Lot n° 1
Estimation :
3500 - 4000
EUR
ÉCOLE FRANÇAISE DE LA FIN DU XVIIIe/DÉBUT DU XIXe SIÈCLE. D'APRÈS ADÈLE ROMANY (1747-1832).
Portrait of the French dancer Auguste Vestris (1760-1842).
Oil on canvas preserved in its original carved and gilded wood frame.
Restorations, good condition.
Sight: H.: 62 cm - W.: 50 cm.
Frame: H.: 72.5 cm - W.: 62 cm.
History: The natural son of Gaëtan Vestris and Marie Allard, Marie-Jean-
Augustin Vestris, known as Auguste Vestris, was nicknamed Vestr'Allard. Trained by his father, he made his debut at the Paris Opéra in 1772, where he was engaged as a soloist in the
Ballet. His brilliant career took place mainly in Paris, but he also performed in Lyon, Montpellier and Bordeaux, as well as at London's King's Theatre.
It was Pierre Gardel who gave him his finest roles, notably in Psyché, Télémaque dans l'île de Calypso and La Dansomanie. He retired in 1816 to devote himself to teaching dance at the Paris Opera, becoming one of the most renowned teachers of all time. The inventor of a multitude of new steps, Auguste Vestris was one of the first to integrate the "earthy", brilliant and fast dance of the 18th century with the new high-elevation steps (grand allegro) inspired by the musical advances of the time, including those of Beethoven. Among his pupils was the Franco-Danish choreographer Auguste Bournonville (1805-1879). Bournonville devoted many interesting and detailed pages to him in his memoirs My Theatre Life, reprinted in London in 1968. Act I of Bournonville's ballet
Bournonville's ballet Le Conservatoire, still danced today, faithfully reproduces a lesson given by Vestris at the Paris Opéra in 1820, and is still, for our generation, of the highest technical standard. Nicknamed "the god of dance", Auguste Vestris left his mark on the history of dance with his interpretation of the gavotte from Grétry's 1785 lyric comedy Panurge dans l'île des lanternes: since then, this passage has been known as the Vestris gavotte.
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