A Monk of the Brotherhood of Charitable Instructors

Summary

The sitter's identity has not been confirmed, but it is known that two members of this religious order visited England in 1854 with a view to establishing the order in England. They were Brother Théotique, Head of the school at Passy in Paris and his Vice-Principal, Brother Barthelemy; the latter returned to England in 1855 and started a school. Known portraits of Brother Théotique confirm that he was not Browne's sitter. If the portrait were painted in France it could have been any one of the order; if in England, it is quite likely to have been Brother Barthelemy. The prominent position of the painting in Manchester may have been partly down to its value as a work of art (the skilfully modelled face and hands, the sitter's expressivity), but also because of local interest in the Brothers, who had been established in Liverpool since 1866 and in Manchester since 1886. Henriette Browne was the pseudonym of Mme Jules de Saux, née Sophie de Bouteiller, the daughter of Comte de Bouteiller, who was of an old Breton family. She studied first with Emile Perrin from 1849, then with Charles Chaplin from 1851, where she was able to draw from the nude, which was exceptional for women artists at that time. Browne exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon from 1853 to 1878. Her portraits and genre scenes commanded high prices from influential patrons, among them Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie. The present work was shown at the Universal Exposition of 1855, where it was spotted by the dealer E. Gambert, who subsequently promoted her work at the French Gallery in London. Her interest in figure painting extended to Orientalist portraits and genre scenes, based on her own experiences of travelling in Turkey, Morocco, Egypt and Syria with her husband, a diplomat. She also exhibited at the Royal Academy, London.