Hermann WINTERHALTER
(Menzenschwand, 1808 – Karlsruhe, 1891)

Portrait of Mathilde Leclerc de Juigné, Viscountess of Damascus (1828-1897)

Oil on oval canvas
73 x 59 cm

Provenance: Private collection, Fontainebleau; Private collection, Paris.

Hermann Winterhalter was the younger brother of the renowned Baden court portraitist Franz Xaver Winterhalter. Encouraged by his father to follow in his elder brother's footsteps, he first studied engraving with his uncle and then worked at Karl Von Piloty's lithographic institute in Munich in 1833. Alongside his work as a lithographer, he began learning painting. To perfect his skills in this discipline, the young artist undertook several travels. In Rome, he discovered the great Italian masters and enjoyed studying 18th-century Italian portraiture.
In 1837, he joined his older brother in Paris, where he settled for several years. Closely connected with his brother, he took charge of Franz Xaver's Parisian studio during his travels abroad, providing him with enormous support in his international career. The two brothers were so close in their work, artistic perception, and personalities that it is difficult to separate some of their works.
Hermann Winterhalter drew his inspiration from his brother, who was the portraitist of crowned heads throughout Europe. There was no professional or personal rivalry between the two artist brothers, who worked together for many years and even exhibited together at the Salon des Artistes Français between 1838 and 1869.
In the 1850s, Hermann became more independent of his brother's themes and painted his own portraits. Among his most emblematic works are "Young Girl from Ariccia" and the portrait of his Parisian master Nicolas-Louis Planat de la Faye, now in the Louvre Museum.
After the fall of the Second Empire in 1870, the two brothers left France and retired to Baden. Franz Xaver died three years later, and Hermann continued his career as a painter. He continued to receive numerous commissions but no longer participated in exhibitions.

Mathilde Victoire Marie Leclerc de Juigné was the only daughter of the Viscount of Juigné, himself from the younger branch of this illustrious family whose family fiefdoms were located in Anjou. In 1850, she married Paul-Marie de Damas, a member of the Cormaillon family, the son of a Minister of War and later of Foreign Affairs.
Mathilde de Juigné, like many of her contemporaries, devoted herself to drawing and watercolor. We know of floral plates of hers executed around 1850/60.At the age of 69, the Viscountess de Damas died in the infamous fire at the Bazar de la Charité on May 4, 1897. This event left 132 dead, the vast majority of them women, from prominent French families or European courts. The Duchess of Alençon, sister of Empress Sissi, was among the victims.