Portrait Présumé d’Elisabeth Delpech, Marquise de Cailly
Portrait Présumé d’Elisabeth Delpech, Marquise de Cailly c1700 and 1750 by French Painter Nicolas de Largillierre (1656 – 1746), portratist and draftsperson
This beautifully done portrait is believed to be that of Elisabeth Delpech, Marquise de Cailly ( – 1717), who was the wife of the French Advocate General Pierre Delpech marquis de Cailly (1673 – 1733); based on information that use to be attached on the back of the painting.
This though can not be verified as there are no archival records or biographical details about her and the Prints department of the National Library of France, specifies the painting as: “Elisabeth de Caumartin, marquise de Cailly”
The portrait shows her seated in a chair set against an evening sky of clouds of blue hues accented with some orange and a tree to her right.
On her right side is a reddish-violet drape and on her left a brown pillar. Her hair is adorned with a red and white and red flower as well as a ruby and gold teardrop jewelry piece.
She is wearing a deep v-neck sheer meshed ruffled white blouse, under a green and red cloak that is tied at the front with a gold pendant; and there are additional gold accents attached to the collar of the cloak.
This is a retouched digital art old masters reproduction of a public domain image.
Info Below Derived From NGA.gov
Nicolas became known as one of Europe’s premier painters of portraits, historical paintings, and still life artwork during the late seventeenth century and the first four decades of the eighteenth century.
He was born in Paris in 1656 to a hat maker and merchant who moved with his family to Antwerp when Nicolas was three years of age.
When Nicolas was nine years old, he traveled for the first time to London, England in the company of an associate of his fathers; and after returning to Antwerp over a year later his artistic talent was recognized, and as a result he was apprenticed by his father to the Flemish Baroque Painter Antoni Goubau (1616 – 1698), a painter of bambocciate, genre scenes, and landscapes.
Being something of a prodigy, Nicolas was admitted to the painters’ Guild of Saint Luke in 1673 at the age of seventeen; then two years later mad another trip abroad to London, where he was employed as a restorer under the direction of the Italian Painter Antonio Verrio (1639 – 1707), at Windsor Castle; who brought him to the attention of King Charles II (1630 – 1685), who reigned from 1660 until his death in 1685.
By 1679 at the age of 23 Nicloas had settled in Paris, France; specializing the Baroque style of portraiture that followed in the grand manner of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641), and Peter Lely (1618-1680).
Then the Flemish Battle Painter Adam Frans van der Meulen (1631-32 – 1690) introduced him to Charles Le Brun (1619 1690), who was the First Painter to King Louis XIV (1638 – 1715) and who reigned from 1643 until his death in 1715; and who also was the director of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture.
Upon his acceptance as a candidate for admission to the Académie, he agreed to execute as his diploma artwork, a large portrait of Le Brun, which he in 1686, which depicts him seated in his studio surrounded by the accoutrements of his art; and an oil study for The Second Conquest of Franche-Comté, one of the large decorations for the ceiling of Galerie des Glaces at Versailles.
Nicolas created a tremendous amount of artwork with some 1500 portraits (currently being cataloged by Dominique Brême); which required hime to maintain a workshop with studio assistants, to whom he delegated the painting of costumes and minor accessories.
During his long and industrious and illustrious career, Nicolas de Largillierre served terms as a professor, rector, chancellor and director of the Académie royale; passing away at the age of ninety in 1746.
