Portrait of Gabriel Bernard de Rieux

Object Details

Title:

Portrait of Gabriel Bernard de Rieux

Artist/Maker(s):

Maurice-Quentin de La Tour (French, 1704 - 1788)

Culture:

French

Place(s):

Paris, France (Place created)

Date:

1739 - 1741

Medium:

Pastel and gouache on paper mounted on canvas

Dimensions:

200.7 x 149.9 cm (79 x 59 in.)

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Gabriel Bernard de Rieux, the youngest son of an immensely successful financier, wears the robes of his office as president of the second Court of Inquiry in the Parliament of Paris. From a large tome held on his lap, he lifts a sheet of paper. Intending to declare the sitter's erudition, wealth, and status, Maurice-Quentin de La Tour placed de Rieux in his study, surrounded by fashionable and expensive objects. Behind him is a richly ornamental screen; on a table covered with blue velvet cloth are books, papers, and an inkstand with a quill pen. A globe stands next to the table and a Turkish carpet covers the floor. These objects identify the sitter as a connoisseur of fine and precious thing–like his father, whose considerable fortune de Rieux inherited the year this portrait was painted.

This large, full-length portrait, still in its original, massive gilt frame, was assembled from separate sheets of paper laid on canvas and drawn entirely in pastel. The most sought-after portraitist of his day, La Tour worked exclusively in pastel, producing likenesses of the nobility and the wealthy middle class that were applauded for both their technical mastery and their astonishing verisimilitude. In fact, one contemporary critic marveled that such a work as this portrait could be created using crayons.

Provenance
about 1739/1741 - 1745

Gabriel Bernard de Rieux, French, 1687 - 1745 (Paris, France), by inheritance to his son, Anne-Gabriel-Henri Bernard de Rieux, 1745.

1745 -

Anne-Gabriel-Henri Bernard de Rieux (Paris, France; Château de Glisolles, Eure, France), by inheritance within the de Rieux family.

de Rieux Family, by inheritance to the duke of Clermont-Tonerre.

Rothschild Family, by inheritance to Edmond II de Rothschild.

- 1919

duke of Clermont-Tonnerre (Paris, France), sold to Wildenstein & Co. (Paris), 1919.

1919

Wildenstein & Co. (Paris), sold to Ambatielos, 1919.

1919

Ambatielos, returned to Wildenstein & Co. (Paris), 1919.

1919 - about 1934

Wildenstein & Co. (Paris) (Paris, France), sold to Maurice (Edmond Charles) de Rothschild, about 1934.

about 1934 - 1957

Baron Maurice (Edmond Charles) de Rothschild, Austrian, 1881 - 1957 (Paris, France; Château de Pregny, Switzerland), by inheritance within the Rothschild family.

- 1994

Baron Edmond II de Rothschild (Château de Pregny, Switzerland), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1994.

Exhibitions
Salon of 1741 (September 1 to September 10, 1741)
  • Cour Carré, (Paris), September 1, 1741 to September 10, 1974
Pastels français du XVIIème et du XVIIIème siècle (May 23 to June 26, 1927) (Cat. 34; p. 21, pl. VI)
  • Galerie Charpentier, Paris, May 23 to June 26, 1927
Le Siècle de Louis XV vu par les artistes (1934) (69; p. 41, ill.)
  • Galerie des Beaux-Arts (Bordeaux), 1934
Paris: Life & Luxury (April 26, 2011 to January 2, 2012) (90)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, (Los Angeles), April 26 to August 7, 2011
Bibliography

Bellier de la Chavignerie, Émile and Louis Auvray. Dictionnaire Général des Artistes de l'École Française. 3 vols. (Paris, 1882), pp. 918-19 [facs. Reprint in 5 vols., New York 1979; entry in vol. 3].

Jaffé, David. Summary Catalogue of European Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1997), p. 71, ill.

The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Collections. 6th ed. (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2001), pp. 128-29, ill.

Cartsen, Robert K. "The Best Pastel Collections in the U.S." The Pastel Journal, no. 46 (October 2006), p. 48, fig.

Related Media
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    Audio: Portrait of Gabriel Bernard de Rieux (Exhibit: PLL)