Charles Nicolas Cochin

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Charles Nicolas Cochin
1715-1790
Circular Portrait of M. F. Guerrier de l'Ormoy within Surround Decorated with Cattle and Sheep, Wheat, and a Shield Containing a Mounted Warrior
ca. 1780
Black chalk, with touches of white, on paper.
sheet: 9 11/16 x 7 15/16 inches (246 x 202 mm); portrait: 5 1/8 inches (128 mm), diameter
Purchased as the gift of some of his friends in memory of John D. Barrett.
1981.113
Notes: 

Watermark: none visible through lining.
The sitter for this portrait may be the same "Guerrier de l'Ormoy" who was recorded in the Archives de l'Orne as an "inspecteur des haras," or stud farm inspector, in the department of L'Orne sometime before 1790 (Gravelle-Desulis, Archives de L'Orne, Paris, 1877). If so, Cochin's ornamentation, with livestock, grain, and a mounted cavalier, celebrates his profession.
The pale green watercolor frame is blind stamped at lower right with the initials ARD, belonging to a prolific mount-maker active in the mid-eighteenth century about whom little is known (L. 172).

Inscription: 

Inscribed on surround, in black chalk, "E.X./M.F. GUERRIER DE LORMOY".

Provenance: 
Unidentified eighteenth-century mount maker (Lugt 172); Baskett & Day, London.
Bibliography: 

Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Twentieth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1981-1983. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1984, p. 248.
Denison, Cara D. French Drawings, 1550-1825. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1984, no. 56.

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