François-Joseph Kinsoen
(1770 - Bruges - 1839)
A Family Group, France c.1804
146 x 114 cm
Signed Kinson
Oil on canvas
Provenance:
Private collection, south Germany
François-Joseph Kinsoen received his early training under Bernard Fricxs at the Academy of Art in his home town of Bruges. He had already won several prizes and established a reputation in Belgium before exhibiting at the Paris Salon in 1799. Here, he achieved further recognition by winning a prize for a portrait.[1] Encouraged by this success, he decided to move to Paris. His work proved popular in Parisian high society. His portrait style briefly reflected the austere approach of Jacques-Louis David. However, under the influence of the work of Baron Gérard (1770-1837),[2] whose more flattering, idealized treatment of his subjects would certainly have appealed more to his patrons, his style underwent a transformation. This proved helpful to his career. In 1808, he was appointed Court Painter to Napoleon's brother, Jérôme Bonaparte, King of Westfalia, whom he followed to Kassel in 1810.[3] After Napoleon's banishment, Kinsoen returned to Paris and in 1816 was appointed Court Painter to the Duke of Angoulême, Louis-Antoine de Bourbon (1775-1844).[4] In 1817 he painted Belisarius at his Wife Antonina's Deathbed,[5] his only history painting to survive. He was appointed a member of the Légion d'honneur by Louis XVIII in 1819. In the 1820s he was a regular - and highly praised - contributor to the Salon exhibitions in Ghent and Brussels.[6] He continued to enjoy rank and privilege under Charles X, the successor to Louis XVIII, until the July Revolution of 1830 put an end to his career in France. He moved back to Bruges but continued to receive society commissions. On his death, the remaining paintings in his studio were acquired from his estate by the English collectors John and Joséphine Bowes. This group of eleven works is now held in the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, England. It forms the single largest collection of his works.
The present portrait depicts an elegant young woman and her two children, a boy and a girl. It is a fine example of Kinsoen's portrait style. None of the paintings held in the Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle is quite its match for compositional balance and technical virtuosity. The portrait throws an interesting light on the vogue for extravagant fashion in early nineteenth-century Parisian society. The clothes of the sitters, particularly those of the mother and the daughter, point to the late Empire period when heavy fabrics, long sleeves, lace and trimmings like the fur edging on the girl's white silk dress were fashionable.[7] A silk dress very similar to the one in the present painting is depicted in the Bowes Museum's Portrait of a Russian Lady[8]. In addition, the green velvet of the sofa and cushion, the filigree pattern of the gold brocade border and the tassels are identical. Unfortunately, the identity of the sitter and the date of execution of the Bowes painting are also unknown. Kashmir shawls such as the Paisley-pattern shawl draped over the edge of the sofa depicted in the present painting were a very popular fashion accessory. Shawls actually woven in Kashmir were the most sought-after. Demand was soon so great that European manufacturers entered the market, imitating Kashmir shawls on hand looms but using different materials and weaving methods to produce lower-priced products. Particularly sophisticated manufacturing methods were developed in the village of Paisley in Scotland. This was to prove the basis of Paisley's success story in the history of European fashion.
[1] 'Portrait d'une jeune femme au collier de camées' [Portrait of a Young Woman with a Cameo Necklace].
[2] Baron Gérard was also a court painter. See Autour du Néo-classicisme en Belgique, op. cit., p.412.
[3] Jérôme Bonaparte und der Modellstaat Königreich Westphalen, exhib. cat., Kassel, Museum Fridericianum, 2008.
[4] Kinsoen had executed a Portrait of the Duke of Angoulême two years earlier in 1814. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux, inv. no. Bx E 404.
[5] Bruges, Groeningemuseum.
[6] He exhibited eight portraits at the Salon in Ghent in 1820. At the Brussels Salon in 1821 his Portrait of Lady Montgomery was much praised by the critics. See L'Oracle, 2 September 1821, Brussels 1800-25.
[7] The Livret du Salon of 1804 lists a group portrait by Kinsoen described as: une dame assise aves ses deux enfants [a lady seated, with her two children], a description that fits the present portrait.
[8] Francois-Joseph Kinsoen (1770-1839), Portrait of a Russian Lady, 115.6 x 89.4 cm, oil on canvas, The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Durham, accession no. B.M. 291.