Portret van Augustin François Lemaître, zittend op een stoel 1820 - 1870

Camille Chenou Levesque made this small watercolor portrait of Augustin François Lemaître, seated on a chair, at an unknown date. This work invites us to think about the institutional role of portraiture in nineteenth-century French society. Portraiture was not merely a matter of likeness; it was deeply entangled with social status, class aspiration, and the desire for public recognition. Levesque’s loose brushstrokes might reflect a shift in the art world, away from the rigid conventions of academic painting and toward a more immediate and personal style, aligned with the rise of impressionism. The man’s posture, leaning back on the chair, introduces a degree of informality. Was this an attempt by the artist to convey a more accessible representation of the sitter? Or was it simply a reflection of changing artistic tastes? To understand this work fully, we need to consult a range of resources—biographies of the artist and sitter, exhibition catalogues, and critical reviews of the period.