Terms and conditions of use
Louise-Marie de France
1763
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
73.7 × 59.8 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Everard Studley Miller Bequest, 1964
Gallery location
17th & 18th Century Decorative Arts & Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
A master of dazzling, flattering effects, François-Hubert Drouais was one of the most sought-after portraitists at the court of Versailles in the mid eighteenth century. The sitter, Louise-Marie de France, was the eighth daughter of Louis XV. Aged twenty-six at the time this work was painted, Louise-Marie’s serious air and rigid pose seem at odds with the worldly splendour of her dress, festooned with floral needlework. Pious Louise-Marie was ill-suited to the hijinks of the court and yearned for the seclusion of religious life. To ward off suitors she exaggerated a childhood limp and begged her father to allow her to enter a convent, to which he finally agreed in 1770.
Frame: French, Louis XV
Artwork Details
Inscription
inscribed in black paint c.r.: Drouais le fils / 1763
Accession Number
1359-5
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Biographical Portraits
Subjects (specific)
books dresses (garments) flower (motif) half figures lace (needlework) nobility princesses women (female humans)
Frame
French, Louis XV
Frame
The frame on Louise-Marie de France is a fine example of carved and gilded swept edge Louis XV French frames. It is carved in oak and the reverse of each section is hollowed out to relieve tension in the timber with exchanges in moisture content. The corners are mitred and cross-splined. It is in remarkably good condition (despite being re-gilded) and a prime example of this type of French frame which was heavily reproduced throughout the nineteenth century and beyond in broad, loosely detailed variations.
There is no reason to think the frame on the Drouais might not be the original presentation of the painting. It forms a well balanced relationship between the emphatic, decorative corners and centres of the frame and the compositional structure of the painting.
Frame Details
Framemaker
Unknown - 18th century
Date
c.1760
Materials
carved oak and gold leaf