Francois Bernard (Also known as Francisco Bernard, France/Louisiana, 1812-1875, active New Orleans ca. 1856 – 1875) oil on canvas oval half-portrait of a seated young woman with brown hair and wearing a burgundy dress with gold brooch and white lace collar and cuffs, signed and dated "Bernard 1860" at lower right. Period carved giltwood frame with oval insert. Sight: 12 3/4" H x 10 1/2" W, Frame: 18 3/4" H x 16 5/8" W. Circa 1860. Biography (courtesy Richard Anthony Lewis, Louisiana State Museum): Francois Bernard is best known as a New Orleans portrait, landscape, and genre painter. His origins are uncertain but he is thought to have been born around 1829 in France. The Benezit Dictionary of Artists, first published in 1911, lists a Jean Francois Armand Felix Bernard, born 1829, stating that he studied with Jean-Claude Bonnefond and Jean Paul Flandrin at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, but makes no mention of Louisiana scenes. Bernard may have been in New Orleans as early as 1848, but the first newspaper mention of him in that city does not appear until 1856. After that point, he exhibited numerous times, including at the American Exposition in 1885-86. He was awarded a silver medal for "the best head in oil" at the Grand State Fair in 1869. His style has been described as direct, businesslike, and scrupulously detailed and compared with fellow New Orleans painter George Coulon. Bernard struggled in the post Civil War Southern economy and moved to Peru shortly before his death in about 1875. CONDITION: Varnish runs in areas, overall moderate craquelure and surface grime. Minor losses to frame edges and repaired breaks and some repaint to gold painted wooden liner. Separations or shrinkage cracks in corners of frame.