Nicolas de LARGILLIERRE Paris, 1656 - 1746 Portraits of Guillaume Pierre Legrand de Beauregard (1685 - 1780) and Marie Antoinette Hereford (1690 - 1768) Pair of paintings (Old restorations) Portrait of Guillaume Pierre Legrand de Beauregard and Marie Antoinette Hereford, canvases, by N. de Largillierre 137,50 x 105,50 cm (54,13 x 41,54 in.) Provenance: Remained in the descent of the models since the origin; Private collection, Auvergne Comment: Kept in the family of the models since their creation, this sumptuous, previously unpublished pair represents an important rediscovery for the history of portraiture and the arts during the Regency of Duke Philippe d'Orléans. The exhibition on this period held at the Musée Carnavalet from 20 October 2023 to 25 February 2024 recalls how this transitional period, so dynamic in terms of economics, art and ideas, invented a new way of life and developed a refinement exemplified here by the rich clothes of the two models. It dictated "French taste" to the whole of Europe. Nicolas de Largillierre transformed the art of portraiture in France, moving from the conventional, hieratic effigies of the previous generation of Pierre Mignard, Pierre Gobert and Claude Lefèbvre to representations imbued with movement and vivid colour. His training in Antwerp and his stays in England (1665, 1675 to 1679) brought him into contact with the aristocratic portraits of Antoon Van Dyck and his pupils such as Peter Lely. As a painter of the Parisian bourgeoisie and aristocracy, he was able to invent original compositions that expressed the personality and social position of his models. His career spanned the reign of Louis XIV to the advent of the Rocaille style during the Regency and then under Louis XV. He also excelled in other genres, such as still life and history painting. He enjoyed great fame and fortune during his lifetime, and had a considerable influence through his many pupils, including Hyacinthe Rigaud. Our pair dates from the years 1710-1720, when the artist was at the height of his career, the most sought-after portraitist in Paris, and these two canvases bear magnificent witness to his virtuosity and mastery. The couple, seen from halfway up, are posing in a garden. The young woman is dressed as the goddess Flora, holding a wreath of orange blossom in her right hand, a symbol of purity and marriage, and a garland in the other. Her low hairstyle is also adorned with a sprig of flowers. She is wearing a fancy dress of ivory silk embellished with gold-thread embroidery. The skirt, worn with large baskets, is slit to reveal the petticoat. Stony carbuncles were placed throughout to hold certain parts of the costume in place. The strapless corset, very low and pointed, has Bérain-style decorations, also embroidered in gold thread. It reveals a shirt with a bib neckline and wide sleeves, held at the arm by a gold lace. A pink fabric held in place at the top of the hip by another carbuncle is unfurled at the back, as is customary in this type of large ceremonial portrait. Largillierre repeated this composition, almost identically, in the portrait of Madame de Megien (former Edouard Kann collection, fig. 1). Her husband is wearing a large wig. Note the gentle colour harmony between her golden coat, with its pale blue and pink reverse, and the ivory cape thrown over it, as well as Largillierre's masterly rendering of the embroidery. Dominique Brême made it possible to identify the models, which he kindly shared with us: "The marriage of Guillaume Pierre Legrand de Beauregard, born on 20 June 1685, Master of Water and Forestry at Crécy-en-Brie, Commissioner of the Gendarmes of the King's Guard (in 1728), Knight of Saint-Louis (1746), died on 11 May 1780, to Marie Antoinette Hereford, born on 4 April 1690 and died on 1 March 1768, was celebrated in Dunkirk on 9 February 1713, i.e. exactly within the supposed dating window of the two paintings. So, as family tradition would have it, these two portraits do not represent Philippe Denis de Senneville and his wife Marie Anne Legrand de Beauregard, but her parents, Guillaume Pierre Legrand de Beauregard and Marie Antoinette Hereford. This is, of course, only a hypothesis. Philippe Denis de Senneville, in his capacity as 'commissaire des Guerres ayant la conduite et police du régiment des Gardes-Françaises', had professional dealings with Guillaume Pierre Legrand de Beauregard, himself 'commissaire des gendarmes de la garde du roi'. Legrand had all the means to have himself and his wife represented by Largillierre. Samuel Gibiat, in his book 'Hiérarchies sociales & ennoblissement. Les commissaires des guerres de la Maison du roi au XVIIIe siècle' (Paris, Ecole des Chartes, 2006), writes: "Even within the wealthiest family, this phenomenon tended to be felt. In 1728, the estate of the King's secretary Guillaume Legrand represented assets of 590,166 livres. His son, Guillaume-Pierre, future commissioner of the Gendarmerie de la Garde, had already received the sum of 80,000 livres in cash on his marriage in 1713, i.e. 354,071 livres from this estate alone. In addition to a dowry of the same composition, his wife had inherited 13,594 livres from her parents in 1745, and 52,352 livres from her sister in July 1765. After 55 years together, Legrand de Beauregard's assets had increased by 702,000 livres, almost half of which was inherited. Pierre Denis de Senneville, commissary general of the French Guards, had inherited 233,000 livres from his father, Jacques Denis, treasurer of the king's buildings, in 1730, and by the time of his marriage to Marie-Anne Legrand de Beauregard in July 1741, the young couple had a net worth of close to 300,000 livres. [the analysis of Denis de Senneville's fortune then continues]". (Gibiat, 2006, pp. 350-351; further information on Guillaume Legrand de Beauregard's extensive library, p. 454; further information on his estate in Brie, p. 315). The young wife was the daughter of Roger Hereford, born in Suston in the United Kingdom in 1650, who married in Calais in 1689, with Antoinette Mollien, born in 1665 in Calais. Their daughter was born a year later in Dunkirk, which suggests that her father Roger Hereford was a Jacobite who had to leave England in a hurry at the time of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which forced the Catholic King of England James II to go into exile in France at the Court of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. We would like to thank Mr Dominique Brême for kindly confirming the attribution of this work by means of a visual examination on 15 February 2024 and for identifying the subjects. He will include them in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Largillierre's work.