- 72
Nicolas de Largillierre
Description
- Nicolas de Largillierre
- Portrait of Marguerite Elisabeth de Largillierre (1701-1756), the artist's daughter
- signed on the reverse Peint par N. de Largillierre
- oil on original canvas, with original stretcher
Provenance
Condition
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Catalogue Note
This distinguished portrait of Nicolas de Largillierre's daughter holds a particular interest and importance within the artist's oeuvre as the choice of model automatically confers the composition with a unique sensibility and tenderness. Marguerite Elisabeth de Largillierre was born the 30th January 1701 following the artist's marriage to Marguerite Elisabeth Forest, daughter of the landscape painter Jean-Baptiste Forest. Marguerite the younger was the oldest of three children and is depicted here in the year of her own marriage, on January 13, 1726, at the age of 25, to war minister Jean-Baptiste Houzé de La Boullaye. Widowed in 1733, she subsequently remarried Jacques de Farevolles.
When Largillierre executed this portrait in 1726, he had been a member of the Académie Royale for several years and enjoyed the enthusiastic patronage of the French nobility and upper classes with commissions both multiple and prestigious. In the same year he also painted his own self portrait which he gave to Marguerite Elisabeth as a wedding present (Château de Parentignat, Marquis de Lastic collection; see fig. 1). That work is signed and dated on the reverse of the original canvas and serves as a testimony to the close bond that existed between the painter and his daughter: portrait/ de Nicolas de Largillierre/ né à Paris le 10 octobre 1656/ peint par luy meme/ 1726/ Et donné/ à Marguerite Elisabet de Largillierre/ sa fille/ Epouse/ du S. Jean Batiste Houzé de La Boulaye/ Equier Cons. Du Roy com.re des guerres. Painted in the same year, the present painting may be seen as a counterpart to the self portrait.
Although clothed in an elegant red velvet dress, richly ornamented with lace and brocade, Marguerite Elisabeth exudes above all in this portrait the freshness and simplicity of her tender age. With the rich red of her finery offset by the pure pearly white of the carnations in her hand, the graceful figure offers up to the viewer an image of radiant sincerity. In the tradition of his beautiful 1714 work Mains (Paris, Musée de Louvre) which assembles different postures and details of hands from earlier portraits, Largilliere here accords particular attention to the delicate gesture and movement of his daughter's hand as she holds together her robes.
Since its execution, this painting has been conserved in its perfect original state. It was engraved by Jean Georges Will in 1738 (see fig. 2) and is also closely affiliated to another version of this portrait in bust only format, signed and dated 1726 and sold on the French market in June 2002 (Anonymous Sale, Paris, Tajan, June 25, 2002, lot 65). In a more restricted format, this second version depicts only the face and neckline of the artist's daughter (see Nicolas de Largillierre 1656-1746, exhibition catalogue, October 14, 2003 – January 30, 2004, p. 49, illustrated).
We are grateful to Mr. Dominique Brême for confirming the attribution to Nicolas de Largillierre following firsthand inspection.
Fig. 1: Nicolas de Largillierre, Self portrait, 1726
© Château de Parentignat, Marquis de Lastic collection / Photo David Bordes
Fig. 2: Jean Georges Will, Portrait of Marguerite Elisabeth de Largillierre, engraved after Nicolas de Largillierre, 1738