ATTRIBUTED TO ALEXANDER ROSLIN (Swedish, 1718-1793). PORTRAIT OF CLAUDE JOSEPH ROUGET DE LISLE (French, 1760-1836), COMPOSER OF LA MARSEILLAISE, oil on canvas. Carved gilt-wood frame, the lower border affixed with identification plaque - Framed, oval: 32 in. x 25 1/2 in. Estimate $7,000-9,000
Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle was born May 10, 1760, in the French Jura (French Swiss Alps). He entered the army and became a captain of engineers. While stationed in Strasbourg, at an official dinner, his host, the Mayor of Strasbourg, suggested the need for a marching song for the troops. Rouget de Lisle composed "Chant de guerre pour l'armee de Rhin" on the night of April 25, 1792. The song was later sung by Marseillaise troops marching to Paris that summer (hence the name "La Marseillaise") and was adopted as the national anthem by the Convention in a decree passed on July 14, 1795. Rouget de Lisle was relieved of his commission and imprisoned for a year during the Terror, but was freed after the counter-revolution, and granted his former rank in the army in 1795. He resigned his commission in 1796. Later granted a pension in 1830, he died in 1835.
Alexander Roslin was born in Malmo, Sweden, in 1718. He studied art, traveling to Beyrouth, 1745-47, to Italy, 1747-51, to Paris in 1752. Roslin was admitted to the Academy in 1753 and exhibited at the annual Salons of 1754, 1756, 1767, and 1775; Roslin was a renowned portraitist throughout his life. He married in 1759. In 1774, he made a triumphal tour of Sweden, followed by a stay in St. Petersburg in 1775-78. He returned to Paris via Poland and Vienna and remained there the rest of his life until his death in 1793.
