Bibliography
William Hauptman, Michel Clément-Grandcour, Charles Gleyre et la Suisse romande, exh. cat. Lausanne, Musée historique de Lausanne, 1994: n. 659.
Catherine Lepdor (ed.), Charles Gleyre. Le génie de l’invention, exh. cat. Lausanne, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Milan, 5 Continents Editions, 2006: 99-105, n. 154.
William Hauptman, Charles Gleyre 1806-1874. I Life and Works. II Catalogue raisonné, Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press et Zurich, Swiss Institute for Art Research, 1996: n. 659.
This portrait is painted in the realist tradition of bourgeois portraiture initiated by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and his Portrait of Monsieur Bertin (1832, now in the Louvre). The sitter is the Vaud pastor Jean-Jacques Marquis (1799-1863), a childhood friend of the theologian Alexandre Vinet. Both rebelled against the radicals who attacked the autonomy of the church during the Vaud Revolution of 1845. Marquis was removed from his post and in 1847 helped establish the Free Church in Montreux, becoming one of its best-known preachers.
Marquis was a sociable man by nature, hosting many prominent Swiss cultural figures at his home, the château du Châtelard in Montreux, including Charles Gleyre on his visits to Switzerland and the author Juste Olivier. Olivier, keen to obtain commissions for Gleyre, asked him to paint their mutual friend on a visit to Paris for the Universal Exhibition. Marquis sat for the portrait in Juste Olivier’s apartments on the Place des Vosges.
Marquis is shown sitting in front of a backdrop of red damask decorated with a pomegranate motif, contrasting with the green tablecloth draped over a table. On the table is a pile of books, gesturing to his status as a man of letters. They include a volume by Alexandre Vinet, who had died a few years previously, and the second edition of Juste Olivier’s poetry collection Chansons lointaines (Distant Songs), which featured Gleyre’s portrait of the author. The brightly coloured kerchief spilling from his pocket contrasts pleasantly with the pastor’s austere black garb.