Francis Bourgeois

Painting - A Man Holding A Horse by Francis Bourgeois

Peter Francis Lewis Bourgeois RA (November 1753 – 8 January 1811) was a landscape and history painter, and court painter to king George III of the United Kingdom.[1][2] He became an art dealer and collector in association with Margaret and Noel Desenfans, and with them founded Dulwich Picture Gallery in London. He was born in Britain of Swiss ancestry.

Biography

Bourgeois was born in London in November 1753 (or, according to Royal Academy records, in 1756). He was the son of Isaac Emanuel Bourgeois, a prosperous emigre Swiss watchmaker, and Elizabeth Bourgeois (née Gordon or Garden). He had a sister. In 1768, when he was fifteen, his mother died and he and his sister were abandoned by their father. Some time afterwards he was taken into the protection of Noel Joseph Desenfans, a writer who had come from France to Britain in 1769.

Bourgeois studied painting as a pupil of Philip James de Loutherbourg. In 1776, at the age of 23, Bourgeois made a tour of Europe. When in Warsaw he met bishop Michal Jerzy Poniatowski, primate of Poland and brother of the Polish king, Stanislaw II.

Francis Bourgeois and Noël Desenfans

In the same year his protector Noel Desenfans married Margaret Morris, an heiress and sister of the Swansea industrialist, John Morris. By the 1780s Margaret and Noel Desenfans were collecting pictures and discreetly dealing. Bourgeois lived with them at their house in Charlotte (now Hallam) Street, London.

In December 1787 Bourgeois was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy and was elected a full member on 11 February 1793, when he donated a landscape painting as his diploma work.

Francis Bourgeois Painting - Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois by James Northcote

Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois , James Northcote

In 1791 Bourgeois's friend, Michal Poniatowski visited London to commission Bourgeois to paint a portrait of king Stanislaw (now in Dulwich Picture Gallery). For this Bourgeois was presented with the Polish medal "Merentibus", for which George III allowed him to use the title of 'Sir' in Britain. While in London Poniatowski asked Noel and Margaret Desenfans and Bourgeois to assemble a royal collection for Poland. During the next five years Bourgeois joined Margaret and Noel Desenfans touring Europe and buying pictures and continued his own painting In 1794 he was appointed landscape-painter to George III.

The collection assembled for King Stanislaw included works by Vernet, Rembrandt, Veronese and others. In 1795 Desenfans was appointed Polish consul general in London; but a few months later Stanislaw was forced to abdicate and the dealers were left with the collection. Their attempts to sell it to Alexander I of Russia or the British Government proved unsuccessful and in 1799 Desenfans published a Plan[3] for establishing some national galleries in Britain, of which the collection might form a basis, and in 1802 he exhibited the collection in London with a sale Catalogue.[4] The collection remained unsold. After Noel Desenfans's death in 1807 his wife inherited the collection, and when she died in 1809 Bourgeois became sole owner. He shared the Desenfans' wish that the collection should be exhibited publicly, and when he died in 1811 he left it to Dulwich College with £10,000 to build a public gallery. Dulwich Picture Gallery - one of the first public art galleries anywhere in Britain was founded. The gallery was designed by Sir John Soane, who also designed the adjacent mausoleum, in which Bourgeois, Margaret Desenfans and Nöel Desenfans are buried.

A portrait of Bourgeois by William Beechey is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery and another by James Northcote is at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. George Dance the Younger made a pencil portrait of him, and he is included in H. Singleton's The Royal Academicians in general assembly 1795 (at the Royal Academy of Arts, London).

Family members of Francis Bourgeois included Victor H. Bourgeois (1864–1935) and Louise Forget-Bourgeois (1830–1914).

