BENJAMIN FOULON | PORTRAIT OF CHARLES DE BOURBON, COMTE DE SOISSONS (1566-1612), CIRCA 1590

François Roger de Gaignières (1642-1715), Paris (no. 340.12 of 1711 inventory);

sale, London, Christie's, 29 November 1977, lot 81 (as Circle of Clouet, circa 1600);

sale, London, Christie's, 20 March 1990, lot 151 (as Attributed to Francois Clouet)

Younger son of Louis I, Prince of Condé, prince du sang and first cousin of King Henry IV, the Comte de Soissons was Grand Master of France, governor of the Dauphiné and of Normandy. In 1585, he was received into the Order of Saint-Esprit, of which the blue ribbon is here visible. The preparatory drawing by Benjamin Foulon, nephew and pupil of François Clouet, painter to Catherine de’ Medici then to Henry IV, is housed at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris (Est. Na 22 rés.). The present portrait was engraved in 1595 by Thomas de Leu and Léonard Gaultier. We are grateful to Alexandra Zvereva for her help when cataloguing this lot.