Lot 12: Circle of Marie-Victoire Lemoine (Paris 1754-1820)

Circle of Marie-Victoire Lemoine (Paris 1754-1820)
Portrait of Marie-Françoise Dumesnil (1713-1803), three-quarter-length, in a white dress with blue ribbons and a yellow sash, flowers in her hair, a musical score in her hands, by a harp
with indistinct signature and date 'Eli[...]TH Lebrun 18..' (lower left)
oil on canvas, the corners made up
18¼ x 14 7/8 in. (46.4 x 37.8 cm.)
with identifying inscription on a label to the reverse

J.F. Weatherhead, Esq., Ely Lodge, Leicester.

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
The sitter was born Marie-Françoise Marchand, the daughter of a poor Parisian nobleman. She was an actress who in 1737 debuted at the Comédie-Française as Clytemnestre in Racine's Iphigénie en Aulide. Marie-Françoise was an immediate success, and played a number of starring roles in tragedies by contemporary French playwrights, among them Cléopâtre, Phèdre, Athalie and Hermione. When she created the role of Mérope in the play of that name (1743), its author Voltaire claimed that she kept the audience in tears for three successive acts. Marie-Françoise retired in 1776 but lived until 1803.