Pierre Gobert Fontainebleau 1662 - Paris 1744

Anonymous sale, Monaco, Sotheby's, 18 June 1992, lot 49 (unsold);
Acquired shortly thereafter by the present owner.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas is lined and the paint layer is stable and in a good condition. There are minor stretcher markings to the paint surface with some small retouchings visible here, particularly along the top of the painting. Under U-V light a minor scattering of retouchings can be seen to the face and tunic of the male sitter and to the chest of the female sitter where fine cracks have been reduced. The overall condition of the painting is good with very little abrasion of the paint surface . The impastoed areas of paint are unaffected and crisp and the original glazes intact. The varnish is only moderately discoloured but its removal would improve the overall tonality."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Born into a family of French sculptors, Pierre Gobert enjoyed great success as a court portraitist during the latter part of the reign of Louis XIV, and during the regency, and was immensely popular with members of both courts. The male sitter in this portrait has traditionally been identified as Philippe II, Duc d'Orléans, who served as Regent of France from 1715 to 1723 during the minority of his nephew, Louis XV, who was only five years old when his great-grandfather, Louis XIV, died in 1715. He is said to be pictured here with Marie Madeleine de la Vieuville, Comtesse de Parabère, who had married the comte de Parabère in 1711 and who was the Duc's mistress from 1718 to 1721. However, comparisons with other known portraits of the two sitters, such as Jean-Baptiste Santerre's paintings of The Regent in Armour and his Mistress as the Goddess Minerva, a version of which now hangs in the Trianon at Versailles,¹ and Philippe Duc d'Orléans and Madame de Parabère as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden,²  render such an identification unconvincing.

We are grateful to M. Dominique Brême for endorsing the attribution to Pierre Gobert and for proposing a date of execution circa 1718.


1.  See C. Constans, Musée National du Château de Versailles. Les Peintures, vol. II, Paris 1995, p. 813, no. 4594, reproduced.
2.  Formerly in the Austrian Imperial Collection and sold New York, Doyle's, 26 January 2005, lot 1137, for $276,800.