Napoleon Bonaparte with His Nephews and Nieces
Sappho Recalled to Life by the Charm of Music
Bianca Cappello Fleeing with Her Lover
Louis Ducis (14 July 1775, Versailles - 2 March 1847, Paris) was a French painter and student of Jacques-Louis David.
Baptized in the parish of Our Lady of Versailles1, he was the son of Louis Ducis, master potter, and Marie-Geneviève Letang, and nephew of the poet and French Academician Jean-François Ducis. He married in 1810 Anne-Euphrosine Talma, the sister of famous actor François-Joseph Talma.
A student of Jacques-Louis David, he was a history painter and portraitist deemed follower of the "troubadour style." He was very supportive during the First Empire and Restoration, during which he enjoyed many public commissions. He exhibited at the Salon of 1804 to 1834, including with genre scenes, historical paintings and portraits, and was rewarded with a first class medal at the Salon of 1808. His studio was located 13 Quai Malaquais.
Main works [edit]
Among his works listed include:
Group portrait of the family Saron (Salon of 1804, at auction at Christie's in 2010)
Orpheus and Eurydice (Salon of 1808, private collection)
The origin of the painting: Dibutade, inspired by love, fixed on the wall the shadow of her lover (Salon of 1808, private collection)
The Emperor Napoleon I on the terrace of the Château de Saint-Cloud surrounded by the children of his family (1810, National Museum of Versailles and Trianon)
Portrait of Caroline Murat (1811, Attingham Park, Shropshire)
The sisters Allart (circa 1815, coll. Chateaubriand Company)
Sappho brought to life by the charm of music (1811, command of General Jean Rapp, Norton Simon Museum in California)
Francois first knighted by Bayard (1817, Château de Blois)
Death of Tasso in the convent of St. Onofrio, and Tasso in prison visited by Montaigne (1819, Museum of Fine Arts in Pau)
Van Dyck painted his first picture (1819, Museum of the Bishopric of Limoges)
Sculpture or Properzia Rossi finishing his last bas-relief (1822, Museum of the Bishopric of Limoges)
Mary making music (1822, Museum of the Bishopric of Limoges)
Tasso reading his verses to Leonora (1823, Museum of the Bishopric of Limoges)
Louis XVIII at the Tuileries assist the return of the army of Spain. December 2, 1823 (1824, National Museum of Versailles and Trianon)
Visit of King and Queen of Naples at the Château de Saint-Cloud (1830, Musée de l'Ile de France in Sceaux)
Jean-Francois Ducis (1733-1816) predicting the future of the actor Talma (1833, French Comedy)
Portrait of Stendhal (1835, funds Bucci, Sormani Library in Milan)
Portrait of a surgeon before a military camp (1838, at auction at Hotel Drouot in 2009)
Portrait of the poet's mother JF Ducis (Lambinet Museum)
Jesus carrying his cross (Château de Compiègne)
Charles IX, king of France 1574 + (after François Clouet, Louis-Philippe Museum of the Chateau d'Eu)
Notes and references
↑ departmental archives of Yvelines, state civil scanned the town of Versailles, Notre-Dame, record of the year 1775, p.60 scanning (p.53 foliotée paper on the register). His baptismal name is Jean-Louis, and it is also denominated as well as his uncle the writer in his correspondence.
Sources
Charles Gabet: Dictionary of artists of the French school in the nineteenth century (Paris, 1831) p. 231.
Count Charles de Beaumont: Jean-Louis Ducis - painter 1775-1847 (1900)
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