In 1757 Liotard painted a portrait of the banker next to a painting by Rembrandt (Cleveland Museum of Art). A young man from Basel who recounts a visit to François Tronchin on February 1, 1759, testifies to the intimacy of the painter: "On February 1 I went to the Manêge early in the morning, then I had lunch at Mr. Tronchin's. I found the famous Liotard there in his Turkish clothes, and we talked about paintings. (see M.Roethlisberger and R. Loche, " Liotard ", volume I, 2008, ed. Davaco Publishers, p.505). Familiar with the house, Liotard also portrayed his wife as a chilly woman in 1758 (Geneva, Museum of Art and History). Liotard will represent the whole family of the "Tronchins and Tronchines", as Voltaire spiritually called them: Madame Jean-Robert Tronchin (1672-1779) (The Art Institute of Chicago), Jean Tronchin (private collection) and his wife Anne Molènes (Musée du Louvre) in pastel. He also drew around 1758 their two sons, Jean-Robert Tronchin (1710-1793) and Jacob Tronchin (1717-1801), as well as the wife of the latter, née Marie Calandrini. Jacob Tronchin was a member of the Conseil des Deux-Cents before becoming a State Councillor. In 1764 he acquired the seigneury of Bessinge, whose territory dominated the city of Geneva. The portraits of Jacob and his wife adorned the Bessinge Gallery, alongside important works of art, which were joined by a large number of paintings from the cabinets of François and Jean-Robert Tronchin.