
Cleveland Museum of Art
Portrait of Violinist Jean Vidal (1789–1867)
Adrien Victor AugerLinkedCulture matchlcp-3e3e57d5d7aa
- Date
- 1808
- Medium
- black and gray chalk, with touches of white chalk, on tan wove paper
- Culture
- France, 19th century
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 171051
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
This portrait is the most finished known work by Adrien Victor Auger, who broke from the idealized forms and historical subjects promoted by his teacher, Jacques-Louis David (whose work is nearby). In this drawing, Auger referenced contemporary Parisian cultural life, depicting the accomplished musician Jean Vidal as he embarked on an illustrious career in violin performance. Vidal is fashionably attired and gazes dreamily, signifying his modernity and artistic temperament. Auger rendered the violinist’s likeness with great detail and realism—including his slumping stockings and smooth shirt collar—by varying the density of repeated chalk marks and highlighting the paper’s tan tone with touches of white. Reflecting its personal significance to the sitter, this drawing stayed in the violinist’s family for generations.
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Provenance
- 1854-?: Family of the artist, by descent | ?-?: (Galerie J. Kugel, Paris) | by 2006-2012: (Thomas Le Claire, Hamburg) | 2012-2013: (W. M. Brady & Co., New York, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) | 2013-: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
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