Pharamond BLANCHARD - Lot 73

Pharamond BLANCHARD (Lyon 1805 - Paris 1873) Mexican players On its original canvas 86 x 131.5 cm Signed and dated lower left P. Blanchard 1842 Exhibition: Salon de 1842, n°167. A pupil of Antoine-Jean Gros, Blanchard made his first trip to Spain in 1826 at the request of the Duke and Duchess de Montpensier, for whom he helped decorate the San Telmo palace on the banks of the Guadalquivir. After several stays in Morocco and Spain, he left for Mexico in 1838 to accompany François-Ferdinand d'Orléans, Prince de Joinville, son of King Louis-Philippe and an amateur artist. Returning to France in 1839, Blanchard painted several canvases for the Musée de l'Histoire de France at the Château de Versailles, including L'Attaque de Veracruz le 5 décembre 1838, exhibited at the Salon de 1840 under the title Le Désarmement de la Veracruz. In the same year, he was named Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur. In our painting, a group of men are playing cards, seated on the ground, while women are filling jars and barrels at a fountain, watching them, not without some reprobation. In the background rises a mountain identifiable, by its silhouette, with Popocatépetl, a volcano located 70 kilometers southeast of Mexico City and a recurring motif in rural representations of Mexico in the XIXᵉ century. Estimate: €15,000 / €20,000 (caution +5% as lot temporarily imported)