Louis Ferdinand ELLE, known as the Elder (Paris, 1612 - 1689) Portrait of a Lady of Quality Carrying a Child in her Arms Oil on oval prepared oak panel Bears the mark of the panneleur Melchior de Bout, active in Antwerp from 1625 to 1658, on the reverse Inscribed '3535 / 8105/ I' in black paint on the reverse Portrait of a noble lady carrying a child in her arms, oil on oak panel, by L. F. Elle, called the Elder 16.93 x 20.67 in. 43 x 52.5 cm Provenance: Anonymous sale; Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 28 June 1938, no. 8 (as attributed to Pierre Mignard); Anonymous sale; Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Piasa, 28 March 2003, no. 40 (as Attributed to Pierre Mignard); Private collection, Portugal Our attractive portrait forms part of a corpus of works that have reappeared at public auction over the last twenty years, the contours of which are now better defined thanks to Elodie Vaysse's publication in La Revue des Musées de France in 20191. Elodie Vaysse identifies, under the name of Louis Elle le Père, a set of small vertical panels2 bearing the mark of the panneleur Melchior de Bout3, measuring approximately 38 x 27 cm, and depicting figures of high lineage. These small-format portraits, with their refined execution and light greyish-white preparation, contrast with most of the artist's larger portraits, painted on canvas with a reddish-brown preparation. Elodie Vaysse notes a Nordic influence in the execution of our group of small portraits, all of which share the effect of a distant sunset in orange tones. She points out that the painter's family, originally from Malines, Dutch-speaking and Protestant, had links with the United Provinces, and that Louis Elle may have accompanied his brother on his trip to Holland in 1642. 1 - "Louis Elle "le Père" et la mode du petit portrait à Paris au milieu du XVIIe siècle (1640-1660)", La revue des musées de France, 2019-n°4, pp. 45-58 2 - Note the particularity of our panel within this corpus, since it is an oval format. 3 - The Antwerp-born panneleur Melchior de Bout was active in Antwerp from 1625-26 until his death in 1658. Louis Ferdinand ELLE, known as the Elder (Paris, 1612 - 1689) 43 x 52.5 cm