The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 1, 2023

René-Charles Dassy and His Brother Jean-Baptiste-Claude-Amédé Dassy

1850

Hippolyte Jean Flandrin

(French, 1809–1864)

France, 19th century

Oil on canvas, original frame

Framed: 173.5 x 134 x 14 cm (68 5/16 x 52 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.); Unframed: 133.4 x 92.7 cm (52 1/2 x 36 1/2 in.)

Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 2000.17

Location

219 19th Century European

Fun Fact

Thin walking sticks, like the one pictured here, were trendy accessories at the time.

Description

This double portrait depicts two brothers dressed in the height of fashion for the 1850s, clearly asserting their social status. Jean-Baptiste (left, age 23) carries gloves and a walking stick. René-Charles (right, age 25) wears an embroidered black velvet suit in the exotic à la grecque mode (in the Greek style) inspired by the Greek war of independence (1821–32). Flandrin represents the figures in an academic style emphasizing line over color, reflecting his training as a pupil of J. A. D. Ingres.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Signed and dated, lower right, Hip. Flandrin, 1850

Provenance
By descent through the sitter's family
2000
(W.M. Brady & Co. Inc., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
2000–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Cleveland Museum of Art, “French 19th-Century Double Portrait Acquired; Jazz Bowl Purchased at Auction,” June 19, 2000, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
Marchetti, Elena, and Stéphane Paccoud. Hippolyte, Paul, Auguste: lLs Flandrin, Artistes et Frères. [Lyon]: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon; [Paris]: In Fine, 2021. Reproduced: P. 243, cat. no. 270
Exhibition history

Paris, Salon of 1850, No. 1071

Paris, Exposition Universelle, 1855

Paris, Ecole Impériale des Beaux-Arts, Hippolyte Flandrin, 1865, No. 27

Hippolyte, Paul, Auguste. Les Flandrin, artistes et frères. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, 69001 Lyon, France (organizer) (May 19-September 5, 2021).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2000.17