Early 19th-century French school Allegorical composition... Lot 40

Early 19th-century French school Allegorical composition depicting the architect Pierre François Léonard Fontaine and the Love and Psyche group from the painting by Baron François Gérard Pen and brown ink, brown wash on paper 8.5 x 10.5 cm Exhibited in Paris at the Salon de l'an IV (1798) (booklet no. 191), François Gérard's masterpiece "Amour et Psyché", now in the Musée du Louvre (inv. 4739), was probably bought from the artist at the end of the Salon by his friends, the architect Fontaine (1762-1853) and the Secrétaire perpétuel de la classe des beaux-arts de l'Institut de France, Joachim Le Breton, for 6,000 francs.