19th century French school, dated 1818. - Lot 113

19th century French school, dated 1818. Portrait of a woman and child representing Joséphine de Riocour-Remoncourt wife of Joseph Alexandre d'Arbois de Jubainville and her son Charles Joseph. Oil on canvas. Large wood and gilded stucco frame decorated with stems and foliage. Bears the name of the person painted in the upper left corner. H_88 cm L_72 cm. Minor damage to frame and canvas. This intimate, delicate portrait, painted in 1818, sensitively illustrates the evolution of maternal representation in early 19th-century painting. Joséphine de Riocour-Remoncourt (1775-1853), from a noble Lorraine family, is shown here in the company of her son Charles-Joseph (1808-1875), in an attitude that testifies to maternal tenderness and affection, still uncommon in the aristocratic portrait tradition. Married in 1801 to Joseph-Alexandre d'Arbois de Jubainville (1776-1866), a councillor at the Nancy Court of Appeal and former lieutenant in the dragoons, Josephine gave birth to three children, one boy and two girls. At a time when children from wealthy families were often entrusted to nannies, and parental attachment remained measured in the face of high infant mortality, this portrait is part of a major societal turning point. The influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his Emile, or Education (1762) marked a profound change in the perception of childhood and the maternal role. While under the Ancien Régime, young children were sometimes referred to by numbers - as evidenced by the practice among Louis XV's daughters (Madame Première, Madame Seconde...) - the end of the 18th century saw the beginning of a valorization of the maternal bond, brilliantly illustrated by Marie-Antoinette under the brush of Madame Vigée Le Brun in 1787. This trend continued under the Empire, with works such as the portrait of Louise de Guéhéneuc, Duchesse de Montebello, and her children, painted by François Gérard in 1818, the same year as our painting. In our portrait, Joséphine de Riocour-Remoncourt appears seated in her interior, wearing a softly flowing dress in the style of the early Restoration. She holds her son Charles-Joseph, shown at around ten years of age, against her in a natural, affectionate posture, in contrast to the rigidity of the child portraits of the previous century. Dressed as a child rather than a miniature adult, he embodies the new ideal of childhood, where spontaneity and tenderness take precedence over the solemnity of aristocratic convention. Through the quality of its execution and the emotion it radiates, this portrait is a precious testimony to the evolution of mentalities and the growing role accorded to motherhood in the early 19th century.