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= Sophie Regnault =

Early and Personal Life:
Sophie Regnault (nee Meyer) is an French artist born in 1763. Her father was a Parisian watchmaker called Francois Meyer. While attending the French Academy Sophie meet her future husband, French academician and painter, Jean-Baptiste Regnault. The pair married in 1786. Sophie died in 1825 at the age of 62 in Paris. She is buried next to her husband in Père-Lachaise Cemetery.

Education:
Sophie studied and attended the French Academy in Rome. While studying there she was taught by Jacques-Louis David.

Professional life:
Sophie's husband Jean-Baptiste Regnaul t ran an art school for upper-class female artists in Paris. This connection and daily contact with upper class Parisians allowed Sophie to have access to wealthy patrons for her portraits. Written in the Souvenirs of Albertine Clément (1778–1855), which was published in 1832, Clement state that Sophie was a functioning role within the studio. He says that Madame Regnault was always present and treated the students as if they were her daughters. This primary source indicts to us that potentially Sophie had a teaching role within the school, which for the time was incredibly unusual as the Academy frowned upon women teachers. Sophie had a major role within the art studio for young women as she used fashion and costumes as a form of learning about artistic and social practices for the students. This allowed the students to have knowledge of historical dresses and accessories to correctly put in period paintings. It is thought that Sophie met most of her clients through her social circles.

Genre of Artist:
As we there is limited paintings by Sophie Regnault, we can only assume that by the work we have access to today that she was a portrait painter. Her delicately and softly blurred style of portraiture we can assume that she painted with the romanticism style, as although the portraits is clear that it is of a sitter that is that element of mystery and emotions from the blurred appearance. However, Sophie’s husband was a history genre painter and they both worked side-by-side in his studio, both teaching and painting themselves. This could lead us to image as Jean-Baptiste Regnault and Sophie’s works are similar in style, that like her husband Sophie did do historical paintings, however they have not survived of known to us today.

Major Works Attributed to or off Artist:
One of the only known full-body portrait, we have of Sophie was done by fellow French artist Elisabeth Henriette Marthe Lorimier, better known as Henriette Lorimier in 1809. Henriette was 12 years senior to Sophie and ran in the same social circle as their husbands would of known each other. Henriette Lorimier’s portrait for Sophie was completed the year before Lorimier exhibited at the Salon of 1806, where she caught the attention of Empress Josephine. Henriette’s husband Francois Pouqueville was a French diplomat and philhellene writer. Henriette Lorimer was also a student of Sophie’s husband Jean-Baptiste Regnaul t, so it possible that Sophie ended up being the sitter for this portrait, as a practice for Henriette to build and improve on her painting skills in Jean-Baptistes’ studio. Records show that Charles Louis Regnault owned this portrait at some point, it is thought that he received it as a gift from Jean-Baptistes. This portrait has been on the market twice in the last century, once for sale in December 1912 and secondly in June of 1920.

Another known work by Sophie Regnault is is a 1791 portrait of a female. We know Sophie Regnault painted this portrait courtesy of her signature and date on the back of the portrait. However, there is much debate in who the sitter actually is. The portrait is either a self-portrait by Regnault or a portrait of Lucile Desmoulins. The sitters identify has historically been questions by Auction houses. Christie’s this that the sitter is Madame Regnault and Hotel Drouot think that this portrait is by Madame Regnault of Lucile Desmounlins. However subtle clues such as the position and importance put on the sitter’s hand indicate that it is a self-portrait. This portrait in question is currently in the collection of the Museo de Arte de Ponce.

Another portrait of Sophie Regnault is Portrait of Mme. Regnault by Jean-Baptiste Regnault. This portrait of Sophie Regnault was sold aside a self-portrait of her husband Jean-Batiste Regnault on 4th of June 1962. Then it reappeared on the art market in 1972, where it was sold again into a private collection.

Portraits of Jean-Francois Heurtier and Marie-Victorie Heutier by Sophie Regnault from 1801.

It is also possible that Sophie may have assisted her husband in his studio on many famous painting, such as Déscente de Croix (1789), Les Trois Grâces (1799), and La Marche triomphale de Napoléon Ier vers le temple de l'immortalité (1804).

Art Market Today:
Today Sophie Regnault’s work is highly prized within the art market. In an auction by Christies’ auction house Regnault’s Portraits of Jean-Francois Heurtier and Marie-Victorie Heutier from 1801 sold overestimate at $106,250 USD. This bid went $80,000 over its top estimate proving that Sophie’s work is highly in demand of today. This high demand and price is probably related to her talent and skill as well has there being only a few of her works known today in the art market.