Large portrait of a young lady - Attributed to Justus van Egmont (1601 - 1674)

Justus van Egmont (1601; 1674) attributed. Large portrait of a young lady of quality

Canvas relined 140 cm by 108 cm
Very beautiful old frame 156 cm by 124 cm

This sumptuous portrait is possibly that of Madame de Sévigné (in any case not Henriette of France as indicated on the cartouche ) She is very richly dressed in a silk dress embroidered with gold thread. Her right hand holds some flowers as she gives fruit to a parrot with her left hand. In the background, with great depth, the park of a castle. We guess at the end of the main driveway a house. The young face of this portrait is very similar to that painted by Claude Lefevre (Madame de Sévigné, Carnavalet Museum, exhibited in Grignan in 2017 for an exhibition dedicated to the Marquise)

Justus van Egmont (1601; 1674)

Born in the United Provinces, Juste d'Egmont follows his mother on the death of his father and leaves to settle in Antwerp. He became a pupil of Gaspard van den Hoecke and in 1618 began a trip to Italy. On his return in 1620, he entered the studio of Pierre Paul Rubens for whom he produced a Last Supper for the cathedral of Mechelen and collaborated on the cycle of the Life of Marie de Medici for the Luxembourg Palace in Paris. In 1628, he became master of the city's guild of Saint Luke. Rubens leaving Antwerp for Spain, he chose to pursue his career in France. He collaborated on decorative paintings in Simon Vouet's studio in Paris and made many cartoons for tapestries. He became a painter of the princes of Condé and then of Orléans. He finally became the official painter of Louis XIII and then of Louis XIV. He then specialized in the portrait of the greats of the kingdom. In 1648, he participated in the foundation of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture with twelve other painters. In 1649, he seems to return to the Spanish Netherlands and is present in Brussels where he then produces a very large number of cartoons for the tapestries of the city, then in Antwerp in 1653.