[1] Oil on canvas. Paris, Louvre museum. Inv 7492

[2] Oil on canvas. Versailles, national museum of the castles of Versailles and Trianon. Inv MV 2041. Inv 7494

[3] Under the direction of Ariane James-Sarazin, Hyacinthe Rigaud or the sun portrait, Éditions Faton, 2020, p 364

[4] Saint-Simon praised the beauty of the monarch's legs in his youth.

[5] Georges Martin, History and genealogy of the House of Noailles, 1993, p.41

[6] General correspondence from Mme de Maintenon by Théophile Lavallée, 1886, p 416: Letter 131 to the Count of Ayen, March 11, 1701. (…) We are delighted with what is coming to us from your king; he is loved dearly here. I am working to send him the portrait he ordered me to make for him. Two afternoons ago I returned from Saint-Cyr to force the king to have himself painted. Gout came to our aid, and without it we would not have lasted three or four hours.

[7] Joseph Roman, The book of reason of the painter Hyacinthe Rigaud, Paris, Laurens, 1919, p.160

[8] Built at the end of the reign of Louis XIV and demolished in 1829, residence throughout the 18th century of the eldest branch of the Noailles family. Acquired during construction in 1712 by the Duchess of Noailles, her son Adrien Maurice moved there with his wife Françoise d'Aubigny and completed the work which gave the building its final appearance, the work lasting from 1715 to 1717, see article by Alexandre Pradère published in the Bulletin of the French Art History Society, 2010

[9] National Archives MC/RS//969 [Minutes and directory of Notary Pierre-Louis Laideguive, 1761-1770] – National Archives (Paris). Inventory after death of Adrien Maurice, Duke and Marshal of Noailles, Minister of State, in his hotel, rue Saint-Honoré, in Paris. – June 30, 1766

[10] We will observe that Philippe de Noailles also owned two portraits by Rigaud, that of the sculptor Desjardin and that of his wife Marie Cadesne, revolutionary seizure Year VI (1798), Versailles, national museum of the castles of Versailles and Trianon and Caen , Museum of Fine Arts

It is therefore normal that this great family of the high French nobility possessed from the 18th century a full-length portrait of King Louis and with Rigaud. It could be a gift from the king that we do not find in the account books of Rigaud[11] to honor or reward the Noailles family or a direct order from Anne-Jules de Noailles or of his son Adrien-Maurice to Rigaud and more likely a commission from Anne-Jules taking into account the very close links with Rigaud around 1702, a painting then transmitted by inheritance to his son.

The “twin” of the version kept at the Palace of Versailles

Our research, with the C2RMF imaging center, with the family archives and with the National Archives concerning both the provenance and the materiality of the work shows us that we are in the presence of a replica and not a copy of the king's buildings. We can therefore attribute the painting to Rigaud's workshop as the version kept at the Palace of Versailles, both coming from “La Fabrique Rigaud”. As with the Versailles replica, the face was not painted from life unlike the painting in the Louvre where the face of the king, much longer and linear, is painted on a small canvas embedded in the large one; like the paintings in the Louvre and Versailles, our version consists of two strips of canvas joined together by a seam that the painter tried to shift to the right so as not to alter the face of the king[12]. The canvas and the implementation of our painting make our copy the “twin” of the version kept at the Palace of Versailles. It is remarkable for its good state of conservation and its very strong illusionistic character, for the virtuosity of the design of the fabrics, the velvety feel of the hand so specific to Rigaud and the freshness of the colors with very few repaintings. The king's physiognomy is very close to that of the painting preserved at Versailles, particularly in terms of the face and the wig and the work is particularly remarkable in the coronation coat with the very tactile appearance of the fur. Furthermore, the rendering of the textiles is beautifully worked, "as if we were in the paste", without any dryness, including in the background hanging, a fault that can often be seen in the copies.

Our painting, like the painting kept at Versailles, is not signed unlike that of the Louvre, considered to be the original which is signed and dated[13]. It is also not mentioned in Rigaud's account books unlike the two certain versions from the Louvre and Versailles which indicate "that they are of the same size"[14].

It is also notable to specify that if our painting today has a smaller format than the formats of the paintings in the Louvre and Versailles (250 x 150 cm instead of 277 (276) x 194 cm), it was the origin certainly identical in format to that of the two reference works, as we can see in particular with the hand of justice on the left of the painting which has been truncated. We cannot imagine a replica of this quality of the king's portrait without this regalia which reflects the judicial power, the hand of justice must certainly be present on the painting.

