Louis Vigée

Raymond R. Guest (1907-1991), Virginia Senator (1947-53), United States Ambassador to Ireland (1965-8), and second husband of Princess Caroline-Cécile-Alexandrine-Jeanne Murat (1923-2012);

Presumably by inheritance to their children;

Sale ("Ancienne Collection: L'Ambassador et Madame Raymond Guest"), sale, Paris, Christie’s, 10 August 2013, lot 89;

Where acquired by the present owner.

N. Jeffares, "Louis Vigée," Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, London 2006, online edition [http://www.pastellists.com/Articles/Vigee.pdf], accessed 31 May 2023, cat. no. J.758.501, reproduced;

J. Baillio and X. Salmon, Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, exh. cat., Paris 2015, pp. 101, 346, cat. no. 9 (entry by Xavier Salmon), reproduced.

Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 2015-16, cat. 9 (entry by Xavier Salmon).

The mastery and finesse in the use of the media combined with a certain formality and opulence in the detailed description of the extravagant costume is balanced in this elegant portrait by the sitter’s seemingly casual pose, hands resting on top of each other, and by the spontaneity and truthfulness of her gaze. Though looking straight at the viewer, she is seated obliquely rather than frontally. Nothing is known about the sitter's identity, but Louis Vigée has spared no effort in conveying the status and wealth of this stylish lady, and in capturing her gentle yet reassured expression with a real sense of movement, achieved through the slight facial asymmetry and the soft shadow on the right cheek. One feels Vigée must have known the sitter. Dated to around 1745, this is one of the most elaborate portraits from the artist’s early career. The subject is presented against a shadowy brown background which enhances the luminosity, variety and nuances of colour of the silk fabrics in the costume. The sumptuous dress is finished with laces and ribbons, and the sitter wears a short blue silk mantle with a hood ("Coqueluchon”) trimmed with grey fur. An elaborately ruched golden-beige silk shawl adds to the variety of textures and forms, as does the delicate white trimming of her bonnet. Her neck is adorned by a string of pearls. 

Though undoubtedly best known today as the father of the celebrated female artist Elizabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Louis Vigée was himself a successful painter, and a member of the Académie de Saint-Luc from 1743.  In 1750 he married Jeanne Maissin (1728-1800), daughter of a shopkeeper and farmer, and the couple had two children, Elizabeth Louise, and Etienne. For an oval portrait in oils of the former Jeanne Maissin, painted by her daughter Madame Vigée Le Brun around 1774-1778, see lot 12.

Regarding the present work, Xavier Salmon understandably wrote (see Exhibited): 'À la vue de cette ouevre, on comprend combien Mlle Vigée put être impressionnée par l'art de son père et n'ait pas hésité à écrire que certains de ses portraits avaient été dignes de ceux de Maurice Quentin de La Tour, le prince des pastellistes.' (‘In the light of this work, it is easy to understand how much Mlle Vigée may have been impressed by the art of her father, and see why she did not hesitate to write that some of his portraits were worthy of those of Maurice Quentin de La Tour, the prince of pastellists).