The Most Amazing Treasure - J B Arnout

The final item we obtained from Louise came as quite a surprise to both Gary and I.  It was displayed on her wall along with the bidding form and we noticed that no one seemed to be interested in it.  Gary and I went our separate ways looking for items we might like to purchase and during this time Gary put a bid on it since he thought, if for no other reason, the frame would be worth having.  In the end no one else was interest and it was ours to take home at a very low price.  We gathered our treasures and in carrying them to the car we noticed a 3X5 card and another slip of paper, with information about the piece, was attached to the back.  It was after reading this information that we definitely knew we had a treasure.  Had this information been available to see while the picture was hanging I believe there would have been more interest in it.  One of the reasons, and probably the main one it was passed by, was because of the damage to the piece due to its age and the non-archival quality of the materials used at that time.  I guess at this point I should show you what this treasure is.  So here is the first of many pictures and the information I researched that I will share with you as I go along.  Keep in mind that I had to shoot photos through glass and you may need to enlarge them for the details.


An Amazing Treasure

As you can see from this photo there was a fair amount of damage to this piece mostly due to what is know as Foxing which is all the little reddish brown spots you see.  For more on this see here.  Another issue is where someone taped the piece to the mat board and it pulled away leaving the taped paper attached to the mat.  Fortunately the two top corners are still holding on.

Back to the information that was on the back of the piece.  It listed the artist as Jeanne Pierre Arnoult on one card and Jean Baptiste Arnout, which is the correct one, on the other.  The drawing is called a cartoon and was drawn in graphite in the year 1825.  The artist was born in Dijon, France in 1788 and was a student of Devosge.  He worked in Paris and he showed his work from 1819-1865.  Below are the cards that were attached to the back of the picture.  One was done by Louise and the other Artine Artinian who I will explain later.

Information Card - Louise

Information Card - Artine Artinian

In my research I found that this drawing is considered a Design for a Border with a Portrait of... (the name of the person in the drawing).  Since this work is unfinished it is not known who it might be but I would take a guess that royalty has some relevance to it as you can see by the photos below.

Royal Crown

Royalty at throne

Another Crown

I was able to find one other drawing of this type by Jeanne Baptiest Arnout that is of Baron Cuvier here.  This drawing is currently in The Collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC here.  Believe me I was thrilled to find this information as it makes what I have come to life.

There are two portraits completed out of a possible eleven.  

Portrait of Women

Portrait of Man

Many of the other photos have a heavenly presence about them as you can see below.  They are rather detailed and quite beautiful.

Graphite Drawing Close-ups

Generally it is custom for an artist to sign their work when it is complete.  I thought it was interesting that this piece though incomplete was signed.

Signature of Artist

I mentioned earlier that I would explain who Artine Artinian was.  As you will see in the picture below his name has been stamped on the drawing. I find it interesting that someone would do that to such a piece as this and wonder if by doing so it would alter the value of it.   Anyway, Artine was a French Literature Scholar who I discovered also had a collection of various pieces of art which apparently included this one.  For an interesting read about him see here.

Artine Artinian Stamp

There are many other pictures I could post but I think I'll let you enlarge the first photo to view it in more detail if you'd like.  I'm still interested in learning as much about this piece as I can and would also like to have it restored eventually.  Hope you've enjoyed this excursion back in history.