Paintings

Paysage Anglais, huile signe P.F. Bourgeois 1787, dimensions 47 cm de hauteur et 67 cm de large, Bourgeois family
An Extensive Picturesque Landscape with Gypsies, by Sir Francis Bourgeois (oil on canvas, 109.2 x 160 cm. - Tabley House the Dining Room, Knutsford, Cheshire, U.K.)
A Scene in Coriolanus, with a portrait of the late J. P. Kemble as Coriolanus, by Sir Francis Bourgeois (1790s. oil on canvas, 110.5 x 88.9 cm. Sir John Soane's Museum, London)
The Chestnut Hunter, oil on canvas, 33¾"×43", signed and dated lower right "P. F. Bourgeois 1781, framed, titled and labeled on reverse: "British Sporting Paintings," exhibited at Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, England, 1943, loaned by Messrs. Frost & Reed, London, registered stock # of F.R. (Frost & Reed) B311. Note: Label on reverse lists the artist as Sir F. P. Bourgeois, however the biographical listing in E. Benezet is Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois. Condition: Under black light a few small areas of inpainting in the sky and an area to the right of the horse noted; basically in very fine condition. October 2003 Schrager Auction Galleries Ltd. item 1285 price was $18,000.00
The Ferry's Crossing watercolour/paper 24×37.5 cm sold 9 Sep 1993
Tobias and the Angel oil panel 20.3×20.8 cm Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Seashore oil canvas 101×106.3 cm Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Friar in Prayer oil panel 16.5×12 cm Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Soldiers oil panel 16.5×12 cm Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Man holding a Horse oil canvas 21×15.8 cm Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Tiger Hunt oil canvas 114.3×142.2 cm Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Landscape with Cattle oil canvas 91.7×145.1 cm Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Cupid oil canvas 60.6×81.9 cm Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Landscape with Cattle oil canvas 101.9×127.5 cm Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Landscape with Soldiers oil canvas 63.8×75.8 cm Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Figures in a Landscape oil canvas 43.2×76.2 cm Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Landscape with Cattle oil canvas 42.9×53 cm Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Cavalry in a Landscape oil canvas 40×67.9 cm Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Self-portrait oil canvas 61×51.8 cm provenance gift of the executors of Sir Felix Agar
Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois, creator Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois after Sir William Beechey oil canvas 76.2×60.9 cm damaged 1939/45 Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois, creator Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois after Sir William Beechey oil canvas 76.5×64.1 cm Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
William Tell oil canvas 76.8×110.2 cm Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Seashore oil canvas 91.7×146.7 cm Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Landscape with Cattle oil canvas 79.4×107.9 cm Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Funeral Procession oil canvas 131.5×206.1 cm Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Religion in the Desert oil canvas 94.6×120 cm damaged 1939/45 Bourgeois bequest 1811 at the Dulwich
A Man on Horseback, called Noel Desenfans creator ascribed to Bourgeois, Sir Peter Francis 1756 1811 oil canvas 119.7×101 cm; is the only picture in the collection that could conceivably be identified with no.273 in the 1813 inventory ('Desenfans up on Horse' by Bourgeois). The attribution to Bourgeois, however seems impossible and the identity of the sitter indeterminate. Provenance London, London, Sir Francis Bourgeois, 1811
Richard Earlom after Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois, Smugglers Defeated. From the original Picture in the Collection of Noel Desenfans Esqr. &c. London, B. B. Evans 1 May 1798. Mezzotint. 520×690mm
Scene pastorale, dessin lave de sepia, British Museum
Etude de troupeaux, aquarelle gouache, British Museum
Peter Francis Bourgeois, The Ferry's Crossing, Watercolor w/scratching out, 9.5×14.8 in. / 24.2×37;5 cm, Signed, sold by Bonhams Chelsea: 9.September 1993 Lot 130 English and Continental Watercolours and Drawings
Attributed To Peter Francis Bourgeois, Whispering sweet nothings, Oil on Canvas, 28.2×34.5 in. / 71.8×87.6 cm., sold by New Orleans Auction Galleries: 17 November 2002 Lot 975 Sale 0206, no picture available
After Peter Francis Bourgeois, Cottage Cares (+ Rural Innocence; 2 works by J. Whessell), 1806–, Medium stipple engravings in colors, 24×20.5 in. / 61×52 cm., R. Bowyer, pub., sold by Christie's South Kensington: 27.April 2006 Lot 2773, British and Continental Pictures
A Hen defending her chickens from the attack of a cat (oil on canvas, 37 x 98 cm. Sir John Soane's Museum, London)
Landscape (ca. 1793. Royal Academy of Arts, London)