General Jean Baptiste Bossier

Artist John James Audubon (American, born Haiti, 1785 - 1851)

Date1821

MediumCrayon and ink over graphite on paper

DimensionsOverall: 12 3/4 × 9 1/2 inches (32.39 × 24.13 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Elise Guignon Collins in memory of Barat Guignon

Object number60-44

SignedLeft border near lower edge, pen and ink: "Audubon/1821"

On View

Not on view

Collections

American Art

Terms

DescriptionThree-quarter, bust-length portrait of man with long disorderly hair, whiskers on cheeks, piercing gaze; dressed in black coat with wide, notched lapels, black waistcoat, high white collar, black stock, pleated white shirt, against light-grey ground. Two buttons below lapel, half of end of book held under left arm. Upper and lower left corners missing.Provenance

Provenance

Jean Baptiste Bossier (ca. 1783-1842), Ste. Genevieve, MO, 1821-1842;

By descent to his daughter, Carmelite M. Bossier Guignon (1814-1896), St. Louis, MO, 1842-1896;

By descent to her son, Emile S. Guignon (1856-1941), St. Louis, MO and Kansas City, MO, 1896-1941 [1];

By descent to his son, Barat A. Guignon (1886-1960), Kansas City, MO, ca. 1915-1960 [2];

By descent to Elise Guignon Collins (1895-1992), Kansas City, MO, 1960;

Her gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1960.

NOTES:

[1] This portrait is mentioned in a newspaper article by Mrs. Charles P. Johnson, “When the King of Greece Came to Missouri,” St. Louis Globe Democrat (March 3, 1912): “Gen. Bossier was a man of splendid appearance. While John James Audubon, the naturalist, was living in Ste. Genevieve he made a crayon portrait of the general, which is an excellent likeness. This was handed down to his daughter, Mrs. S. Guignon, and is still preserved by the grandchildren, who are living in St. Louis at the present time.”

[2] Barat Guignon lent this drawing to the exhibition American Ancestor Portraits at the Nelson-Atkins, April 4-May 3, 1953.

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