Lot 452: MARIE-VICTOIRE LEMOINE PARIS 1754-1820

PORTRAIT OF MADAME DE GENLIS

measurements note
25 1/2 by 21 in.; 64.6 by 53.3 cm.

signed and dated middle right Vic.υre Lemoine/1781

oval, oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, January 15, 1993, lot 126.

LITERATURE

J. Baillio, "Vie et Oeuvre de Marie Victoire Lemoine (1754-1820)," in Extrait de la Gazette des Beaux-Arts, April 1996, pp. 128, 147, cat. no. 7, reproduced figure. 24.

NOTE

The sitter in the present painting is presumed to be Madame de Genlis, one of the more fascinating women of the ancien régime. She was the mistress of the Duc de Chartres, becoming also the governess of his children in 1782 just after the present painting was painted, giving rise to a rather mocking poem of her special position. During the revolution she became a hostess and embraced many of the ideals of the new regime, but was eventually forced into exile. Napoleon later used her as a spy, and lived long enough to see one of her charges, Louuis-Philippe, become King of France.

A portrait of Mme. de Genlis, painted by Labille-Guiard about a decade of the present canvas, is in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum.