French school of the 19th century.

French school of the XIX century.
Copy of JEAN-ÉTIENNE LIOTARD (1702-1789),
"Portrait of Charles-Simon Favart."
Pastel on paper.
Frame of the 19th century.
It presents faults in the painting and in the frame.
Measurements: 64 x 53 cm; 90 x 77 x 7 cm (frame).

Nineteenth-century pastel that reproduces the famous portrait of the playwright and man of theater Charles-Simon Favart, made in 1757 by Jean-Étienne Liotard, one of the great masters of the pastel of the eighteenth century. The composition retains the distinctive features of the original: the model in three-quarter length, with powdered wig, blue coat and golden vest, holding a book, on a neutral background, in a language of sober elegance and intense psychological presence.

The choice of Liotard as a reference is not accidental: his work enjoyed enormous prestige in Europe for the precision of the drawing, the delicacy of the gradations and the ability to give "life" to the portrayed. In the 19th century, the taste for the 18th century and the recovery of its cultural icons favored the circulation of pastel copies destined for bourgeois interiors, where the evocation of the Enlightenment and the French theatrical world functioned as a sign of distinction.