Jacques Guillaume Lucien Amans (French/Louisiana, 1801-1888) , "Marguerite Azoline Landreaux Amans (1805-1878), Wife of the Artist", oil on canvas, unsigned, oval 28 in. x 23 in., framed . Provenance: Descended in the family of the sitter and artist. Note: Marguerite Azoline Landreaux was born in New Orleans in 1805 to wealthy sugar planter, Honoré Landreaux and his wife, Marie Claudine Picou, both of New Orleans. In 1844, she married artist Jacques Amans, who had traveled to the city from France to work as a portraitist in 1836. Remarkably talented, Amans was accomplished at a young age and even exhibited at the Paris salon by the age of thirty. He and Marguerite would stay in New Orleans until 1856, when they moved to Paris. Amans, the most important portrait painter in New Orleans from the 1830s to the 1850s, received commissions to paint prominent families of the region. His impressive list of sitters includes members of the Roman and Aime families, as well as Clara Mazureau and Elizabeth Bryan Pugh, among many others. His portraits of women and children in particular are celebrated for their tenderness and ethereal charm.In the important lot offered here, Marguerite Azoline Landreaux is depicted with warm sensitivity. The center part hairstyle and pearl drop earrings reflect the style of the 1850s, likely when this painting was created. At the time, demure clothing and hair styling were in fashion, and Amans perfectly captures the understated elegance and beauty of his wife’s face, hair, and clothing with his characteristic brushwork and attention to detail. Descended in the French family of the sitter, this offering likely represents the portrait’s first return to the city of its origins. Ref.: Lewis, Richard Anthony. “Jacques Amans.” 64 Parishes. Jan. 11, 2011. www.64parishes.org. Accessed Aug. 2, 2019.