Pierre Mignard (1612-1695) workshop. Madame Hersart born in Chateaubriant

Pierre Mignard (1612-1695) and workshop. Madame Hersart born in Chateaubriant

Formerly re-lined canvas, 70 cm by 57 cm
Old frame, 84 cm by 71 cm

In its superb period frame, pretty portrait attributed to Mignard's workshop. An inscription on the back of the canvas (most certainly a transcription of an inscription present on the original canvas) informs us of the name of the young woman born Chateaubriand. Note the presence of traces of coats of arms at the top left.

Pierre Mignard (1612-1695)

Born in Troyes, Pierre Mignard served his apprenticeship in Bourges, from 1622, with the painter of altar paintings Jean Boucher, then in Paris with Simon Vouet. These two painters who had once traveled to Italy perhaps communicated to Mignard the desire to travel overseas, the rule for artists of the generation of 1590, neglected by artists of his generation (Philippe de Champaigne, La hyre). Of his long stay in Italy, mainly in Rome, from 1634-1635 to 1657 (he made a trip to Parma, Modena and Venice in 1654-1655), we know very little; if the artist is strongly Italianized. His real training took place under the aegis of Bolognese painting: Annibale Carracci, Dominiquin, the Albane; he also retains Correggio's sense of chiaroscuro and meditates on Poussin's painting. We are therefore dealing with an eclectic painter. He joined Paris at the request of Louis XIV in 1657; he then executed several commissions, such as the dome of the Val-de-Grâce (1663). A renowned portrait painter, he knows how to flatter the model, but also mixes expression with grace in clear and fresh tones, the opposite of the majesty of Le Brun. On the death of his rival (1690), he succeeded him as first painter to the king and director of the Gobelins factory. Long excluded from the royal works, he was finally able to execute large decorations, first for the Duke of Orléans at Saint-Cloud (1677-1680, destroyed but partly engraved by J.-B. de Poilly; this set was completed by a Pietà, painted for the chapel of the château in 1682, now in the Sainte-Marie-Madeleine church in Gennevilliers), for the Grand Condé (Andromeda, 1679, Louvre), then for Monseigneur at Versailles (1683-84 ), finally for Louis XIV himself: in 1685, he painted the ceilings of the Petite Galerie (engraved by G.Audran) and the 2 salons which accompany it. All these ceilings are unfortunately destroyed; however, they formed the part that the painter himself considered the most important of his work. Supported by Louvois, Mignard gradually supplants Le Brun, with whom he leads an open struggle. Episodes of this struggle, a Carrying of the Cross offered to the king in 1684 (Louvre), a Family of Darius (Hermitage) which rivals in 1689 the painting which had once made Le Brun famous. On the death of the latter (1690), Mignard, almost octogenarian, succeeded him in his offices and dignities and displayed incredible activity. He multiplies the projects for the decoration of the church of the Invalides (drawings in the Louvre), undertakes 2 ceilings for the small apartment of the king in Versailles (fragments in the museums of Grenoble, Lille, Toulouse, Dinan, at the castle of Fontainebleau ) and painted a series of religious paintings.