Provenance
Possibly Abbé Thuelin, Paris. possibly James de Rothschild [1792-1868], Châtea de Boulogne, Paris. possibly Lamorélie, Brittany. possibly Baron de Fourment, Château de Cercamp, near Frévent; possibly (his estate sale, Château de Cercamp, 21-28 April 1892, no. 50, as _Bon Portrait de Femme_ by Largillierre). (Wildenstein & Co., Paris, New York, and London), by 1929; sold December 1944 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[1] gift 1946 to NGA.
[1] Colin Eisler, _Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian_, Oxford, 1977: 296-297, gives the possible early provenance without documenting his sources. The memorandum of agreement between Wildenstein & Co. and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation for the sale of ten paintings, including _Portrait of Sylvia_ by Jean Antoine Watteau, is dated 28 December 1944 (copy in NGA curatorial files). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1710.
Accession Number
1946.7.17
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 69.2 x 58.7 cm (27 1/4 x 23 1/8 in.) | framed: 96.2 x 86.4 cm (37 7/8 x 34 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Samuel H. Kress Collection
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
Portrait of a Woman from c. 1711 is an anonymous French portrait from the early 18th century, depicting an unidentified woman in the formal style of portraiture that characterized the late reign of Louis XIV and the Regency period. The 1711 date places this at the very beginning of the 18th century, when French portraiture was transitioning from the grand manner of the Louis XIV era to the more intimate style that would characterize the Rococo period. The woman's formal pose and elaborate costume indicate high social status, and the painting's handling suggests an artist trained in the late 17th-century French portrait tradition.
Cultural Impact
Anonymous portraits from the early 18th century are important documents in the history of French portraiture because they show the transition from the grand manner of the Louis XIV era to the more intimate style of the Rococo. This portrait from c. 1711 captures the transitional moment when French portraiture was moving from the formality of the 17th century to the intimacy of the 18th, and the sitter's formal pose and elaborate costume document the fashions of this specific moment in French social history.
Why It Matters
Portrait of a Woman from c. 1711 is French portraiture in transition: the formal pose and elaborate costume of the Louis XIV era combined with a handling that anticipates the more intimate style of the Regency and Rococo periods. The anonymous attribution preserves the fashion and the social status without the names—the portrait without the history, the style without the artist.
