19th Century Jacques-Émile Lafon French Signed and Dedicated Religious Painting

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19th century jacques-émile lafon french signed and dedicated religious painting

a beautiful, rare and important painting by the great 19th-century … Read more 19th century jacques-émile lafon french signed and dedicated religious painting

a beautiful, rare and important painting by the great 19th-century french artist jacques-émile lafon, who specialised in religious subjects.
it depicts, with rare gentleness and tenderness, the infant jesus lying on the cross as he blesses those who look upon him.
this extremely rare depiction features a prolepsis, that is to say, a rhetorical and syntactic figure of speech consisting of anticipating a concept or future event ahead of the natural logical or chronological order. It derives from the greek prólēpsis (‘anticipation’).
in this case, the infant jesus lying on the cross anticipates what his destiny will be in order to save humanity.
this painting was probably created during his stay in rome around 1868.
the monogrammed signature appears in the bottom right-hand corner, as was his custom, as can be seen in his other autographed works shown in the last two attached photographs.
this important painting also features a dedication in french: ‘pour jane’ (for jane).
this artwork, never before on the market, comes from an important italian private collection and is beautified by an antique frame in natural wood, in very good condition.

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jacques-émile lafon, or émile-jacques lafon, born jacques lafon in périgueux on 26 january 1817 and died in the 7th arrondissement of paris on 19 february 1886, was a french painter.
born in périgueux, jacques-émile lafon was the son of charles lafon (des balans) (1789–1861) and marie balan (1794–1870).
he had a brother, pierre charles lafon (1815–1875), whose daughter jeanne marie éva lafon (1841–1871) married the famous art dealer paul durand-ruel.
he became a pupil of antoine-jean gros, a pupil of david, and then, of paul delaroche, himself a pupil of gros at the école des beaux-arts in paris.
in 1841, he married marie-antoinette choiselat-gallien, daughter of the renowned goldsmith louis-isidore choiselat and sister-in-law of the photographer and engineer stanislas ratel.
they had six children, including four sons.
two became monks.
the fourth child, françois lafon (1846–1913), became a painter and had a son who was also a painter.
a close friend of louis veuillot, the latter always supported him in his career.
the town of périgueux named one of its streets after him in his honour.
jacques-émile lafon was highly regarded for his religious paintings and received numerous official commissions.
in 1841, he exhibited at the salon, where he won a gold medal for *the communion of the virgin and saint peter walking on the waters*.
he was appointed a knight of the legion of honour in recognition of his decoration of the saint-françois-xavier chapel in the church of saint-sulpice in paris in 1859.
in 1868, he painted *the battle of mentana*, which was presented to pope pius ix by french catholics.
as the highest honour, the pope awarded him, during a visit to his studio, the insignia of the order of st gregory the great, and later the rank of commander of the same order and the title of roman count.
the painting is kept in rome at the quirinal palace, and later at the vatican.
the painter’s signature varies according to the style of the works, which makes identification more difficult and leads to frequent confusion regarding his first name in catalogues: ‘lafon’, ‘jacques émile lafon’, ‘j. Emile lafon’, ‘j.e.l’, ‘j.e. Lafon’, ‘j.l.e.’, ‘j.emile l.’ (sometimes read as ‘emile g.’), etc.
between 1999 and 2002, the drac aquitaine commissioned françoise perret, a restorer based in sergeac, to restore his entire stations of the cross, painted for saint-front cathedral in périgueux between 1849 and 1851.
the scale and quality of his work were rediscovered as a result of this project and historical research.

dimensions are frame included this piece has an attribution mark,
i am sure that it is completely authentic and take full responsibility for any authenticity
issues arising from misattribution See less