Jules Defer (1803-1902) - La Reine Victoria au Chalet des Rosiers, Menton (Alpes Maritime)

DEFER Jules (1803-1902)

“Queen Victoria at the Chalet des Rosiers, Menton”

Oil on canvas,
Monogrammed bottom left,
Annotated on the back of the frame by the artist: "Chalet des Rosiers - Residence of Her Majesty the Queen of England - 1882 - Menton".

Beautiful finely detailed work by the Nice painter Jules Defer, depicting a rare view of Queen Victoria’s residence during her stay in Menton in 1882.
We can glimpse Queen Victoria, dressed in black mourning since the loss of her husband in 1861, accompanied by two ladies of the chamber strolling in the park of the chalet.
The artist pays particular attention to the details of the Chalet des Rosiers, to the flowering vegetation and to the garden conservatory.

The villa known as Chalet des Rosiers was built in 1879 in the midst of a plot planted with olive trees and lemon trees. Gardens were laid out, particularly planted with rambling rose bushes that gave the name to the residence. The property was then larger, bounded by the Garavan Boulevard to the northwest, the railway to the southeast and the Noel Villa path to the north. Charles Henfrey, a engineer who had made a fortune in railway construction, especially in the Indies, also owned a chalet on the shores of Lake Maggiore where Queen Victoria had stayed in 1879.
In March 1882, Queen Victoria came to reside at Chalet des Rosiers, arriving by train with a retinue of about sixty people. It was the first of her stays on the French Riviera, where she would return until 1899 in other towns in the Var or Alpes-Maritime.
In 1957, most of the park was built over and Chalet des Rosiers is today divided into apartments.

A student of the famous landscape painter Jean-Victor Bertin, Jules Defer entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1824. As early as 1829, he entered the contest for the Grand Prix de Rome in the section "Historical Landscape".
He settled on the French Riviera shortly after the annexation of Savoy and the County of Nice (1860), first in Monaco, then in Nice around 1863. He devoted his life to producing small-format paintings painted on site in the Nice region, imbued with a fine sensitivity and highly sought after by collectors.
Through his precise brushwork and his color palette, the painter Jules Defer manages to depict Mediterranean vegetation, its atmosphere and its plays of light with precision and immediacy.

This work is a fine testimony of a nineteenth-century historical event and the town of Menton.

Dimensions: 13.5 x 21.5 cm without its frame and 24.5 x 32.5 cm with its original goldwood frame.

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