CREOLITY. SLAVERY. HISTORICAL PAINTING. EMPIRE. GUILLON dit - Lot 38

CREOLITY. SLAVERY. HISTORICAL PAINTING. EMPIRE. GUILLON dit LETHIÈRE (Guillaume) or GUILLON LETHIÈRE. Autograph letter signed, to "M. Chéri peintre" (Chéri-François Dubreuil or François-Marguerite Chéri Dubreuil, painters?) In it, he evokes in particular his ward, Mélanie Hahnemann (1800-1878), the first female homeopathic physician, then still under her maiden name, Mélanie Le Cat d'Hervilly. S.l. (Paris), April 12, 1822. 3 pp. small in-4 (18 x 24 cm). Address and postmarks. A mulatto from Guadeloupe, Prix de Rome winner who became director of the Académie de France and a friend of Ingres, Guillaume Guillon, born in 1760, seems less well known than his Creole contemporaries Serant or Davy de la Pailleterie, known as General Dumas (whose exploits he painted), even though he is the celebrated painter of the Ancestors' Oath and one of the great portraits of Empress Josephine (Versailles), the result of his association with David's studio and the imperial family - notably Lucien Bonaparte. As maître d'atelier, Guillon encouraged a number of female and Creole artists. This letter, dated the same year as the creation of Le Serment des ancêtres, refers to another painting, Saint Louis visiteant les victimes de la peste dans la plaine de Carthage (Musée Boucher de Perthes, Abbeville), exhibited at the Salon in 1822 (no. 657): "[...] je vais donner la note des ouvrages que j'expose au salon pour mon compte. - St Louis in Tunis during the 6th Crusade, which destroyed his army. [...] I took the moment when he visited a sick man in his tent. Please tell me your opinion on the means I used to give the scene some interest. I also have two small paintings, a landscape and a figure. [...]" Of the various subjects he also writes about young Mélanie's production, "pretty genre paintings" and "great dispositions that give much hope [...]". He admired her work and considered her his adopted daughter: she was to be the legatee of his works before marrying the founder of homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann. Bends, slight oxidation, traces of stamps.