Portrait of Marie-Adélaïde de Savoie, circa 1700, attributed to Pierre Gobert

Oil on canvas. Late 17th-century French school attributed to Pierre Gobert (1662 - 1744).
This figure of French nobility has been portrayed many times. Sometimes identified as Louise Antoinette Thérèse de la Chatre de Nançay, duchesse d'Humières, our princess is most likely none other than Marie-Adélaïde de Savoie, duchess of Burgundy and mother of the future French king Louis XV.
Indeed, an obvious anachronism invalidates the first thesis: the Duchesse d'Humières was born in 1635, and this portrait shows a youthful woman wearing her hair "à la Fontanges". Since this hairstyle, in vogue until the beginning of the following century, was created in 1679, the Duchesse d'Humières would be over 45 years old in the numerous portraits mentioned above!
Finally, the costume leaves no doubt as to the young woman's rank: the heavy blue velvet coat lined with ermine fur is the prerogative of princes and princesses of the blood. Marie-Adélaïde de Savoie, granddaughter of Philippe d'Orléans (brother of Louis XIV) and wife of Louis de France, Duke of Burgundy, belongs to this lineage.
Our painting can be compared with a large portrait in the Galleria Sabauda in Turin (see photo) - sometimes identified as the "presumed portrait of Marie-Adélaïde de Savoie" and sometimes as the "presumed portrait of Françoise-Marie de Bourbon" - attributed to François de Troy and executed around 1695. The comparison is based on both the plasticity of the princess's face and the obvious similarity in costume. What's more, our princess bears a perfect resemblance to the oval portrait sold by Artcurial in September 2019 and described as the "presumed portrait of Marie-Adélaïde de Savoie", also attributed to Pierre Gobert (see photo).


Our precious painting is set in majesty in its period carved and gilded wood frame with flowered corners.
Dimensions: 66.5 x 52.5 cm - 88 x 73 cm with frame


Marie-Adélaïde de Savoie (1685 - 1712), Princess of Savoy, Duchess of Burgundy then Dauphine of France, was the daughter of Duke of Savoy Victor-Amédée II and Anne Marie d'Orléans. Granddaughter on her mother's side of Monsieur, the king's only brother, she married Louis de France (1682 - 1712), Duke of Burgundy, then Dauphin of France, in December 1697. They had three children, including the future King of France, Louis XV. As Dauphine of France, and in the absence of a queen since the death of Marie-Thérèse, Marie-Adélaïde assumed the role of queen. She died on February 12, 1712, a victim of epidemic measles. The disease claimed her husband six days later, and their second son (the Duc de Bretagne) a month later.
Biography: Pierre Gobert (Fontainebleau 1662 - Paris 1744) was a French painter. Son of Jean II Gobert, a sculptor, he entered the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture on December 31, 1701 as a portraitist. He quickly became the preferred painter of court ladies, as demonstrated by the large number of portraits he painted at the end of Louis XIV's reign. Through his choice of somewhat frozen attitudes... through his use of historiated transvestites... Gobert had succeeded in creating, thanks to his hard work and recognition, a style that stood out from the works of his contemporaries Largillierre and Rigaud. Cf. Marion Schaack-Millet - Ville de Versailles.


Bibliography :
- AUBERT, Jean, Visages du Grand Siècle?: le portrait français sous le règne de Louis XIV, 1660-1715, (cat. exp., Nantes, Musée des beaux-arts, June 20 - September 15, 1997?; Toulouse, Musée des Augustins, October 8, 1997 - January 5, 1998), Somogy, 1997.
- KIRCHNER, Thomas, Heurs et malheurs du portrait dans la France du XVIIe siècle, Paris, Fondation maison des sciences de l'homme Centre allemand d'histoire de l'art, 2022.
- BREME Dominique, JAMES-SARAZIN Ariane, Portraits en majesté François de Troy, Nicolas de Largillière, Hyacinthe Rigaud (catalog of the exhibition at Perpignan, Musée d'art Hyacinthe Rigaud, June 26 - Nov. 7, 2021). Silvana Editoriale, 2021.