Lot 53 Dα

Born in Strasbourg, Pierre Jouffroy (1718 - 1796) came from a family of artists and was taught to paint in oil on canvas by his father. Jeannine Geyssant suspects that reverse glass paintings imported from China inspired him to pursue a career in this technique. The earliest known reverse glass painting by Jouffroy, Venus Weeping for Adonis, is dated 1752. By 1755, now based in Paris, he was already working for the French aristocracy. Through a portrait of Maria Leszczyńska, which he produced in 1759, he was noticed by her father, Stanislas Leszczyński, King of Poland, Duke of Lorraine and Bar (1677 - 1766). He gave him further commissions and he was now allowed to call himself court painter, "peintre sur glace du roi de Pologne". Shortly afterwards he met Princess Maria Christina of Saxony and Poland (1735 - 1782) and Electress Elisabeth Auguste of the Palatinate (1721 - 1794). After the death of Stanislas Leszczyński, he began to travel: he visited the German courts, London, The Hague, Lisbon. Respected even after the Revolution, he died in Paris in 1796.

There are still about 50 reverse glass paintings signed and dated by him, mostly portraits, but also mythological representations such as this Danaë. The design for the reverse glass painting was almost certainly also developed by Jouffroy. He knew the interpretations of the theme by Titian and Louis de Boullogne and probably also the works of François Boucher.
The lot includes a possible model, the engraving by Philippe Trière (1756 - c. 1815) after the painting by Antonio da Correggio (1489 - 1534).