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Louis Remy Mignot painting

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(South Carolina/New York/Britain, 1831-1870), "Solitude or Sunset", panoramic landscape with lone pine trees and a marsh, crescent moon partially visible behind clouds, oil on canvas, unsigned, 30 x 41-7/8 in.; original 19th century Barbizon gilt wood and composition frame. Restretched on new stretcher, lined, craquelure, scattered light retouch at points in sky and land and at edges affecting less than 10 percent of surface; frame with abrasions, surface restorations. Reserve: $80,000 Louis Remy Mignon (1801-1848) is among Charleston's most celebrated artists of the 19th century. This painting, "Solitude or Sunset" is one of the last privately held major paintings by the artist with long Charleston residence. It is known to have been exhibited in the city from an article published published in the Courier dated May 13, 1854 stating "Two exceedingly well executed oil paintings 'A Wood Scene' and 'Solitude or Sunset' by Louis R. Mignot, a young native artist of our city, but now a resident of New York, may have been seen at the store of Messrs. Hayden, Bro & Co., in King St." The same artical is noted by Anna Wells Rutledge in Artists In The Life Of Charleston Through Colony And State From Restoration To Reconstruction, 1949, Vol. 39, part 2, page 167. It was likely purchased from the artist by the Chazal family of Charleston, probably soon after the exhibition, and it remained in their hands for three generations. The Chazal family, French emigres who fled the slave uprising in Santo Domingo, made their fortune anew as privateers in the War of 1812. It is likely that the Mignot and Chazal families knew each other, as both were part of a tightly knit group of French Catholics in Charleston. That the painting offered here is the same "Solitude or Sunset" exhibited in 1854 is supported by Chazal family correspondence. Mrs. Louis R. Chazal wrote to "Miss Rutledge" (presumable Anna Wells Rutledge) in 1941, describing a woodland scene by Mignot. Mrs. Chazal noted that "the mate is owned by Miss Annette Chazal, 45 Meeting Street". The two paintings likely represent the two Mignot snet to Charleston in 1854, both of which must have been purchased by the Chazals. The painting offered here, along with the house at 45 Meeting Street, were acquired from the Chazal family by the father of the consignor in the early 1960's. It has remained in Charleston until the present. A masterful luminist vision, "Solitude or Sunset" ranks among the artist's most important works. The artist drew on this primary example, executing later copies based on the composition, including "Pontine Marshes", a painting exhibited at the Charleston, South Carolina Institute's Fifth Annual Fair, April 11-26, 1855 as number 86 (see Manthorne and Coffee, The Landscapes of Louis Remy Mignot, cat. No. 14). Another smaller version executed in 1855 with the title "Solitude" was sold at Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg, New York, May 21, 2002.

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