The Family Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma

The Family Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 16.  Portrait of Gaspard II de Coligny (1519-1572)  .

French School, 1568

Portrait of Gaspard II de Coligny (1519-1572) 

Auction Closed

March 24, 08:41 PM GMT

Estimate

1,500 - 2,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

French School, 1568

Portrait of Gaspard II de Coligny (1519-1572)


later inscribed upper left and right: Gaspr Coligny. / Æta: 41.; and dated upper left: 1568.

oil on panel

28.3 x 22.7 cm.

Inventory, 1749, in the dressing room;
Catalogue of Portraits, 1920, 'Small Panels', p. 24;
Inventory, 1926, p. 54, in the 'South Room';
H. Avray Tipping, ‘Mersham le Hatch’, Country Life, 8 August 1925, photographed in the hall, p. 219;
H. Avray Tipping, English Homes, Late Georgian, 1760-1820, London, 1926, p. 124.

Coligny was the principal supporter of the Protestant (Huguenot) cause in France during the third quarter of the 16th century. Having had a distinguished military career and been made Admiral of France, he converted to the Protestant religion whilst in prison in the Low Countries in the late 1550s. A correspondent of Calvin and an associate of Beza, he became leader of the Protestant faction following the death of The Prince of Conde in 1569. As such he became an adversary and a target for the Guise family and of the Queen dowager, Catherine de Medici. In August 1572 an attempt was made on his life, which he survived, only to be hacked to death a few days later as part of the St. Bartholomew Day's Massacre. The image is in the style of François Clouet, though no direct source has been identified. The inscription, which is later, is incorrect, as in 1568 the sitter would have been 49, not 41.