GASCAR, Henri
French painter. He was perhaps the son of Pierre Gascar, an obscure painter and sculptor. In 1659 he made his first journey to Rome. He had probably returned to Paris by 1667, although he may have been in the Netherlands that year when he executed his fine portrait of Nicolas Delafond (St Petersburg, Hermitage), a journalist from Amsterdam. The informality of the pose and the simplicity of the sitter’s expression are reminiscent of contemporary Dutch portraits by such painters as Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp and Ferdinand Bol, but the elegance of gesture and the extremely refined treatment of drapery are entirely French.
In 1672 Gascar’s morceau de réception, a portrait of Louis de Bourbon, the Grand Dauphin (untraced), was rejected by the Académie Royale, a setback that may have been the cause of his departure for England in 1674. In London he worked at the court of Charles II, painting the portrait of, among others, Louise Renée de Penancoet de Kéroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth (Goodwood House, W. Sussex), with whom he found particular favour. During this period he also painted the double portrait of Lord Lisle and Dorothy Sidney, Children of the 3rd Earl of Leicester (Althorp House, Northants), which shows the influence of both Pierre Mignard and Peter Lely. His allegorical portrait of the Duchess of Grafton (Providence, RI, Brown University, Bell Gallery), on the other hand, seems to reveal the influence of Willem Wissing (c. 1656-1687). His most astonishing work in the English context is the full-length portrait of James, Duke of York, as Lord High Admiral (London, National Maritime Museum). The Duke (later James II) is presented in Roman armour in a manner reminiscent of images of Louis XIV, and the colouring has a curious metallic tonality.
Some time before 1680 he returned to Paris. He was elected a member of the Académie Royale there on 26 October 1680. He subsequently went to Rome, where he enjoyed a high reputation, and died there on 1 January 1701, aged 66.
