- 65
ATTRIBUTED TO JEAN VALADEPOITIERS 1710 - 1787 | Portrait of Alphonsine Geneviève de Barjot de Roncéthe, comtesse de Durfort
Estimate
25,000 - 35,000 EUR
bidding is closed
Description
- Portrait of Alphonsine Geneviève de Barjot de Roncéthe, comtesse de Durfort
- Oil on canvas
- 78,4 x 63,3 cm ; 30 7/8 by 25 in.
Provenance
Galerie Marty de Cambiaire, Paris, en 2016.
Exhibited
Paris, Galerie Marty de Cambiaire, Tableaux & Dessins, 2016, p. 32, cat. 10, illustré page 33.
Condition
Le tableau est dans un état de conservation satisfaisant. A l’œil nu : Le tableau a fait l’objet d’un rentoilage. On remarque des usures dans les bruns foncés dans les fonds. Les vêtements et le visage de la figure principale sont joliment préservés. On remarque des reprises mineures dans les yeux et dans la partie gauche du visage. A la lampe U.V. : Le tableau apparaît sous un vernis vert irrégulier. Le tableau était à la base prévu en ovale. Dans la partie basse on remarque une restauration dans la jupe jaune au niveau du bord inférieur. On remarque les restaurations déjà mentionnées. Vendu dans un cadre sculpté et doré (quelques manques). The painting seems to be in a fairly good condition. Under the naked eye : The canvas has been relined. Thinness can be observed in the dark brown background behind the figure. The clothing and face of the main figure seems to be nicely preserved. Some minor strengthening can be seen to the figure’s eyes and her left facial half. Under UV light The varnish layer fluoresces for some parts, revealing a possible previous oval shape of the canvas. In the lower half a spot of strengthening can be seen in the yellow skirt along the bottom of the painting. Otherwise strengthenings as mentioned above and some more in the background can be seen. Offered with a carved and giltwood frame, some damages and chips.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
The son of a ‘master painter’, Léonard Valade (?-1720), Jean Valade was born to a family of modest means in Poitiers, which he left in 1739 for Paris. Having settled in the capital, he trained in the studios of the painters Charles Antoine Coypel (1694-1752), first painter to the king and member of the Ecole française, and Louis Tocque (1696-1772), before being accepted into the Académie royale in 1750 and being named an academician in 1754. Later, he was appointed peintre ordinaire to the king. Coypel’s influence on his art reveals itself most strongly in his bright palette. Valade made his name by transcribing on canvas the social aspirations of his sitters through an exercise in colours. The painter owed his success to the good relations he maintained with the elite of his time, from the nobility of the sword (the Duras and Lamoignon families) to the new nobility of the robe (the Pinsons or the Faventines) [1]. His oeuvre consists primarily of pastels, but it also includes a considerable number of oils.
In a haughty pose, the sitter faces the viewer straight on. The artist has chosen to portray the comtesse de Durfort wearing an impressive pearl necklace and a sumptuous pair of matching earrings. Her expression assured, she holds a folded white glove in her left hand. She is dressed as fashion dictated under Louis XV, with a luxurious lace choker and a stomacher adorned with ribbons. However, her coiffure is simple, apart from a small flower pinned in her hair, as was fashionable during the period. She is seated on a chair upholstered in blue fabric with a darker pattern, with a pilaster visible at her right.
Another version of the painting, in the collection of the Musée Sainte-Croix in Poitiers (fig. 1), figures among the artist’s earliest works. Both the close proximity and the high quality of these two versions support the idea that they are both autograph works. Only the countess’s expression seems to distinguish the two paintings. Still young and at the beginning of a meteoric career, he could not at this time entrust to studio assistants the making of replicas of portraits of sitters from old and prestigious families. Although the museum version has a pendant representing the sitter’s husband (fig. 3), no pendant to the present work is known. Making replicas of portraits was a common and accepted practice in this period, since the sitters wished to own several versions of their most successful likenesses, either to display in their various houses or to give to family members.
The same drawing as was used for the Comtesse de Durfort may have been used to square up the bust of the presumed drawing of Madame Geoffrin (fig. 4) [2].
