Lot 69: JEAN-LAURENT MOSNIER (PARIS, 1743/1744-1808 SAINT PETERSBOURG)

JEAN-LAURENT MOSNIER (PARIS, 1743/1744-1808 SAINT PETERSBOURG)
PORTRAIT DE LA COMTESSE DE PROVENCE (1753-1810), 1775
La princesse en robe de satin bleu et manteau de satin blanc, la perruque poudrée et coiffe ornée de perles et de plumes blanches et bleues, assise de trois-quarts, brodant, dans un intérieur avec paravent et table marquetée
signée et datée à droite sur la ceinture de la table de salon 'Mosnier 1775'
sur ivoire
ovale, 116 x 96 mm., dans un cadre en bronze doré orné d'un noeud de rubans

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Marie-Joséphine-Louise de Savoie, fille du roi Victor Amédée III de Sardaigne, épouse en 1771 le frère cadet du futur roi Louis XVI, Louis-Stanislas de France, comte de Provence, futur roi Louis XVIII. Jugée laide et dépourvue d'esprit, elle est maltraitée à la cour et délaissée par son mari. Elle complote timidement contre sa belle-soeur Marie-Antoinette mais sans influence politique et sans enfant, elle finit par s'éloigner de la cour dans le quartier de Montreuil où elle crée le domaine de Madame. Très proche de sa lectrice Madame de Gourbillon, elle parcourt avec elle l'Europe après la Révolution. Elle meurt en 1810 en Angleterre, sans jamais avoir été reine de France.

En 1775, date de notre miniature, Mosnier exécute les portraits des belles-soeurs de la comtesse de Provence: la reine Marie-Antoinette (dont une version est illustrée dans Miniatures de la collection Bruni-Tedeschi, Turin, 2005, no. 4, p. 98, par erreur datée de 1776) et Madame Clotilde de France, future reine de Sardaigne, surnommée "gros Madame" (succession du roi Umberto II d'Italie, vente Sotheby's, Genève, 12 novembre 1984, lot 37).

JEAN-LAURENT MOSNIER (FRENCH, 1743/44-1808)
The comtesse de Provence (1753-1810) wearing a blue satin dress with a white satin surcoat, white and blue feathers and pearls in her high-piled powdered hair, seated in an interior with a screen and a table, embroidering
signed and dated on the side of the table 'Mosnier 1775' (lower right)
on ivory
oval, 4½ x 3¾ in. (115 x 95 mm.), ormolu frame with tied ribbon surmount

Marie-Joséphine-Louise of Savoy, daughter of King Victor Amédée III of Sardinia, married in 1771 the younger brother of Louis XVI, Louis-Stanislas de France, comte de Provence, later King Louis XVIII. Considered ugly and ignorant, she was mis-treated by the court and neglected by her husband. She plotted feebly against her sister-in-law, Queen Marie-Antoinette but without any politic influence or children she distanced herself from Versailles and moved to Montreuil on the outskirts of Paris, creating a home known as 'le domaine de Madame'. She managed to escape France during the Revolution, first fleeing to the Austrian Netherlands and then to Germany. She had a very close relationship with her lady-in-waiting, Madame de Gourbillon, spending a lot of time as travelling companions on trips around Europe after the Revolution. She died in 1810 in England, never becoming Queen of France.

In 1775, the date of execution of the present miniature, Mosnier also painted the portraits of the two sisters-in-law of the comtesse de Provence: Queen Marie-Antoinette (a version is illustrated in Miniatures de la collection Bruni-Tedeschi, Turin, 2005, no. 4, p. 98, erroneously dated 1776) and Madame Clotilde de France, later Queen of Sardinia, nicknamed 'Fat Madame' (estate of King Umberto II of Italy; Sotheby's, Geneva, 12 November 1984, lot 37).