NICOLAS DE LARGILLIERE
Paris 1656 - Paris 1746

Portrait Of Françoise D’Escravayat, Marquise De La Barrière, As Flora

Oil On Canvas: 180 x 139 cm (75.00 x 57.92 in)

Inscribed (probably by the artist) on the reverse: peint par Largillère en 1741 à l’âge de 84 ans en huit mois

Provenance: Marquise de la Barrière; by descent, and then by contract in 1802 to Hippolyte Cartier, Chevalier de l’Empire; to his grand-daughter Béatrice de Castelnau d’Essenault ; by descent.

Our painting’s subject, the Marquise de la Barrière was born Françoise Corderoy, daughter of Louis Corderoy, Seigneur de Breuil by Jacquette Laurent, and married, in 1722, Jean d’Escravayat, (1690-1741), Ecuyer, Seigneur, styled Marquis de la Barrière.
Largilliere was 84 years old at its creation, though clearly had lost none of his technical ability with age.
Similar in style and pose to the earlier Portrait of Angélique de Simiane, Madame de Gueidan, as Flora, (Museé Granet), Largilliere again here utilizes fully his extrordinary flower painting skills, while also capturing his subject’s character, (Gueidan’s sly gaze or here Barrière’s deep eyes.) The artist likely here portrays the Marquise in the personality of Honoré d’Urfé’s Flora , an allegory popular at Louis XIV’s court, and later through out the region. The Marquise wears an interpretation of peasant costume, the clear difference being the gold and jewel-encrusted girdle of her bodice. The brilliant cherry red and royal blue of the dress are colors repeated in the highly finished bouquets of flowers held by the picture’s two figures. It is in fact the second figure, the attending cupid that distinguishes the allegorical portrait from a simple rendering of the sitter. Largilliere painted women in allegorical portraits, (his favorites being Flora, Diana, Venus, Iris and Water Nymphs) always with attendants. The young boy, a cupid figure indicated by the strap of his quiver, appears here as in the portrait of Madame de Gueidan, and a similar figure is seen in the artist’s Portrait of a woman as Venus, (private collection,) Portrait of a woman as Pamona, (Dresden,) and Portrait of Marie-Anne de Chateauneuf in the role of Ariadne, (Paris). The dramatic woodland landscape, half enveloped by a smoky fog also differentiates this fantastical portrait from the character portraits with their characteristic elegant interiors.
It is the Marquise’s delicate and subtle smile, lovely dark blue eyes and artfully posed hands that set her apart though; not simply pretty, she seems to be enjoying the artist’s playful and somehow intimate (certainly more so than Largiliere’s early female portraits) imagining of her in full dramatic rococo glory.
The unparalleled condition of the painting sets it apart from Largilliere’s extant body of work. The canvas is unlined and on the original 18th century stretcher having been preserved by its excellent provenance. A delicate impasto can be seen in the lace that decorates the décolletage and sleeves of figure’s dress here where typically, in the artist’s existing oeuvre, such brush work has been flattened by the picture’s lining. The verso reads, in the artist’s hand, “peint par Largillère en 1741 à l’âge de 84 ans en huit mois”, a testament to the obvious pride he took in the painting.