LEROY DE BARDE, Alexandre-Isidore

(b. 1777 Montreuil, d. 1828 Paris)

French painter, active in England. An amateur virtuoso of still-life watercolour painting, Leroy de Barde appears to have been entirely self-taught. In 1792 he emigrated to England with his monarchist family to avoid the Revolution. The first mention of him as an artist is as an ‘honorary’ exhibitor at the Royal Academy exhibition of 1797 when he showed two watercolours, Fruit and Grapes (untraced). He styled himself ‘Le Chevalier de Barde’ and signed his works thus. He also exhibited in Royal Academy exhibitions in 1800, 1801 and 1802 with various flower paintings and a composition of Moths and Butterflies. The paintings exhibited in 1800 are still in the Royal Academy: Double Narcissus and Lilies of the Valley, Lilac Branch and Green Oak.

Crystallised Minerals

This work shows several specimens from renowned English collections and from the collection of Jacques-Louis de Bournon (1751-1825), who had emigrated with Leroy de Barde in 1794 and later became director of the mineralogy collection of Louis XVIII. Among the minerals featured: in the lower left a piece of malachite and several stones from Siberia; and in the upper left a specimen of aventurine found in the ruins of the arch of triumph of Julius Caesar at Susa in the Piedmont.

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Selection of Shells Arranged on Shelves

This trompe-l’oeil painting belonged to the collection of Louis XVIII. The shells were painted in the Leverian Museum, a collection Sir Ashton Lever (1729-88) exhibited in London, and several come from private collections.

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