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Desnoyers, Aug[us]te (engraver 1779-1857) after F[rançois] Gérard, (painter 1770-1837) in collaboration with Pierre Picquet (calligrapher)Bélisaire [.] Dédié a Son Excellence, Monseigneur Charles Maurice Talleyrand, Ministre des Relations Extéreures. Par son très humble serviteur, Auguste Boucher Desnoyers.Talleyrand celebrated as a discerning patron & art collector. F.Gérard Pinx[i]t Aug[us]te Desnoyers Sculp[si]t 1806 Copper engraving: 545 x 400 mm (plate mark); overall size : 605 x 438mm. Untrimmed. Auguste Desnoyers splendid engraving of Gérard s celebrated painting of the victorious Byzantine general Belisarius reduced to beggary by his ungrateful master Justinian consolidated his reputation as an exceptional artist. Gérard s portrait, painted in 18 days in 1795 and exhibited in the same year, had been a sensational success, but in 1806 it mysteriously disappeared from the Galerie du Prince Eugène in Munich. This re-creation of the lost painting dedicated to Talleyrand, the illustrious patron of both artists, is now the sole surviving historical source for the painting once owned by the Beauharnais family. The evocative engraving represents what is also probably the sole public testimony to Talleyrand, as a noted art collector, who had first commissioned Gérard to paint his portrait in 1806, and subsequently asked Desnoyers to produce an engraving of it. Talleyrand thought very highly of his engraved portrait by Desnoyers and is known to have presented it to favoured guests. A very fine impression, in an untrimmed, fresh state. A reproduction of this print in Paris at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Estampes, is illustrated by J.F. Heim, C. Béraud et P. Heim, Les Salons de Peinture de la Révolution française, 1789-1799, Paris, 1989, p. 222. Seller Inventory # ABE-1500462266380
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