Court painter of Louis XIV, possibly Pierre Mignard

Court painter of Louis XIV, possibly PIERRE MIGNARD (Troyes, France, 1612- Paris, 1695).
"Portrait of Madame Montespan".
Oil on canvas.
Relined. In good condition.
Nineteenth century frame with slight flaws.
A portrait very similar to the work in bidding belongs to the collection of the Palace of Versailles.
Measurements: 72 x 56 cm; 92 x 72 x 7 cm (frame).

Françoise de Rochechouart de Mortemart (born October 5, 1640), known as the Marquise de Montespan or Athénaïs, was a central figure at the court of Louis XIV. After receiving a careful education and marrying the Marquis de Montespan in 1663, her life changed when she was appointed lady-in-waiting to the queen. In 1666, she became the Sun King's official mistress, maintaining a twelve-year relationship that resulted in seven non-legitimized children. Her influence at court was immense, but her position was threatened by the devoted party and eventually undermined by her own rival: her children's governess, Madame de Maintenon. With age and pregnancies affecting her physique, Louis XIV moved away, and the defeated Madame de Montespan retired to Paris, where she died in 1707.

Although we do not know the exact authorship of this work, we can relate it to the hand of Pierre Mignard, a painter specialized in portraying Louis XIV, the queen, and the most influential members of the court. His portraits of the king are famous for presenting an image of majesty and power.

His first training took place with Jean Boucher in Bourges and then, in 1633, he moved to Simon Vouet's studio in Paris. Two years later he went to Rome, where he arrived in 1636 and where he remained for more than twenty years, until October 1657. There he became acquainted with the greatest standard-bearers of classical idealism, such as Domenichino or Nicolas Poussin, whose painting was based on the study of the sculptures of Antiquity and the works of Raphael passed through the sieve of Annibale Carracci. However, Mignard did not fail to be attentive to other novelties in the trends of Roman painting of his time, such as neo-Venetianism. His interest in the great Venetian masters of the previous century was so strong that it prompted him to make a trip to the lake city and northern Italy in 1654 and 1655. In 1657 he returned to France, passing through Avignon and Fontainebleau - where he portrayed Louis XIV - before arriving in Paris. Portraiture was the genre in which he excelled, and he gained a great reputation with the representations of prominent court figures in elegant allegorical compositions. Nor did he disdain historical painting, the most honorable genre according to contemporary academic postulates; at the same time he carried out works of great commitment, such as the decoration of the dome of the abbey of Val-de-Grâce (Paris) for Anne of Austria in 1663, where he was able to apply the teachings of Giovanni Lanfranco that he had received in Rome. The death of the minister Colbert caused the undisputed fortune that the first painter Charles Le Brun had enjoyed until then to decline, and the rise to power of Louvois, Mignard's protector, placed him in an ideal position to obtain royal rewards. From then on, his courtly success only increased and Le Brun's death in 1690 made him the king's first painter and director of the Academy. The Prado Museum preserves several works related to Pierre Mignard, all from the royal collections.