Martin Drolling

The French painter of portraits and genre scenes Martin Drölling — also spelled Drolling — is associated with interior scenes, copies and portraits. These genres offer concrete points of reference for approaching a body of work that includes both figures and domestic subjects. Born on 19 September 1752 in Oberhergheim, he died in Paris on 16 April 1817. After an initial apprenticeship with a local painter, he continued his training in Strasbourg, where he shared a studio with the painter Maratti, then settled in Paris and entered the École des beaux-arts on 4 June 1779.

His work was not limited to easel painting: he worked at the Dihl et Guérhard manufactory, known as the manufactory of the Duke of Angoulême, and then worked as a decorative painter at the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres from 1802 to 1813. He exhibited at the Salon de la jeunesse in 1781 and 1782, then took part in the Salon from 1793 to 1817. La Salle à manger and La Maîtresse d’école were among the works presented at the 1817 Salon.

Several surviving works make it possible to explore different aspects of his output: Intérieur d’une cuisine, an oil on canvas dated 1815, is held at the Musée du Louvre; the Portrait of Élisabeth Belot, his wife, is dated around 1785 and held at the Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans; the portrait of Joseph Merceron, a lawyer at the Parlement de Paris, dated 1791, is held at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. Le Marchand forain, dated 1813, is also among the documented works. The Louvre also holds M. et Mme Louis-Charles Maigret, as well as studies and a letter by the artist. Paintings on porcelain are held at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg and the Musée de la porcelaine de Sèvres. Some of his family correspondence, deciphered by Carole Blumenfeld, was published in 2009 in the Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire de l’Art français.

Works recorded at auction

Dobiaschofsky

Woman holding a small child.

Oil on canvas

Original catalogue wording

Frau mit Kleinkind im Arm.
Öl auf Leinwand

Date to be documented

Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed

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Piguet

Le cortège des mariés

Paire d’huiles sur papier marouflé sur toile

Catalogue period : 2017-05-06

Published result : 11000 CHF

Fees not specified in the available data

Estimate : CHF 5000–8000

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