The back of the original provides an inscription indicating the identity of the sitter: ‘Madame la Comtesse de Durfort, fille de la marquise de Ronci, tante de Madame la marquise de Dampierre’[3]. Daughter of Alexis de Barjot, marquis de Roncée (1695-1763) and of Geneviève-Alphonsine Borderie de Vernejoux, marquise de Ronci (born in 1700), in 1747 Alphonsine-Geneviève de Barjot de Roncée married François-Armand de Durfort, comte de Boissières et de Clermont-Vertillac, baron de Salviac et de Gourdon, seigneur de Saint-Germain. Having emerged in the 14th century, the Durfort de Boissières family is a branch of the powerful Durfort family. The abovementioned inscription also provides a date for the museum painting, 1747, the date when the sitter married the count, then aged forty-four.
As the museum catalogue points out, the comparison of the Portrait of the countess with the Portrait of the marquise de Caumont [5] confirms the precocity of our composition [6]. The two works display the same loaded brushstrokes and muted colours of Jean Valade’s early career. Our painting also seems close to his pastels of around 1750 [7], notably with regard to the heavy, fragmented brushstrokes and the surfaces marked by pronounced strokes and impasto. If Valade’s portraits are generally dependent on Coypel’s manner, this particular case reveals hints of the influence of Louis Tocqué, to whom he remained faithful until 1754.
The artist’s skill is expressed in the accessories with which he adorns his paintings. Especially remarkable is the softness with which he renders frills and cuffs. In the same way, he heightens their attractiveness by complicating the cascades of ruffles that follow the curves of the breast. The large knots of taffeta with which he ornaments the stomachers and bodices of his female sitters are animated by the same rococo spirit. The high quality of the rendering of textures attests to the painter’s expertise, already notable at the beginning of his career and sustained up until the 1780s.
[1] Neil Jeffares, « Valade, Jean », Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, Londres, Unicorn Press, 2006, p. 526.
[2] Marie-Hélène Trope, Jean Valade, « Peintre ordinaire du Roi 1710-1787 », cat. exp., Poitiers, Musée Sainte-Croix de Poitiers, 1993, p. 43.
[3] Notons pour mémoire que Valade a peint le portrait d’une autre comtesse de Durfort, à savoir Louise-Françoise-Céleste Maclovie de Coëtquen, comtesse de Durfort, duchesse de Duras (1715-1789) (vers 1770, pastel, 580 x 480 mm, France, collection privée).
[4] Gustave Chaix d’Est-Ange, Dictionnaire des familles françaises anciennes ou notables à la fin du XIXe siècle, t. X, Evreux, C. Hérissey, 1917, p. 237.
[5] Portrait de Marie-Anne de Montboissier-Beaufort-Canillac, marquise de Caumont, 1756, huile sur toile, 178 x 130,5 cm, Avignon, Fondation Calvet.
[6] Marie-Hélène Trope, Jean Valade, « Peintre ordinaire du Roi 1710-1787 », cat. exp., Poitiers, Musée Sainte-Croix de Poitiers, 1993, p. 76.
[7] Voir Dame à la robe bleue et à l’éventail semi-ouvert, début des années 1750, pastel, 71 x 58 cm, Poitiers, Musée Sainte-Croix ; Portrait de la comtesse de Sénozan, née Anne-Marie-Louise-Nicole de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, ca. 1751, pastel, 80,3 x 67 cm, Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts.
In a haughty pose, the sitter faces the viewer straight on. The artist has chosen to portray the comtesse de Durfort wearing an impressive pearl necklace and a sumptuous pair of matching earrings. Her expression assured, she holds a folded white glove in her left hand. She is dressed as fashion dictated under Louis XV, with a luxurious lace choker and a stomacher adorned with ribbons. However, her coiffure is simple, apart from a small flower pinned in her hair, as was fashionable during the period. She is seated on a chair upholstered in blue fabric with a darker pattern, with a pilaster visible at her right.
