Acquisition of a male portrait by Adèle Romany for Boston

Adèle Romany (1769-1846)
Portrait of Jean-Dominique Fabry Garat
accompanied by an Anacreintic lyre, 1808
Oil on canvas - 130 x 100 cm
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts
Photo: Sotheby’s

29/04/09 – Acquisition – Boston, Museum of Fine Arts – This museum has just purchased a very beautiful portrait by Adèle Romany (ill.), which had come up for auction at Sotheby’s Paris on 19 June 2007, from James Harvey British Art in London (for 30,000€ without charges).

Student of Jean-Baptiste Regnault, Adèle Romany was, along with Marie-Denise Villers, Jeanne-Elisabeth Chaudet and Marie-Guillaume Benoist, one of the many female painters active in the early 19th century around the better known figure of Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun. The portrait acquired by Boston, of great elegance, was exhibited at the Salon of 1808. It represents the singer Jean-Dominique Fabry Garat, accompanied by an Anacreontic lyre. A song author, this musician wrote notably a collection entitled Chanson anacréontiques.

Let us point out that in June 2008, Christie’s Paris presented no less than six family portraits by Adèle Romany (see news item of 15/6/08) and that French museums hold very few beautiful paintings by this artist (there is however a Portrait of a Young Harpist at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lille).