[EXPO] Carpentras pays homage to the painter J.- S. Duplessis, child of the country

Joseph-Siffred Duplessis is a native painter of Carpentras to whom his city pays homage this summer to the Impuimbertine Hôtel-Dieu. Similarly, with a beautiful exhibition. Nevertheless, We will celebrate in September the tricentenary of the birth of this “invisible” painter. Nevertheless, as the feminists say to speak of an artist who has not known posterity. Similarly, But Duplessis is proof that it is not the patriarchy that is involved, in these upset posthumous destinies.

Unhappy portrait painter of Marie-Antoinette – [expo] carpentras pays homage painter

First trained in painting by a monk by Villeneuve-lès-Avignon. For example, the young Duplessis leaves for Rome where he works in the workshop of Pierre Subleyras. Consequently, Back in his hometown a few years later. Similarly, he paints paintings for the Saint-Siffrein Cathedral of Carpentras and then went up to Paris. Meanwhile, Academy of Saint-Luc first, Royal Academy of Painting in 1769: Duplessis established [expo] carpentras pays homage painter itself as a portrait painter. Consequently, Diderot notices his portrait of Father François Arnaud. Similarly, “A beautiful thing for the resemblance, the character and the vigor of the brush”.

His reputation was quite established so that in 1771, he received the order of the equestrian portrait of the Dauphine Marie-Antoinette. Furthermore, Despite all the installation sessions. Meanwhile, despite all its sketches, and perhaps because of the truth that it puts in it, the unfinished study is rejected. Furthermore, And it is to Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun that he will come back the honor of portraying Sountes times time Marie-Antoinette. Therefore, (systemic patriarchy is a fragile concept). Furthermore, Duplessis has his revenge at the Salon of 1777, where he presented the portrait of Louis XVI in coronation.

Joseph Siffred Duplessis, self -portrait (detail), 1780. Consequently, Oil on canvas | H. 59; L. 49 cm. Carpentras, Library-Musée Inguimbertine, inv. 2009.0.4

Duplessis at the heart of a « fake news »

Another celebrity than Portraituée Duplessis: Benjamin Franklin. A pastel and an oil. It was according to these works that Franklin’s portrait was engraved on US hundred dollars tickets. In 2021. the American media welcomed that Joe Biden hung on the oval office with oil painting, signed Duplessis, representing Franklin in gray jacket. “Some see it as a break with the Trump administrationwrote Politico. who tried to silence government climatologists, weaken public health and environment protections ”.

This was conscientiously taken up by the French media and the site of the city of Carpentras. It was a « fake news » : The table had been hung in the oval office by … Donald Trump from 2019, as articles [expo] carpentras pays homage painter and photos are proof of it. Biden had only changed the space board in the room. but it was necessary to anchor in the spirits the image of an uneducated and obscurantist Trump! And this is how Duplessis, the most honest man, was embarked on a « fake news ».

Joseph Siffred Duplessis, Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790). Oil on canvas | H. 72.4; L. 58.4 cm. New York (United States), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 32.100.132.

A third -party painter

Among the other celebrities spent in his workshop. the composer Gluck (in the harpsichord), the Necker, the painter Vien… Bernard Dorival judged Duplessis “Scrupulous to excess and intimidated” in his court portraits, but giving all the measure of his talent “In his probes portraits of the [expo] carpentras pays homage painter third party” (French paintingLarousse, 1946). He has indeed painted remarkable. In addition to that of Benjamin Franklin. that of Marie-Thérèse Heurtin-Ducis, that of his fellow Carpentrassian painter Joseph Péru-and, on the nobility, the male effigy of Etienne de Leuctres de Canillac.

The end of his career will be sad – like many other painters who will not survive. professionally, during the Revolution. When it bursts, it is in its 64^e year. He was first responsible for the inventory of works of art in the district of Carpentras then. in 1796, was appointed curator at the Palace of Versailles. A place paid every 36 of the month, in poorly heated apartments and without budget to restore paintings and sculptures … What is more, Duplessis then prides itself on science, taking an interest in the properties of the rubber. Unwelcome to administrations. he dies “A little spoiled, it seems, in 1802, not [expo] carpentras pays homage painter without having married her faithful servant late” late “wrote the art historian Jean-Louis Vaudoyer. A death not up to the one we had, thirty years earlier, nicknamed the “Van Dyck of France”. Van Dyck, it was not, certainly. But he had other qualities, highlighted in this exhibition in Carpentras.

• Until September 28, 2025, Impuimbertine Hôtel-Dieu, Carpentras. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., closed on Monday. Guided tours of the exhibition: in June and September, every Sunday at 11 a.m. In July and August: every Tuesday at 4 p.m. Family visit (reserved for children accompanied by an adult): during school holidays: every Friday at 4 p.m.

Elisabeth Fréret d’Héricourt,
born Gonnet.
Oil on canvas.
Kansas City, Nelson Atkins Museum