LOUIS-MICHEL VAN LOO | PORTRAIT OF ETIENNE FRANÇOIS D'ALIGRE, COMTE DE MARANS AND MARQUIS D'ALIGRE (1727-1798), HALF LENGTH, IN ROBES OF OFFICE

Dr. M. Guimbail;

Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Frederik Muller & Cie, 14 November 1905, lot 105;

There acquired by Comte de Ganay;

Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 23 May 1997, lot 56 (as Portrait of  Marquis Armand Thomas Hue de Miromesnil);

There acquired.

The sitter of this portrait served from 1768 to 1771 and from 1774 to 1788 as President of the Court of Paris. He presided over the "Affair of the Diamond Necklace", the infamous trial involving Queen Marie Antoinette, which is said to have precipitated the French Revolution. A year after resigning from office, he narrowly escaped death by an angry mob. Forced into exile by the revolution, he emigrated to Brussels, bringing with him some of his enormous wealth. He then went to London and finally to Brunswick where he died. In 1867 he was honored by the city of Paris, where a street and a square were named after him.