Description:

Jules Lion
French/American, 1806-1866, active New Orleans, 1837-1866
Portrait of a Mustachioed Gentleman in a Crimson Brocade Waistcoat
oil on canvas
1863, signed and dated lower right, 30 1/4 in. x 25 1/4 in., framed, overall 37 1/4 in. x 32 1/4 in. x 2 1/2 in.

  • Provenance: Recently the subject of amplified interest and scholarship due in part to the acquisition of his legendary portrait popularly known as Asher Moses Nathan and Son by The Historic New Orleans Collection (sold through Neal Auction for $704,000 on November 20, 2021), Jules Lion is one of Louisiana's most enigmatic early artists whose extant works are extraordinarily rare.

    Lion was born in Paris in 1806 to Jewish parents as part of the first generation of emancipated French Jews. Lion likely received his art education as an informal apprentice in a lithographic print shop. The technique, only several decades in practice at the time, was an expanding trade and a lucrative one. Between 1831 and 1836, Lion exhibited his lithography in four Paris Salons before following the examples of other contemporaries by venturing in November of 1836 to New Orleans, where there was a thriving market for French portraitists. Once in the city, he worked as a prominent lithographer, painter and art teacher, and he was credited with introducing the daguerreotype to the city in 1843.

    With the purchases of land, buildings, fine furnishings and enslaved women, Lion established himself as a prosperous Frenchman from 1842 until a reversal of fortune several years later. He continued working, however, and became involved with a free woman of color, Charlotte Armantine Broyard, with whom he had an illegitimate son in 1851. In her essay, "Racing Jules Lion," Sara M. Picard explains that Lion appeared with the designation of "f.m.c.," or "free man of color," in the New Orleans city directories in the time period from 1851 to 1856 – the same period in which he was involved with Broyard who died in 1856 of unknown causes. All other documents of his life make no mention of his race, which indicates that he was believed to be white. The conclusion she reaches from her reexamination of the extant documents of Lion's life and career therefore suggest that he was a French immigrant to Louisiana of Jewish heritage.

    Shortly after Broyard's death, Lion married Marie Emma Muños, a young Creole, in St. Peter's Church at 725 Marigny Street. The couple had three children who were all baptized in the same church. As Picard states: "Lion's marriage to a non-Jewish woman in a Catholic church, like his relationship with a free woman of color, was not out of line with behavior of other Jewish men in New Orleans…early Jews of New Orleans felt the freedom not to emphasize their religious background because the city was more tolerant of their faith." Lion continued to be listed in New Orleans city directories in 1858, 1861 and the year of his death in 1866. Lion's brothers-in-law placed an announcement of his passing in The Bee on January 10, 1866, and he was interred in the Catalan Monument, likely part of the now-demolished Spanish Society tomb, of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.

    Despite lingering questions regarding Lion's ancestry, he was clearly in the end a beloved member of a Creole family and intertwined into the Spanish and free people of color communities in New Orleans at a time of great change and historical complexity. Lion's lithographic portraits and rare surviving pastels of prominent Louisianans provide insight into his world and serve as important artistic contributions to the state and to the South. The oil on canvas portrait of an elegant gentleman offered here is the first known oil painting by the artist on the auction market and is a valuable discovery that sheds further light on Lion's oeuvre, even as it introduces questions as to the sitter's identity and heritage.

    Ref.: Castenell, Wendy. "Asher Moses Nathan and Son." Neal Auction Company. November 20, 2021, lot 210, www.nealauction.com; Picard, Sara M. "Racing Jules Lion." Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association 58, no. 1 (2017): 5-37.
  • Dimensions: 30 1/4 in. x 25 1/4 in
  • Medium: oil on canvas
  • Condition: Canvas has been relined but retains original tack edge; recently professionally conserved; extensive restoration throughout; scattered areas of inpainting throughout, particularly at mended tears to right of head; inpainting in lines of craquelure and alligatoring; alligatoring and craquelure throughout; frame has major losses along all edges; separation at all 4 corners; cracks throughout.

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November 22, 2024 11:00 AM CST
New Orleans, LA, US

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Bid Increments
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$0 $99 $10
$100 $499 $25
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $2,999 $100
$3,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $29,999 $1,000
$30,000 $49,999 $5,000
$50,000 $99,999 $10,000
$100,000 + $20,000