Rating and value of paintings by Louise Adelaïde Desnos

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Rating and value of the artist Louise Adélaïde Desnos   

Louise Adelaïde Desnos is an artist known to 19th-century painting enthusiasts. Now, prices for her works are rising under auctioneers' gavels.

Her oils on canvas are particularly prized, especially by French buyers, and the price at which they sell on the art market ranges from €990 to €4,240, a significant delta but one that speaks volumes about the value that can be attributed to the artist's works.

In 2022, his oil on canvas La Toilette, dating from 1839 was sold for €4,240, while it was estimated at between €4,460 and €6,240. Its quotation is stable.

Order of value from a simple work to the most prestigious

Style and technique of the artist Louise Adelaïde Desnos  

Louise Adelaïde Desnos mainly produces oils on canvas, especially history paintings and portraits, and follows the academic canons of the 19th century.

She mainly produces oils on canvas, in the academic tradition of the 19th century. She uses careful preparatory drawing, often in black stone or red chalk, before moving on to oil.

She applies thin, superimposed layers that enable her to achieve glazes and a satin finish. The modeling is smooth and even, and few traces of the brush are visible, due to her desire for a finished, polished rendering.

She highlights faces with soft chiaroscuro, inherited from the classical tradition, with great attention to textile and ornamental detail (lace, jewelry, drapery), demonstrating a rather virtuoso mastery of textures.

His portraits are generally frontal or three-quarter-length, in the tradition of 19th-century ceremonial portraits. The figures are centered, often set in a neutral or slightly ornamental frame.

His painting reflects a quest for balance between psychological likeness and social staging of the sitter. The palette is refined, dominated by warm, light tones (ochres, beiges, pinks, browns) that are balanced by more intense highlights (deep blues, greens, reds).

She uses glazes to achieve soft, luminous complexions, a process typical of academic painting. Chromatic contrasts are mastered to accentuate the visual hierarchy (face and hands in the foreground, secondary accessories in the background).

Her primary aim is to remain faithful to her model and enhance her social standing. Her work is marked by a moderate idealism, with softened features to enhance the dignity of the figures she portrays.

Her work is influenced by the neoclassical portrait tradition, sometimes enriched by romantic elements in expression and setting.

She is heir to the codes of official portraiture, with particular attention paid to the psychology of individuals, but above all to their social status. Her style reflects a desire to reconcile descriptive accuracy and classical idealization, in line with the expectations of the patrons of her time.

The career of Louise Adélaïde Desnos

Louise Adelaïde Desnos was a German artist born in 1807. She was born in Paris, and studied painting with Louis Hersent and Louise Hersent, two renowned academic painters, which anchored her in the tradition of official portraiture and history painting.

She received classical training in drawing and oil, with technical mastery recognized from her earliest works. She began her career in the 1830s, a period when academicism still dominated the official Salons.

After Louise Hersent, she took over the direction of the women's painting school set up in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, Auguste Gallimard will succeed her, she is most famous for this reason in nineteenth-century art history.  

Louise Desnos exhibited her paintings at the Salon from 1831 to 1853, and in this capacity produced numerous portraits, including that of French King Louis Philippe and copies of that of Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie.

Louise Adélaïde Desnos won critical acclaim for the finely rendered psychological quality of her portraits. She developed a sustained activity as a portraitist of the bourgeoisie and aristocracy.

Her works were intended for a private clientele, concerned with social representation. Her style is appreciated for its balance between faithful likeness and flattering idealism. She was recognized as a professional woman painter at a time when they were still rare on the academic scene.

Her works were circulated and commented on in the specialized press, testifying to a not inconsiderable visibility in the Parisian artistic milieu. His name appears in dictionaries and catalogs of 19th-century artists, a sign of a career embedded in official networks.

His career is marked by his fidelity to the academic language inherited from the Hersents. She continued to paint until 1870, despite the shift in artistic tastes towards realism and impressionism.

She died in the Somme in 1878.