Louis Auguste Brun (Swiss 1758-1815) Drawing

Artist: Louis Auguste Brun (Swiss 1758-1815).
Title: Study of a Hound Dog. Circa 1782.
Medium: Black and white chalk on blue-laid paper.
Sheet Size: Height 18 cm x Width 29 cm.
Condition: The drawing is in good condition with old mount burn marks to the edges of the sheet and covered by a mat. Slight discolouration on the right side of the sheet. The frame is glazed with anti-reflective UV-resistant Museum Glass.
Provenance: Private Collection Sydney, Australia.

About: A skilled draughtsman and an outstanding painter of portraits, animals and landscapes, the Swiss artist Louis-Auguste Brun (1758–1815) is today principally known for the works he produced at the French court.

Brun first trained in Geneva and then travelled through Italy before arriving in Paris in 1783. He was well-known for his Rococo-style hunting scenes, which became quite popular with the French aristocracy. Indeed, his most famous work is a large hunting portrait of Marie Antoinette on horseback. Brun fled France during the Revolution and became the burgomaster of Versoix in 1801, earning his sobriquet “Brun de Versoix.”

The motif of Hunting was often used as a guise to display prestige, power and wealth, many animals would subsequently feature and being an artist of demand in the 18th Century his list of known working drawings is extensive, as they often served as auxiliary works to larger formal court paintings.

His paintings and drawings are held within prestigious institutions including, the collections of the Musée National des châteaux de Versailles and the Musée du Louvre, Paris as well as Private collections internationally.

Note: Included with the purchase of this drawing is Louis-Auguste Brun, Catalogue des Peintures et Dessins (Catalogue of Paintings and Drawings published in 1986.