Lot 54: JACQUES THOURON (SWISS, 1749-1789) AND A LATER HAND

Louise-Marie-Adélaïde, Duchess of Orléans (1753-1821), seated with her left hand raised to her face, in a long grey dress and gold-edged surcoat with gold buttons, fastened at corsage, gem-set belt with blue plaque depicting a lady and a lap-dog, grey gauze head-dress in her powdered curling hair, gold hoop earrings, her left elbow resting on a red velvet cushion with gold edge and tassels
enamel and varnish
oval, 4 9/16 in. (116 mm.) high, silver-gilt réverbère mount on gilt-metal easel frame with pierced ribbon and bow surmount, fitted rectangular red leather case, the cover stamped 'SOIRON PORTRAIT DE LA DUCHESSE D'ORLEANS' within tooled border, made at the order of Félix Panhard by L. Houde at 82 rue Bonaparte, Paris

Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, OEuvres d'art du XVIII e siècle, 1906, no. 438 (as by Soiron).

L. R. Schidlof, The Miniature in Europe, Graz, 1964, II, p. 768 (verbo Soiron).

The celebrated collection of Mr Vincent, Paris, sold en bloc by his only son Prosper Vincent to Félix Panhard, on 2 April 1883, for 210,000 Gold Francs.
Félix Panhard (1842-1891), Paris.
His nephew Hippolyte Panhard.
Thence by family descent until sale of the Panhard Collection, part I, Palais Galliéra, Paris, 5 December 1975, lot 156 (as by François Soiron).

The present miniature derives from a large-scale portrait of the Duchess of Orléans by Mme. Vigée-LeBrun (1755-1842), dated 1789 and acquired for the Collection of the Château de Versailles in 1836. Thouron made several copies of paintings by Vigée-LeBrun, one of which is in the Wallace Collection and is painted after her self-portrait of 1782, (see G. Reynolds, Wallace Collection. Catalogue of Miniatures, London, 1980, no. 133, illustrated p. 164). An early source on art in Geneva writes of Thouron 'Il fit plusieurs portraits à la cour, particulièrement dans la famille d'Orléans' (J.-J. Rigaud, Renseignements sur les Beaux-Arts à Genève, Geneva, 1876, p. 116).

Louise-Marie-Adélaïde (1753-1821) was the daughter of the Duc de Penthièvre and married, in 1769, her cousin Louis-Philippe of Orléans, who became known as 'Philippe-Egalité. An active supporter of the French Revolution, he was guillotined during the Reign of Terror. Their son Louis-Philippe became King of the French in the July Revolution of 1830.

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