François de Troy

With Didier Aaron, New York and Paris;
From whom purchased by the present collector.

D. Brême, François de Troy, Paris 1997, p. 131, under cat. no. 22, reproduced in color.

There is an old glue relining which is firm and stable. painting is clean and presentable in its present state. in general there is quite good retention of the paint surface in the figures and foreground. background including foliage and fountain at right are noticeably thinner. some old retouchings to the sky at upper left are visible to naked eye, but not too distracting. examination under ultraviolet reveals scattered retouches in sky and foliage; some on urn at upper left and some along right side. there is retouching on the hair of the putto at far left, but otherwise the figures and foreground generally look good. In an elaborately carved and gild wood frame with minor nicks.
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Together with Nicolas de Largilliere and Hyacinthe Rigaud, François de Troy epitomizes the Golden Age of portraiture at the French Court.   Abandoning the stiffness of the effigies produced at the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV, he succeeded in transgressing the rules of classical theory to open himself to the influence of Flemish portraiture, originating with Rubens, and particularly with the elegant aesthetic of Van Dyck.  Elegant compositions, an encompassing clair-obscur, warm coloring, fluid application of impasto, a preference for delicate glazes and a free touch are characteristic of this artist, whose role is comparable in the evolution of French painting to Charles de La Fosse or Jean Jouvenet in the genre of history painting.

The sitter, Portrait of Elisabeth-Charlotte de Bavière, later Princess Palatine (27 May 1652 - 8 December 1722) was a German princess and the wife of Philippe, Duke of Orléans, younger brother of Louis XIV, and only daughter of Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine and Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel.

De Troy executed this composition on at least one further occasion, in a portrait of the Princess Palatine from the same year as the present work, 1694, now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Orléans.¹

1. see Literature, Brême 1997, p. 131.