In the case of Antoine Vestier (1740-1824) the pronounced leaning
towards the English style of the period is to be accounted for by that
artist’s lengthy sojourn in England. The _Portrait of a Young Woman_
(No. 961), in the La Caze Room, might on superficial inspection pass
for a work of Francis Cotes. Even in the _Portrait of the Painter’s
Wife_ (No. 959), which was painted in 1787, long after Vestier’s return
to his native country, the figure of a boy caressing a dog has a
curiously English flavour.
Honesty of purpose and serious concern with artistic problems mark the
art of Nicolas Bernard Lépicié (1735-1784), whose _Portrait of Carle
Vernet_ (549A) is a picture of precious quality. He devoted himself
more particularly to the domestic genre, which he treated without the
sentimentality and theatricality of a Greuze. Indeed, if there is any
contemporary painter with whom he shows affinity, it is Siméon Chardin.
That he was a landscape painter of no mean ability may be gathered from
his _Farmyard_ (No. 549), which, in spite of the predominating brown,
is remarkable for its luminous transparency.