(Paris 1729–1791)
Portrait of an elegant young lady in a pink dress,
signed and dated lower right: Lenoir p... 1756,
oil on canvas, 56 x 41 cm, framed

Lenoir was the the son of Louis Antoine Lenoir, a marchand orfèvre in Paris. Simon Bernard was a medallist at the Académie royale and as such he exhibited at the Salon de la Jeunesse in 1760. He was already notorious, however, for the Portrait of Mademoiselle Allard (the dancer and mistress of the duc de Mazarin). One police report remarked: “Mademoiselle Allard had her portrait painted by ‘Lenoir - everyone immediately recognised her” (28. XII 1759, reported in Pierre Manuel, La Police de Paris dévoilée, Paris, 1794, p. 91), while another added: “she wanted to give the portrait to M. le chevalier de Luxembourg to re-ignite his waning passion for her.” The painter was reçu by the Académie de Saint Luc in 1760, becoming full professeur in 1774. He was named peintre de portrait du prince de Condé in 1779 and his name appears in the accounts at Chantilly. Lenoir produced portraits in both oil and pastel, many of which were exhibited at the Salon de l’Académie de Saint Luc (1762, 1764 and 1774). Castan justly noted that his works: “are distinguished by a very French grace in the composition, a lively and easy note and a delicate and well nuanced colouring.”

The present portrait is an impressive and very elegant, early work that shows all of the qualities of a young and fresh artist. A version in pastel from the collection of Baron Gourgaud was sold at Tajan in 2001.