Henri Gascar (1635 – 1 Jan 1701) (also Gascard, Gascars) was a French-born portrait painter who achieved artistic success in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

during the reign of Charles II. He painted many leading ladies at court, including several of the King's mistresses, before returning to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. He subsequently relocated to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, where he died in 1701.

Life and work

Gascar was born in Paris, the son of Pierre Gascar, a minor painter and sculptor. Gascar came to England about 1674, probably at the behest of Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth, Charles II's favourite mistress. Gascar (or Gascard, as he seems to have spelt his name at first) was already known as a skillful portrait-painter; among the portraits already painted by him was that of Nicolas de Lafond, author of the "Gazette of Holland", painted in 1667, and engraved by Peter Lombart. The patronage of the Duchess of Portsmouth ensured Gascar a rapid success in England. His flamboyant style, contrasting with the stolid English approach, seemed to suit the frivolity of the time and he painted many of the ladies of Charles II's court. His lack of attention to detail in the likeness he made up for by the sumptuous draperies and tawdry adornments around the subject. For a short time he became fashionable, and is said to have amassed a fortune of over £10,000. Among the portraits painted by him during his time in England were Charles II (engraved by Peter Vanderbank); Louise, Duchess of Portsmouth (twice - once engraved by

Étienne Baudet Étienne Baudet, an eminent French engraver, was born at Vineuil, in the department of Loir-et-Cher, about 1636. He was a pupil of Sébastien Bourdon and Cornelis Bloemaert, and afterwards went to Rome, and appears to have adopted the manner o ...

); Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland (née Villiers), and her daughter, Barbara Fitzroy;

Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, 1st Duke of Lennox, (29 July 167227 May 1723), of Goodwood House near Chichester in Sussex, was the youngest of the seven illegitimate sons of King Charles II, and was that king's only son by his French-bo ...

;

Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond Frances Teresa Stewart, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox (8 July 1647Encyclopædia Britannica – 15 October 1702) was a prominent member of the Court of the Restoration and famous for refusing to become a mistress of Charles II of England. For her ...

;

George FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Northumberland Lieutenant-General George FitzRoy, Duke of Northumberland, KG, PC (28 December 1665 – 28 June 1716) was the third and youngest illegitimate son of King Charles II of England ('Charles the Black') by Barbara Villiers, Countess of Cast ...

; Nell Gwyn;

Sophia Bulkeley Sophia Bulkeley (née Stewart; fl. 1660–1718) was a Scottish Jacobite courtier. Life She was a younger daughter of Walter Stewart (or Stuart), the third son of Walter Stewart, 1st Lord Blantyre, M.P. for Monmouth, her elder sister being the ...

(engraved by Robert Dunkarton); Edmund Verney; and

Philip Herbert, 7th Earl of Pembroke Philip Herbert, 7th Earl of Pembroke, 4th Earl of Montgomery KB (1652/53 – 29 August 1683) was an English nobleman and politician who succeeded to the titles and estates of two earldoms on 8 July 1674 on the death of his brother William Her ...

. It is stated that the last-named portrait was done surreptitiously for Louise, Duchess of Portsmouth. A portrait by Gascar of James II as Duke of York was in that king's collection. Some time before 1680 he was shrewd enough to see that his success was merely due to a fashionable craze, and he retired to Paris before this had entirely ceased. Another possibility is that he left due to increasing anti-French and anti-Catholic feeling in England after the Popish Plot and Exclusion crisis. On his return to Paris, Gascar was elected a member of the Académie Royale there on 26 October 1680. He subsequently went to

, where he enjoyed a high reputation, and died there on 1 January 1701, aged 66. About 1698 he had painted a portrait of Joseph Ferdinand, the young son of Maximilian II, which was engraved at Munich by Zimmermann. A number of

mezzotint Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the '' intaglio'' family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonal ...

engravings done from portraits by Gascar, but bearing no engraver's name, have been attributed to Gascar himself. There is no evidence that he really engraved them, but the inscriptions do indicate the work of a non-Englishman. They are interesting as being among the earliest specimens of mezzotint engraving done in England.

References

External links

Biography of Henri Gascar
(National Maritime Museum)
James, Duke of York, 1633-1701
(National Maritime Museum)
Portraits by Henri Gascar
(National Portrait Gallery, London) ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Gascar, Henri 1635 births 1701 deaths 17th-century French painters French male painters French portrait painters French emigrants to the Kingdom of England Painters from Paris