Portrait of a Woman, Perhaps Madame Claude Lambert de Thorigny (Marie Marguerite Bontemps, 1668–1701) | Nicolas de Largillierre | All | European Paintings | Collection Database | Works of Art

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Signed and dated (lower left, on fountain): peint / par N. de / Largillierre– / 1696

Gallery LabelThe sitter is traditionally identified as the wife of Claude Lambert de Thorigny, president of the Chambre des Comptes and owner of the Hôtel Lambert on the Île Saint-Louis in Paris. Largillierre was a portraitist of the wealthy bourgeoisie. His Flemish training is reflected in the parrot and flowers in the foreground, while the accentuated folds of the gown accord with the linear style of the French Royal Academy.

NotesA note apparently provided by Gimpel & Wildenstein at the time of this portrait's acquisition identifes it as a Portrait of Helène Lambert de Thorigny, lent by Wildenstein to the Guildhall Exhibition, London, in 1902 (where it is called "Madame Lambert de Thorigny"—no maiden name is provided). A second early note attached to the first one identifies the subject as Marie Marguerite Bontemps, Mme Claude Jean Baptiste Lambert de Thorigny, b. 1668, d. 1701; she would have been 29 years old at the time this portrait was painted. Sortais [Ref. ca. 1912], who is known to have accepted contemporary identifications of subjects when he was preparing his [unpublished] catalogue raisonné, lists our picture twice, as Marie Lambert de Thorigny and as the Marquise de Simiane.

Marie de l'Aubespine, wife of Nicolas Lambert de Thorigny, died in 1679. An engraving of her is reproduced on p. 101 of Ref. Rosenfeld, 1981; her pl. 18b reproduces an engraving of Hélène Lambert, Mme François Marie de Motteville, and pl. 18c reproduces a painting a woman said to be Hélène Lambert de Thorigny [sic for Hélène Lambert, later de Motteville?] in the Honolulu Academy of Art. An engraving of the Marquise de Simiane is reproduced in pl. 18a in Ref. Rosenfeld, and a portrait of Mlle Lambert de Thorigny [Hélène?] as Cleopatra, by Largillierre, is reproduced as pl. 2 in Ref. Roland Michel, 1966. None of these comparative images bears a particular likeness to the woman represented in our portrait. Furthermore it is difficult to find life dates or something approaching a family tree for the Lamberts as they are not titled nobility.

Provenancemarquis d'Ussel, château d'Oscamp, Belgium; [Gimpel & Wildenstein, Paris and New York, 1902–03; sold to MMA]

Exhibition History

London. Art Gallery of the Corporation of London. "Selection of Works by French and English Painters of the Eighteenth Century," April 22–July 26, 1902, no. 21.

Palm Beach. Society of the Four Arts. "Portraits, Figures and Landscapes," January 12–February 4, 1951, no. 26.

Chattanooga. George Thomas Hunter Gallery of Art. "Opening Exhibition," July 12–August 3, 1952, unnumbered cat.

Austin, Tex. City Coliseum. "Texas Fine Arts Festival: Metropolitan Museum $1,000,000 Collection of Old Masters," April 18–26, 1953, unnum. checklist.

Milwaukee Auditorium. "Metropolitan Art Museum $1,000,000 Masterpiece Exhibition," March 7–14, 1953, unnumbered cat.

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. "Largillierre and the Eighteenth-Century Portrait," September 19–November 15, 1981, no. 18.

References

Catalogue of the Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1905, p. 98, no. 501.

Elisabeth Luther Cary. "The Scrip: Some of the Portraits in the Metropolitan Museum." International Studio 37 (April 1909), p. LX, ill.

Georges Sortais. Largillierre manuscript. [ca. 1912] [the manuscript of a catalogue raisonné of the oeuvre of Largillierre, begun ca. 1912 and preserved in the Cabinet des Estampes, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Da 58, vols. 3 and 5].

O. Kellner in Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. 22, Leipzig, 1928, p. 384.

Georges Pascal. Largillierre. Paris, [1928], p. 63, no. 76, p. 68, no. 127.

Charles Sterling. "XV–XVIII Centuries." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of French Paintings. 1, Cambridge, Mass., 1955, pp. 95–97, ill.

René Gimpel. Diary of an Art Dealer. English ed. New York, 1966, p. 298.

Marianne Roland Michel. "Of Women and Flowers . . . [in L'art du dix-huitième siècle, advertisement supplement to Burlington Magazine]." Burlington Magazine 108 (July 1966), p. iii.

Georges de Lastic. "Largillierre's Portrait of Madame Aubry." Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin 63 (1976–77), p. 75.

Myra Nan Rosenfeld in L'art du connaisseur/The Art of Connoisseurship. Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal. Montreal, 1978, pp. 94, 102, fig. 7.

Recent Acquisitions: French Paintings & Sculptures of the 17th and 18th Century. Exh. cat.London, 1979, unpaginated, under no. 11.

Myra Nan Rosenfeld. Letter to Dean Walker. December 21, 1979.

Myra Nan Rosenfeld. "Nicolas de Largillierre's 'Portrait of the Marquise de Dreux-Brézé'." Apollo 109 (March 1979), p. 205, fig. 6.

Myra Nan Rosenfeld. Largillierre and the Eighteenth-Century Portrait. Exh. cat.Montreal, 1981, pp. 100, 104, 107, 120–23, 129, no. 18, ill.

John Pope-Hennessy. "Roger Fry and The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Oxford, China, and Italy: Writings in Honour of Sir Harold Acton on his Eightieth Birthday. London, 1984, p. 231.

Myra Nan Rosenfeld. "Largillierre: Problèmes de méthodologie." Revue de l'art no. 66 (1984), p. 72.

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