The reduction of the painting undoubtedly took place during the Revolution, the canvas having been cut at the level of its stretcher and rolled to be sent to a depot in Beauvais as indicated by the revolutionary seizures of Mouchy specifying at the end of the sale that no painting was sold, the paintings having been sent to the deposit in Beauvais to decide on their fate[15]. The reduction therefore appears to be an asset of authenticity and a testimony to the turbulence that the painting may have experienced during the revolutionary era. It was probably also at this time that it lost its original frame which was replaced by a Restoration frame after the restoration of the painting at the Château de Mouchy documented in 1836[16], a monumental golden frame which still accompanies the work today. 'today.

Our replica which comes from the Rigaud workshop, from Noailles, is a rare image of Louis XIV around 1702 in such good condition. It appears to be a very beautiful work of high quality which takes up the vocabulary of the two versions of the Louvre and Versailles museums and is particularly very close to that of Versailles. An exceptional painting on the art market, it is a major rediscovery and the result of an exemplary rehabilitation.

Emmanuelle Le Bail, with contributions from Jérôme Cortade and Quentin Bonnefoy under the direction of Tarik Bougherira

[11] Hyacinthe Rigaud, the man and his art, the catalog raisonné, Arianne James-Sarazin, éditions Faton, 2016, p 259: Louis XIV offers Pierre de Toullieu his doctor his portrait by Rigaud (now kept at the museum of fine arts of Tours Inv.: 1868-3-8; 1m48 by 1m10, Rigaud workshop), the only mention brought to our knowledge of a gift from the king of his portrait in royal costume.

[12] Under the direction of Ariane James-Sarazin, Hyacinthe Rigaud or the sun portrait, Éditions Faton, 2020, p 364

[13] Halfway up on the left: painted by Hyacinthe Rigaud 1701 and in a fold of the fur at the junction of the carpet on the left: Hyacinthe Rigaud

[14] Joseph Roman, The Book of Reason by the painter Hyacinthe Rigaud, Paris, 1919, p.8516

[15] Archives of the Oise 1Q2 /3089, 30 Frimaire year 3e. Furniture sale in Mouchy la Réunion, house of Philippe de Noailles. Ultimately, in the report of the sale: (…) exception nevertheless the kitchenware, the mattresses, the books from the library, and the paintings which are not included in this report to satisfy the requisitions and the judgments of the Committee of Public Safety, dated hereinbefore, which effects will be removed and taken to Beauvais to be deposited with the district administration and used as ordered (…)

[16] Handwritten note of restorations made in 1836 to paintings belonging to the Viscountess of Noailles, private archives of the Mouchy family

Additional contribution: Ariane James-Sarazin

The circumstances of the commission for the portrait of Louis XIV in full royal costume

Considered by André Félibien in 1663 as the most formidable exercise that an artist could face, the portrait of the king must in fact represent, according to the formula established by the historian Ernst Kantorowicz, his two bodies, the physical and the symbolic, its letter and its spirit, its transitory incarnation and its intangible ideal. Even more than his protector Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) who had not without luck, always according to Félibien, taken up the challenge, Rigaud succeeded in imposing with his Louis to say surrounded by emblems – called, by contamination with Anglo-Saxon usage, “regalia” – of his absolute authority, an unsurpassable model which imposed itself on subsequent generations of heads of state, whatever their regime. politics, from the First Empire to the Fifth Republic until Georges Pompidou.

The circumstances which led to the order, then the execution and delivery of the portrait of Louis XIV in full royal costume by Rigaud are well known. The artist was not, however, his first attempt with the king, since everything suggests that he created, on his own initiative and invention, that is to say without having benefited from of posing sessions and drawing inspiration, for the face at least, from previous images created by others, two other effigies of the sovereign, one in 1691 and the other in 1694 (1). Both obeying a martial bias, they seem to have had a certain success, particularly the second, since the eagerness of the public forced the young painter to surround himself for the occasion with seven collaborators. The Court and those close to the king having largely contributed to this sudden craze, we can bet that in 1700, Rigaud, then just received at the Academy, was no longer unknown to Louis XIV, especially since he had just attracted in 1697, in quick succession, the votes of the Grand Dauphin, painted up to his knees (2) and of the Prince of Conti who had commissioned a spectacular effigy of "nine feet high" in full length, armored, booted and draped in a coat lined with ermine, which was worn with deference by a little “Moor” following in his footsteps (3). Thus, when, before separating from his grandson, Philippe d'Anjou (1683-1746), promised to the crown of Spain, Louis XIV expressed at the end of the year 1700 the desire to fix his features and to have him represented invested with his new authority, his choice joined that of his immediate entourage in falling on the Catalan (4). The young king of Spain wanted to respond to his grandfather's initiative by asking Rigaud in turn to execute, alongside and in parallel with his own effigy, a portrait of Louis XIV, which he could have at his disposal. Madrid. Louis – this is the original version preserved today at the Louvre – and to have Rigaud make a replica in the format for Spain, which also ended up remaining in France – this is the replica preserved since the 18th century in Versailles under inventory number MV 2041 – and which was replaced by a Louis XIV in armor (5), more suited to the turbulent context of the accession to the throne of a prince of lilies in Spain.

