Sébastien NORBLIN from LA GOURDAINE(Warsaw 1796 – 1884 Paris)

Portrait of a lady, Mrs. JV or Mrs. EB

Signed and dated NORBLIN 1836 lower left

Oil on canvas, 86 x 69.5 cm

THE ARTIST

Son of Jean-Pierre NORBLIN, his half-brothers are also artists: Louis Norblin was a musician and Alexandre-Jean-Constantin a sculptor. In 1804, the family moved to Paris, where the young artist trained with his father before entering the École des Beaux-Arts under François-André Vincent. A pupil of Régnault and Blondel, he won third prize in the 1822 competition for Rome and won first prize in 1825 with Antigone giving burial to Polynices, which brought him to the Villa Medici in Rome in 1826, where he spent seven years drawing landscapes that he reinterpreted in his history paintings. On his return from Rome, he received a number of public commissions, became a teacher at the Beaux-Arts in Paris. Second-class medal in 1833; first-class medal in class in 1844; chevalier of the Légion d'honneur on 12 July 1859. He appeared at the Salon with various subjects

from 1827 to 1876, painting history under the July Monarchy and the Second Empire, rooted in classical culture. For example, in 1842 he presented a neo-Greek work at the Salon on the theme of Greek Women at a Fountain. He also took part in the restoration of Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski's Hôtel Lambert, alongside Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and Eugène Delacroix, thanks to his connections with the Polish diaspora in Paris, with whom he was extremely close. His works are particularly full of landscapes, sometimes fantastic and mystical, historical mythological or religious scenes. We owe him the decoration of the Chapel of Compassion, in the the decoration of the chapel of the Catechisms in the church of Saint-Jacques du Haut-Pas, and the paintings of two side chapels in the church of Saint-Louis de L'Isle.

EXHIBITIONS

- Salon de Paris 1836, under n°1394 Portrait de Mme J.V, or under n°1395 Portrait de Mme E.B

THE WORK 

This portrait of a lady had not reappeared since it was exhibited at the Salon in 1836, its execution is masterly, we have not found an equivalent in terms of quality equivalent in terms of quality in Norblin's portraits.

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