Joseph Desvernois

The artist Joseph Desvernois (also known as Pierre-Joseph, François-Joseph or Jean-Joseph Desvernois) was the son of the painter and architect Augustin Désiré Desvernois (Lons-le-Saunier 1729–1800) and his wife Reine Désirée Courmier/Cormier (Lons-le-Saunier 1742–1835). He was the second of eleven children. On 2 September 1782, he became a student at the Paris Academy (under the patronage of the sculptor Mouchy and a pupil of Bounieu). Between 1787 and 1788, he worked in Geneva. On 26 February 1788, he married Antoinette-Elisabeth Vergelat (1768–1826) in the Reformed Church of Nyon. The couple were living in Geneva at the time. From 1789 he lived with his wife in Lausanne; in 1799 he stayed in Strasbourg. In 1802 he was in Bern, where he taught the miniaturist Paul Frédéric de Caselli. In Bern he became a member of the Society of Fine Arts. In the same year, he travelled to Baden, where he received several commissions from the electoral family and was appointed court painter in 1805. In 1806, he appears to have been working in Milan. In 1810, he was once again in Bern. At the Bern Art and Industry Exhibition that year, he exhibited around ten miniatures, including his self-portrait and portraits of living and historical figures. He died between 1810 and 1811. His wife, Antoinette-Elisabeth Vergelat, was also an artist. She painted pastels and miniatures and gave drawing lessons. Their son Joseph-Eugène (Lausanne 1790–1872) later worked as a painter and art teacher. We would like to express our sincere thanks to Henry-Noel Canival, Paris, for his research into the artist and his family.