For a character as illustrious as the King of France, the most exact resemblance had to be sought so that his features could be recognized and identified across the centuries: drooping eyelids, flabby skin and slightly pink cut of the jowls, mouth drawn in from the removal of teeth in 1696, deep furrows on either side of the nose and at the corners of the lips, double chin, Rigaud omitted nothing of the royal decrepitude which his colleague Antoine Benoist (1632-1717) reveals to us through the process more raw wax another almost contemporary testimony (6).

This feeling of truth which characterizes the head contrasts with the unrealism of the firm and muscular legs, certainly imagined in the workshop, although Saint-Simon assures us of the beauty of the monarch's legs, at least in his young years when he particularly showed of his dancing skills. The cranial attitude, one hand on the hip, the other resting quite casually on the inverted scepter, which goes hand in hand with the scissor footwork, has often been rightly compared to Charles I on the hunt (7 ) by Van Dyck (1599-1641), one of the masters admired by Rigaud, even if it draws on a long tradition since the Renaissance. As for the ceremonial framework which here is as much about the bed of justice as the coronation and combines disparate elements, voluntarily coming from several traditions (soq, sword of Charlemagne, hand of justice and scepter of Henry IV, personal crown of Louis XIV, short bloomers and white silk stockings of a novice knight of the Holy Spirit and large collar of the Order, allegories of courage and justice, twin columns, throne, gallery, canopy, etc.), Rigaud is not there inventor, but he gave the formula such effectiveness that it came, among all the portraits of Louis, to be the most reproduced, judging by the considerable number of versions, full-length, half-length, bust, reduced to the oval, with or without variants, which have come down to us.

Originals, replicas, copies

The notion of originals or replicas – which are, unlike copies, created in the direct entourage and under the supervision of the master – only partially applies to 17th century portraits, in which contemporaries generally did not research in detail. priority is given to material proof of the autograph intervention of their creator. Most of the time, the reproduced image, especially when it is a very great person whose portrait we want to acquire to affirm in the eyes of all the respect and homage due to him, wins. on the work itself. In the case of Rigaud, things become even more complicated: in accordance with the hierarchy inherited from the Renaissance, invention, that is to say the idea of composition, the fruit of the mind, returns to the master, who can delegate to his assistants the execution of all or part, produced above all by the hand. It very often happens that a commission is in its original version the result of the joint work of Rigaud and one or more of his collaborators – the most famous example is the portrait of Louis XIV in full costume royal from 1701-1702 preserved at the Louvre -, while replicas, entrusted to the workshop, can be subject to some corrective retouching or perfect completion on the part of Rigaud... The main thing for the client is that the canvas comes from the “Rigaud house” and thus bears its seal, which led Emmanuel Coquery (8) to compare, very pertinently, the functioning of the master's workshop with that which we know today in haute couture.

If the workshop had its part in the duplication of the portrait of Louis significant role both in France, with the constituted bodies of the kingdom (parliaments, sovereign courts, academies, colleges, universities, municipalities, etc.), in order to make the king metaphorically present in all places and to make up for his physical absence, as 'abroad to satisfy the courts and their ambassadors. François Albert Stiémart (1680-1740), whom Guillaume Glorieux (9) studied, dominated this small world of copyists for several decades, the demand remaining well beyond 1715 and the death of Louis XIV, until the 1720s-1730s.

Printing also took over. On August 20, 1713, the young Jean Marc Nattier (Paris, 1685-Paris, 1766), son of one of Rigaud's collaborators, received 500 livres from the king for having executed a drawing after the 1701 painting, intended to be used model for an engraving which was entrusted to Pierre Drevet (1663-1738).



In the case which concerns us, the identity of the owner, a Noailles, that is to say an individual (and not a corporate body), an eminent member of the highest nobility of Court, who could pride himself on being not only very close to the monarch, but also for having supported Rigaud's talent from his arrival in Paris, even promoted Rigaud's talent, militates in favor of an execution by the master's workshop rather than by one of the King's copyists.

The links between Rigaud and the Noailles

As we showed in 2016, the Noailles are, like the Colbert clan, part of the first and faithful protectors on whom Rigaud could count throughout his career. It is therefore no coincidence that we find their two surnames united at the bottom of the marriage contract between the painter and Mademoiselle Chastillon in 1703. In the case of the Noailles, the functions of governor of Anne-Jules, then of his son Adrien-Maurice in Northern Catalonia played a determining role in this relationship established very early, since the first member of the family painted by Rigaud was painted in 1690 in the person of Louise-Anne de Noailles, Marquise de Lavardin. His brothers followed, Jean-François, Marquis de Noailles in 1691, Louis Antoine, Cardinal de Noailles in 1697, Anne-Jules, Marshal Duke of Noailles in 1691, who posed again in 1693-1695, as well as the wife of -here Marie Françoise de Bournonville in 1692. In the following generation, we count Adrien-Maurice and his wife, in 1711-1712, his private secretary, Laurent Ozon, in 1720, "noble citizen of Perpignan" like Rigaud, but also the brother-in-law of Adrien-Maurice, the Marquis de La Vallière, in 1700-1702, as well as their cousins, Emmanuel Henri de Beaumanoir in 1699 and the Duke of Chaulnes in 1707, husband of Marie Anne Romaine de Beaumanoir (10).

Let us finally add that Philippe de Mouchy (1715-1794), Duke of Noailles was the happy owner of two authentic portraits of Rigaud, one representing the sculptor Martin Desjardins (11), the other his wife, Marie Cadesne (12) , without us really knowing how he acquired it.

The reduction to the Revolution

The mutilation to which the painting was subjected seems to us to have an extremely strong symbolic meaning: to remove the hand of justice is to express that for the so-called royal arbitrariness, the revolutionaries want to substitute the only way/voice that it deems legitimate, that of popular justice.



Notes

(1) See James-Sarazin, 2016, t. 2, respectively n° *P.267, p. 95 and n° *P.382, p. 131-134.

(2) See James-Sarazin, 2016, t. 2, n° *P.549, p. 183-186.

(3) See James-Sarazin, 2016, t. 2, n° *P.515, p. 171-173.

(4) Oil on canvas, 1700-1701, H. 2.30 x L. 1.94 m, Versailles, national museum of the châteaux of Versailles and Trianon, inv. MV 8493. See James-Sarazin, 2016, t. 2, No. P.743, p. 246-248:

(5) Oil on canvas, 1701-1702, H. 2.38 x L. 1.49 m, Madrid, Museo nacional del Prado, inv. P02343. See James-Sarazin, 2016, vol. 2, No. P.774, p. 262.

(6) Wax, marble, plaster, textile, crushed egg, hair, circa 1705, H. 0.85 x W. 0.71 x th. 0.12 m, Versailles, national museum of the castles of Versailles and Trianon, inv. MV 2167.

(7) Oil on canvas, circa 1635, H. 2.66 x L. 2.07 m, Paris, Louvre museum, inv. 1236.

(8) In the catalog of the Visages du Grand Siècle exhibition. French portraiture under the reign of Louis XIV, Paris, Somogy, 1997.

(9) G. Glorieux, “Mr. Stiémart, painter and good copyist: draft of a portrait of François Albert Stiémart (1680-1740)”, The Value of Art. Exhibition, market, criticism and public in the 18th century, under the direction. by J. Rasmussen, Paris, 2009, p. 161-183.

(10) See James-Sarazin, 2016, t. 1st, p. 627 for a complete family tree of Noailles or relatives having been portrayed by Rigaud.

(11) Oil on canvas, 1683, H. 1.39 x W. 1.04 m, Versailles, national museum of the châteaux of Versailles and Trianon, inv. MV 3583. See James-Sarazin, 2016, t. 2, No. P.52, p. 31.

(12) Oil on canvas, 1684, H. 1.39 x L. 1.02 m, Caen, Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. 20. See James-Sarazin, 2016, t. 2, No. P.70, p. 35-36.