PIERRE GOBERT FONTAINEBLEAU, 1662 – PARIS, 1744 Portrait of the Duchess of Burgundy (1685–1712) c. 1710 Oil on canvas 78 x 92 cm. This is a rather unusual scene, despite a few familiar touches. This young aristocrat, with her prim demeanour, is having her palm read by a fortune-teller whilst a young boy tries to steal money from her purse. Whilst the scene is not unlike Caravaggio’s iconography and, more broadly, the street scenes of the early 17th-century Roman Baroque painters, the same scenario seems incongruous a century later. Seated on a stone bench in the middle of a park, the young Duchess of Burgundy, adorned in a sumptuous court gown and a feathered headdress, turns towards us as if to call us as witnesses, whilst the Gypsy woman, kneeling before her, takes her hand whilst staring intently at her. The child, meanwhile, fully absorbed in his task, looks down towards the purse. The social hierarchy is evident in the duchess’s posture and her opulent finery, as well as in the milky whiteness of her complexion, whilst the other two figures have tanned skin. Bathed in light, this princess, who captivates the court of Versailles, stands at the apex of this pyramidal composition. With his characteristic grace, Pierre Gobert creates a subtle composition in which, through the feigned simplicity of a genre scene, he highlights the nobility of his subject, the mother of the future Louis XV. Pierre Gobert (1662–1744) was a French portrait painter. Grandson of Jean Gobert the Elder, a joiner and sculptor; son of Jean II Gobert, sculptor to the King; and brother of Jean Gobert, ‘ ordinary painter to the King’, Pierre belonged to a line of court artists. Admitted to the Academy of Painting in 1701, he made a name for himself with his elegant figures. Highly sought-after at the Court of Versailles, he soon became one of the aristocracy’s favoured painters, particularly for the royal family. Among these portraits are those of the future Louis XV, as well as several portraits of his mother, the Duchess of Burgundy, the Court’s muse. In 1707, Gobert was approached by the Court of Lorraine to paint a portrait of the family of Duke Leopold of Lorraine, including the Duchess Elisabeth-Charlotte d’Orléans, daughter of Monsieur, the King’s brother. Gobert then established a studio to produce an impressive collection of seventy portraits. Having become the ‘official painter’ to the Duke of Lorraine, Gobert contributed to the artistic splendour of the court of Lunéville, which sought to follow in the footsteps of Versailles. On his return to Paris, Gobert worked for the Condé family, the Conti family and then Prince-Elector Max-Emmanuel of Bavaria. In 1737, he presented at the Salon one of his most ambitious portraits, the family of the Duke of Valentinois (now in the Prince’s Palace in Monaco). Regarded as one of the first ‘galant’ portraitists, Pierre Gobert succeeded in creating a ‘Grand Siècle’ style that set him apart from his contemporaries Nicolas de Largillierre (1656–1746) and Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659–1743). He brilliantly embraced the fashion for historical portraits that depicted aristocrats as heroes or mythological deities.