Another version of the painting, in the collection of the Musée Sainte-Croix in Poitiers (fig. 1), figures among the artist’s earliest works. Both the close proximity and the high quality of these two versions support the idea that they are both autograph works. Only the countess’s expression seems to distinguish the two paintings. Still young and at the beginning of a meteoric career, he could not at this time entrust to studio assistants the making of replicas of portraits of sitters from old and prestigious families. Although the museum version has a pendant representing the sitter’s husband (fig. 3), no pendant to the present work is known. Making replicas of portraits was a common and accepted practice in this period, since the sitters wished to own several versions of their most successful likenesses, either to display in their various houses or to give to family members.
The same drawing as was used for the Comtesse de Durfort may have been used to square up the bust of the presumed drawing of Madame Geoffrin (fig. 4) [2].
The back of the original provides an inscription indicating the identity of the sitter: ‘Madame la Comtesse de Durfort, fille de la marquise de Ronci, tante de Madame la marquise de Dampierre’[3]. Daughter of Alexis de Barjot, marquis de Roncée (1695-1763) and of Geneviève-Alphonsine Borderie de Vernejoux, marquise de Ronci (born in 1700), in 1747 Alphonsine-Geneviève de Barjot de Roncée married François-Armand de Durfort, comte de Boissières et de Clermont-Vertillac, baron de Salviac et de Gourdon, seigneur de Saint-Germain. Having emerged in the 14th century, the Durfort de Boissières family is a branch of the powerful Durfort family. The abovementioned inscription also provides a date for the museum painting, 1747, the date when the sitter married the count, then aged forty-four.
As the museum catalogue points out, the comparison of the Portrait of the countess with the Portrait of the marquise de Caumont [5] confirms the precocity of our composition [6]. The two works display the same loaded brushstrokes and muted colours of Jean Valade’s early career. Our painting also seems close to his pastels of around 1750 [7], notably with regard to the heavy, fragmented brushstrokes and the surfaces marked by pronounced strokes and impasto. If Valade’s portraits are generally dependent on Coypel’s manner, this particular case reveals hints of the influence of Louis Tocqué, to whom he remained faithful until 1754.
The artist’s skill is expressed in the accessories with which he adorns his paintings. Especially remarkable is the softness with which he renders frills and cuffs. In the same way, he heightens their attractiveness by complicating the cascades of ruffles that follow the curves of the breast. The large knots of taffeta with which he ornaments the stomachers and bodices of his female sitters are animated by the same rococo spirit. The high quality of the rendering of textures attests to the painter’s expertise, already notable at the beginning of his career and sustained up until the 1780s.
[1] Neil Jeffares, « Valade, Jean », Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, Londres, Unicorn Press, 2006, p. 526.
[2] Marie-Hélène Trope, Jean Valade, « Peintre ordinaire du Roi 1710-1787 », cat. exp., Poitiers, Musée Sainte-Croix de Poitiers, 1993, p. 43.
[3] Notons pour mémoire que Valade a peint le portrait d’une autre comtesse de Durfort, à savoir Louise-Françoise-Céleste Maclovie de Coëtquen, comtesse de Durfort, duchesse de Duras (1715-1789) (vers 1770, pastel, 580 x 480 mm, France, collection privée).
[4] Gustave Chaix d’Est-Ange, Dictionnaire des familles françaises anciennes ou notables à la fin du XIXe siècle, t. X, Evreux, C. Hérissey, 1917, p. 237.
[5] Portrait de Marie-Anne de Montboissier-Beaufort-Canillac, marquise de Caumont, 1756, huile sur toile, 178 x 130,5 cm, Avignon, Fondation Calvet.
[6] Marie-Hélène Trope, Jean Valade, « Peintre ordinaire du Roi 1710-1787 », cat. exp., Poitiers, Musée Sainte-Croix de Poitiers, 1993, p. 76.
[7] Voir Dame à la robe bleue et à l’éventail semi-ouvert, début des années 1750, pastel, 71 x 58 cm, Poitiers, Musée Sainte-Croix ; Portrait de la comtesse de Sénozan, née Anne-Marie-Louise-Nicole de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, ca. 1751, pastel, 80,3 x 67 cm, Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts.