Alexandre-François Caminade

The painting brings together the qualities of Alexandre-François Caminade’s painting. It reflects his skill as a portrait painter and his skill as a landscape painter - still too little known (Villa
musée Montebello, Trouville-sur-Mer). The dazzling success of the Portrait of Aglaé Charlotte Julienne Lefèbvre de Laboulaye resides in the feeling of intimacy it arouses between the sitter and her viewer.

Sitting on a moss-covered rock, Aglaé Charlotte Julienne Lefèbvre de Laboulaye is depicted alone in the wilderness. To characterize the personality of his sitter, the painter chose wild flowers that bloom in the spring. In the foreground the yellow and red daisies symbolize attachment, while at her feet, a tuft of violets does
homage to the humbleness of the young woman and to the depth of her feelings. A spring glow bathes the whole scene. The rustling of the trees can be seen through the shadow of the foliage on the trunk of the oak, skillfully replacing the antique column of formal portraits. On the background a river seems to separate, for a time, the young women from her closet envi ronment , a village far away distinguishable by the church tower.
Alexandre-François Caminade offered an idealized portrait of the young wealthy Parisian recalling the portrait of the Empress Joséphine painted by Pierre Paul Prud’hon (1805). The painter was inspired by the depiction of the seated Empress in a large vertical format, freeing up the space for the landscape painting. Aglaé Charlotte Julienne Lefèbvre de Laboulaye also wears a low-cut white silk dress enhanced with a red paisley-patterned shawl. These shawls were used to hide bare shoulders. They were at that time a luxurious accessory of the Parisian elite. Alexandre-François Caminade endeavored to paint the chromatic nuances of white fabrics (lace, ribbon, silk dress, and skin gloves), like jewelry (baroque pearl earrings and white gold tiara) standing out against the young woman’s skin. The fine expression of Aglaé Charlotte Julienne Lefèbvre de Laboulaye’s face as well as the care given to her accessories are emblematic of Alexandre François Caminade’s portrait paintings.

Adescendant of the model to this day