The present work was part of the collection of Hippolyte Gosse, one of Geneva’s most fascinating collectors who was described as one of the “most original figures” of the country. Son of the doctor Louis-André Gosse and Blanche Victorine Cécile Le Texier, Hippolyte Gosse studied in Paris, where he obtained his doctorate in 1863. Returning to Geneva, he married Marie Kossikovsky in 1872. From this union, their daughter Élisabeth Gosse was born. Hippolyte Gosse was appointed professor of forensic medicine in Geneva in 1875 and held this position until his death in 1901. However, it was his passion for archaeology, history, culture, and art that cemented his memory in Geneva. Hippolyte Gosse was director of the Musée archéologique and the Musée épigraphique of Geneva from 1872, and curator of the Salle des armures at the Musée d’art et d’histoire. Throughout his life, Hippolyte Gosse was curious, scholarly, and a “great collector of ideas, papers, and things”: he amassed a massive art collection.

Jean-Étienne Liotard is an emblematic figure in the history of art. After training briefly with Daniel Gardelle in Geneva, Liotard entered the studio of Jean-Baptiste Massé in Paris in 1723, where he began his apprenticeship. In the spring of 1736, he travelled to Rome, then, in 1738, to Constantinople, where he stayed until 1742, before moving on to Jassy and, in 1743, to Vienna, where he was noticed by the Empress, who hired him as court painter. After brief stays in Venice and Frankfurt, Jean-Étienne Liotard returned to Paris in 1746, where he remained until 1753. He then worked in London, The Hague and Amsterdam. In 1757, the painter returned to his native city with great renown, while continuing to exhibit his works abroad. After a final trip to Vienna in 1777 and a year in Lyon in 1781, Jean-Étienne Liotard settled in the Geneva countryside in 1782.

The pastel at hand represents the Portrait of Pastor Jean-Pierre du Maine (1685?-1748), pastor of Lausanne and Daillens, identifiable thanks to an 18th-century inscription: “Le Vénérable et Docte M. Du Maine, Ministre... et l’un des Venerables pasteurs de Lausanne Peint par le fameux Liotard soussigné. Mort à 63 ans” (reverse, top center). Moreover, thanks to the autograph inscription, we know that the pastel was “Peint en Juillet 1721 par J. Etienne Liotard” (reverse, center). This is therefore one of Jean-Étienne Liotard’s earliest works, which holds particular documentary value as it is the “premier portrait documenté signé et daté exécuté à Genève” (M. Roethlisberger & R. Loche 2008, vol. I, cat. no. 4, p. 234).