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Provenance: Catherine de Medici, Queen of France, and by descent to her granddaughter
Christine of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany.
Casa Medici, Florence.
Ignazio Enrico Hugford, by 1738.
Henry Oppenheimer, London, by 1908.
Private collection, Kent, England.
with Richard Nagy Fine Art, 1981, from whom acquired by
James Fairfax, Bowral, New South Wales.
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Exhibited: London, Obach & Co., 1908, no. 27.
Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, The James Fairfax Collection of Old Masters, 1992, unnumbered.
Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, The James Fairfax Collection of Old Master Paintings, Drawings, and Prints, 17 April - 20 July 2003, no. 12.
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Literature: L. Dimier, Histoire de la peinture de portrait en France au XVIe siècle, Paris, 1925, II, p. 398, no. 1.
A. Zvereva, Les Clouet de Catherine de Médicis: chefs-d'oeuvres graphiques du Musée Condé, exh. cat., Chantilly, Musée Condé, 2002, p. 18, n. 61.
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Notes: THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR
From 1540 through 1570 Catherine de Medici commissioned from father Jean and son François Clouet and their studio over 500 portrait drawings of the French royal family and court. The inscription on the drawing is by the same hand as those on over 100 other portrait drawings, and the handwriting is thought to be by one of Catherine de Medici's secretaries.
This is a portrait of Jeanne Clausse, wife of Jean de Pierrevive, whose family, called Pierrevive or Pietraviva, were nobility of Piedmontese origin and were close to the French royal family. Jean-Michel de Pierrevive (d. 1501/02) was a doctor to King Charles VIII (1470-1498). Marie-Catherine de Pierrevive was married to Alberto Gondi, a member of the Italian banking family close to the Medicis, and she was also governess to Catherine de Medici's children.
After Catherine de Medici's death the collection of Clouet portrait drawings passed to her granddaughter, Christine of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, They then remained in storage, forgotten in the Uffizi, until they were unearthed by Ignazio Enric Hugford (1703-78), the English artist, collector and dealer. After his death his collection was sold to pay off his debts, and among the 3100 drawings sold at the Real Galleria degli Uffizi were the Clouet portraits.
