ÉLISABETH VIGEE LE BRUN (Paris, 1755-1842) PORTRAIT OF MARIE CHARLOTTE HOCQUART (1757-1786), AGED 22, WIFE OF FRÉDÉRIC HENRI RICHARD DE RUFFEY (1750-1794) Original oval canvas Signed and dated lower right with the brush handle 'Mde Le Brun / 1779'; inscriptions on the reverse identifying the model 'MARIE CHARLOTTE HOCQUART / MARRIÉE LE 2. 7bre 1776 A FRÉDÉRIC / HENRY RICHARD DE RUFFEY PRESID.t / AU PARLEMENT DE BOURGOGNE / PEINTE PAR MAD. LE BRUN / IN 1779 AGE 22'. Original 18th century giltwood frame Portrait of Marie Charlotte Hocquart, original oval canvas, signed and dated, original 18th century gilded wood frame. 72,5 x 58 CM - 28,5 x 22,8 IN. A certificate of inclusion in the catalogue raisonné of the works of Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun by Joseph Baillio will be given to the buyer. PROVENANCE The Cardenac d'Havrincourt family (in northern France) and the Louvigny family, Château de Louvigny (in the Sarthe) since the 19th century; By descent. BIBLIOGRAPHY E. Vigée Le Brun, Souvenirs, tome II, Paris, 1986, p. 337 (year 1779, as La présidente Richard). The daughter of an artillery treasurer and farmers-general, Marie-Charlotte Hocquart married Frédéric Henri Richard de Ruffey in 1776. The latter was a councillor and then president à mortier of the Burgundy parliament. He was placed on the list of emigrants during the Revolution, and was sentenced to the guillotine on 10 April 1794. His first and only real master was his father, the portrait painter Louis Vigée. When he died in 1768, it was Gabriel Doyen, a renowned painter and great friend of his, who encouraged Louise-Elisabeth to take up the brush again. Just fourteen years old, she was already painting portraits in oil and pastel. Her father had left her no money, so it was through her art that she supported herself and her mother. Together they went to see the paintings of Rubens and "many rooms full of paintings by the greatest masters" in Luxembourg, as well as the galleries of major Parisian collectors. In the second letter of her Souvenirs, she wrote: "I copied several heads of young girls by Greuze, because they explained to me the half-tones found in delicate complexions; Wandik also explained them, but more finely. I owe to this work the all-important study of the degradation of light on the protruding parts of a head, a degradation that I admired so much in Raphael's heads. My aptitude for painting was remarkable, and my progress was so rapid that people began to talk about me in the world, which gave me the satisfaction of knowing Joseph Vernet. He advised her: "Above all, do as much as you can from nature: nature is the first of all masters". Élisabeth married in 1776 and signed her married name. In 1778, she painted Queen Marie-Antoinette in full court costume for the first time (canvas, 273 x 193 CM, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), and was then regularly asked to paint the Queen's portrait. In 1779, the same year as our painting, she painted no fewer than thirty portraits, including a "Grand portrait de la reine pour l'impératrice de Russie" and "Bustes de la reine Marie Antoinette" (see E. Vigée-Lebrun, op. cit.).