Nicolas-Auguste Hesse (Paris, 1795 - 1869) Portrait of Michel-Augustin Varcollier, 1833 Original canvas by Vallée and Bourniche Signed and dated on the left: "Hesse / 1833 33 x 24 cm Provenance: Deposited by Michel-Augustin Varcollier with his son François; remained in his descendants. Michel-Augustin Varcollier became head of the Fine Arts office of the city of Paris in 1831. Under three successive regimes, he was in charge of placing orders to artists. Represented by several artists such as Louis Dupré (H. Naef, Die Bildniszeichnungen von J.-A.-D. Ingres, vol. II, 1978, p. 249, fig. 8) or Hippolyte Flandrin (private collection), he probably met Hesse in the inner circle of the Villa Medici around 1818-1819. Their friendship is reflected in the definite favor that Hesse enjoyed in the municipal commissions and in Varcollier's after-death inventory, where Hesse is the artist most often mentioned.