Nicolas de Largilliere (1656-1746)

Nicolas de Largilliere (1656-1746)

Price: Price on request

Offered by Kollenburg Antiquairs BV



Nicolas de Largilliere (1656-1746) Nicolas de Largilliere (1656-1746)

A charming lady looks at us, dressed in a brocade gown and velvet cloak that is held together with a brooch.

The painter Nicolas de Largilliere (Paris 1656-1746) was the society painter of the eighteenth century. With his portraits he caught an image of the flourishing society under the reign of Louis XIV and XV. This picture is a typical example of a fashionable portrait of Larguilliere in the beginning of the early seventeenhundreds. We know from contracts that the price for a portrait like this, without depiction of the hands, the artist demanded 600 livres.

It is quite difficult though, to identify the ladies he painted, because he reduced and embellished the faces of his clients to satisfy their vanity. This approach of portrayal was a common practice of the era. The famous art critic Roger de Piles ascertained in ‘Cour de Peinture par Principe’ that particularly women were less tolerant of realism when they were to be portrayed. (Cour de Peinture, 1706). This painting is a characteristic work of the master in a compostion he repeatedly used during his career, with or without hands. It is even very well possible that the clothes worn on the painting were owned by the artist. They happen to appear on more than one occasian in the work of the artist, as can be seen on ladies portraits in the Rau collection, the Bayrische Gemäldesammlungen in Munich and in the Museum of Fine Arts in San Francisco in different arrangements. We also see similar tranquil backdrops here.

Largilliere regularly painted several versions of a portrait, as is the case here. Next to this copy of the hand of the master, another copy of his hand is to be seen in the Musee Cognacq-Jay in Paris. A third version, from the atelier of Largilliere, can be seen in the Mayer van den Bergh Museum in Antwerp.

The identity of the lady
Although the painting has the name of Jeanne de Robais written on the back in an elegant handwriting, it is not at all certain the portrait is hers. Repeated surveys to identify the elegant lady have failed to date. If she is Jeanne de Robais, she is the daughter of Isaac de Robais, a fabulously rich manufacturer from Abbeville. Isaac’s son Abraham was portrayed by Perroneau in 1767 in pastel. (portrait d’Abraham de Robais, 1767 Musee du Louvre R.F. 4146). The version in the Musée Cognacq-Jay in Paris traditionally is called portrait of Madame la Duchesse de Beaufort. She was of English nobility and portrayed during her stay in Paris. Little more of her is known. The atelier version of the painting in the Mayer van den Bergh Museum was obtained from the mayor of Oudenbosch, J.B. Klyn, in 1898. It is said that it concerns an ancestral portrait from a family of French nobility that fled France in 1795.

Literature:
Jaarverslag Museum Boymans Van Beuningen 1953 pp 9,10.
J.C. Ebbinge Wubben, Old Paintings 1400-1900, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Rotterdam 1972, p. 142. 214
Myra Nan Rosenfeld, Nicolas de Largilliere and the eighteenth century portrait, Montreal 1981 pp. 254, afb. 50b.
Agenda Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen 1984
Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst, Old Master paintings an illustrated summary catalogue, Den Haag 1992 p. 173, cat.nr. 1450.
J. Giltaij, Hondervijftig jaar er bij en er af, Rotterdam Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen 1999, p.106
Therese Burollet, Les Peintures Musée Cognacq Jay Muséé du XVIIIe siècle de la ville de Paris,Parijs 2002, pp. 194-196.

Provenance:
Collection S.P.D. May since about 1910.
Inherited by E. von Marx-May 1940.
Public sale: Frederik Muller 18 juillet 1944, lot nr. 6
Acquisition E. Göpel La Haye pour le “Führermuseum” à Linz.
Restitution to the state of the Netherlands 1946.
At Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam 1953 - 2007 (inv.2378)
Returned to the family Marx-May 2007

Period
1714
Material
oil on canvas
Signature
Nicolas de Largilliere
Reference
100-95
Sizes
83 x 68 cm

Offered by

Kollenburg Antiquairs BV

Postbus 171
5688 ZK Oirschot
The Netherlands

+31 499578037
+31 655822218
http://www.kollenburgantiquairs.com/

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