19 Century French Empire Portraits of an Aristocratic Couple by Antoine Borel

A pair of original oil paintings on canvas depicting a handsome young couple of the Directoire, early Empire period. They are each pictured from the waist up, she holding a red shawl over and around her arms; the background a dark cloudy landscape. The portraits have their original carved and gilded empire frames with anthemian (palmette) borders. French circa 1805.

Antoine Borel was born in Paris in 1743 and died there in 1810; he was a French painter, draftsman and engraver. The son of a portrait painter, Borel first devoted himself to the same genre of painting, and then preferred to depict, mostly in watercolors, subjects of manners and political allegories, which he often engraved himself. Although in this specialty he often put his talent to the service of erotic books he also made many compositions for serious works, among which Plutarch (1783), the Théâtre des Grecs (1785) -1789), the Works of Belloy (1787), Charles IX, tragedy of Chénier (1790); the Works of Regnard (1790).

Dimensions: 26″ W (56cm) x (27″) H (69cm)