Anne Vallayer-Coster

Comte André de Ganay;
With Wildenstein Gallery, London 1938 and 1947;
The Hon. E.L. Iliffe;
His sale, London, Sotheby's, 10 June 1959, lot 68 (£2,000 to Hallsborough);
With the Hallsborough Gallery, London;
G. and R. Schubert Collection, Milan, by 1962.
Possibly sold in Paris in 1964 (according to Michel under Literature below).

Possibly Paris, Salon, 1781, no. 107;
London, Wildenstein Gallery, Fair women of France in the 18th Century, 1938;
Rome, Palazzo Venezia, Il ritratto francese da Clouet a Degas, 1962, no.194;
Dallas, Dallas Museum of Art, Washington, National Gallery of Art, and New York, Frick Collection, Anne Vallayer Coster, June 2002- March 2003, no. 123.

Mme Vigée-Lebrun, Souvenirs, Paris, 3 vol. 1835-37, T.I., Lettre XI à la Princesse Kouradkine;
C. Oulmont, Femmes peintres du XVIII siecle, Paris, 1928, reproduced pl. 43;
Illustrated London News, 14 May 1938, reproduced p. 871;
G. Bazin, A Gallery of Flowers, London 1962, p. 142;
M. Roland Michel, Anne Vallayer-Coster, 1744-1818, Paris 1970, pp. 217-218, no 333;
E. Kahng and M. Roland Michel, in the catalogue of the exhibition, Anne Vallayer Coster, Painter to the Court of Marie Antoinette, Dallas, New York and Washington,  2002, p. 53, fig. 24, p. 83, fig. 8, p. 216, no. 123.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has a comparatively recent lining and restoration, with the original stretcher and original fine carved frame. The picture has clearly benefitted from a stable, respectful, background over several centuries, and has no accidental damage at all. It appears there may have been scarcely any intervention into the light almost pastel surface before the twentieth century. Only the edges have some retouched fillings, mainly along the top, with a little strengthening around the base edge scuffed by the frame. The lining has secured the edges, but there are some scattered small places where it has imprinted the canvas weave into the paint, for instance one patch in the background near the middle of the right edge, which has needed retouching, and in the lower face and neck there are small patches of accentuated weave that have a little surface retouching. Occasional other more or less cosmetic retouchings can be seen under ultra violet light, by the left edge around a flower, or by the base in the table. However the overall condition is remarkably beautiful and intact. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

In 1781 Vallayer-Coster exhibited at the Paris Salon a painting described as 'Portraits (sic) de Madame **, arrangeant des fleurs dans un vase. De 3 pieds 2 pouces de haut, sur 5 pieds 10 pouces de large' . A handwritten note by Diderot in the manuscript for the Salon of that year informs us that the sitter was a chambermaid ('femme de chambre') to the Queen. This post was then occupied by Madame Auguié, and thus the present painting has been identified as the Salon exhibit of 1781. However neither the measurements nor indeed the format given in the catalogue agree with those of the present painting. It may therefore be that, as Michel suggests, Vallayer-Coster painted two portraits of Madame Auguié or that the Salon exhibit portrayed her sister, Madame Campan, who was herself first lady-in-waiting to Marie-Antoinette. Michel suggests that this portrait may therefore be dated slightly later, to around 1782-3. She records a copy of this portrait in pastel by Kucharsky with the descendants of Madame Auguié, and a replica in oval format, described as a Portrait of Adelaide Genet was sold Paris, Drouot, 15 November 1976, lot 22, as French School.

Although Anne Vallayer-Coster was then, as now, better known for her beautiful still life paintings, her portraits, both in miniature and on the scale of life, were much admired by her contemporaries. The year before this portrait was painted she had received the significant commissions to paint Louis XVI's aunt Madame Sophie (Paris, Versailles), his daughters Madame Adélaïde and Madame Victoire (Versailles) and Queen Marie-Antoinette herself. She evidently enjoyed a good relationship with the Queen, who controversially arranged for her to have lodgings in the Louvre itself. No doubt the commission for the present portrait may have come at the recommendation of the Queen herself. Vallayer-Coster's role as a portraitist was, however, soon eclipsed by the rise of Adelaide Labille-Guiard and Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, and she returned to the still-lifes for which she was best known. The elegant bouquet of flowers in a vase which  can be seen on the left hand side of this painting epitomises her extraordinary skill in this genre. It can be compared, for example, amongst others with the Vase of flowers with two plums  from the previous year from the Rosenberg collection¹.

Of the character of Madame Auguié herself, née Adélaïde Henriette Genêt, we know disappointingly little. Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun wrote of her: 'J'ai peu connu de femmes aussi belles et aussi aimables que Madame Auguié. Elle était grande et bien faite; son visage était d'une fraîcheur remarquable, son teint blanc et rose, et ses jolis yeux exprimaient la douceur et la bonté..' 'I have known few women as beautiful and as agreeable as Madame Auguié. She was tall with an attractive figure; her face, with its complexion of peaches and cream, was fresh, and her pretty eyes shone with gentleness and kindness'. She died young during the French Revolution in 1794.

 

1. Canvas, oval, 48 x 39.8 cm., signed and dated 1781. Sold New York, Christie's, 29 January 1999, lot 43, reproduced.