curatorial

The painter and draftsman Jacint Francesc Honori Maties Pere Andreu Joan Rigau Ros i Serra, better known by his gallicized name Hyacinthe Rigaud, was born on July 18, 1659, at Perpignan in the principality of Catalonia. The region to which the town belonged was annexed to France as part of the province of Roussillon following the Treaty of the PyreneesTreaty of the Pyrenees: Signed in 1659, the treaty ended the hostilities between France and Spain and the Thirty Years’ War. It was sealed by the marriage of Louis XIV of France and Marie‐Thérèse, daughter of Philip IV of Spain., shortly after the artist’s birth. He was the son of a tailor Maties Rigau Ros (d. 1669) and his wife Maria Serra (1638–1721). Until Maria’s death, her son remained close to her, and the depth of his affection for her is expressed in the two sensitive and characterful portraits of her, in one of which she is seen facing front (1695; Château de Fontaine-Henry, Thaon, France) and in the other from two angles (Fig. 1). These works were used by the sculptor Antoine Coysevox (1640–1720) in 1706 when he carved in marble a bust of the lady for his friend Rigaud (Musée du Louvre).

Fig. 1. Hyacinthe Rigaud, Portraits of Maria Serra (1638–1721), the Artist’s Mother, 1695, oil on canvas, 32 5/8 x 40 1/2 in. (83 x 103 cm), Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv. 7522; MR 2402. Photo: Jean-Gilles Berizzi. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY

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Many prestigious commissions, including several for portraits of Louis XIV, the Sun King himself, were followed in 1701 by a life-size full-length depiction of the old autocrat wearing his coronation robes and surrounded by the regalia he received on the occasion of his investiture at Reims in 1654 (Fig. 2). This impressive effigy is the work for which Rigaud is the best known. In future, most full-length European portraiture of kings and emperors would be patterned on this quintessential icon of rule by absolute, divine right monarchy, including Rigaud’s own portraits of the king’s great-grandson and successor, Louis XV (painted in 1715, 1721, and 1730).

Fig. 2. Hyacinthe Rigaud, Louis XIV (1638–1715), 1701, oil on canvas, 109 × 76 5/16 in. (277 × 194 cm), Musée du Louvre, Paris, no. 7492. Photo: Stéphane Maréchalle. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY

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Fig. 3. Hyacinthe Rigaud, Portrait of Madame Desjardins, née Marie Cadesne (or Cadenne, d. 1716), 1684, oil on canvas, 54 3/4 x 42 15/16 in. (139 x 109 cm), Musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen, inv. no. 20. Photo: Bridgeman Images

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In 1703, at the height of his fame, Rigaud married his first wife, Marie Catherine Chastillon, a union that was annulled seven months later, and in 1710 he wed his second spouse, Élisabeth de Gouy, the widow of Jean Le Juge, a bailiff in the royal Grand Council of Justice. Neither marriage produced offspring. In 1727, Louis XV made him a knight of the Order of Saint-Michel, which was reserved for writers, painters, and magistrates, and in 1733 he was appointed Rector of the Académie. After a long and prosperous career, the octogenarian and quite wealthy Hyacinthe Rigaud died on December 29, 1743, in the spacious apartment he had leased in a townhouse at the corner of the rue Louis-le-Grand and the rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs near the Place des Victoires.

The subject of the Nelson-Atkins portrait, the Marquise de Bonnac, née Esther de Jaussaud (1654–1750), was born in or near the town of Castres into the Huguenot nobility of the southwestern provinces of France.³See provenance footnote 1 in this entry. She was the daughter of Claude de Jaussaud, Baron de Tarabel (ca. 1615–73),⁴Alternative spellings are Jaussaud and Taravel. and his second wife, Isabeau de Juge (1631–90), the daughter of Paul de Juge, Seigneur de Brassac, and Jeanne Thomas de La Barthe. On June 20, 1672, Esther de Jaussaud married Salomon d’Usson (1638–98), a coreligionist in Pamiers, whose ancestors had been attached to the HuguenotHuguenots: A name for French Protestants in the 1500s to 1700s. France had been a mostly Catholic country until French Protestants emerged around 1517, and this led to a series of civil wars from 1562 to 1598, called the Wars of Religion. In 1598, the former-Protestant king, Henry IV, issued the Edict of Nantes to offer religious equality and tolerance to the Huguenots. Many years later, Henry’s grandson Louis XIV felt his absolute monarchy was threatened by the Huguenots’ growing religious minority, and in 1685 he revoked the Edict of Nantes. Protestants faced increased persecution, deportation, or massacres, and about 200,000 fled France to settle in non-Catholic Europe. See also Protestant Reformation. kingdom of Navarre. In 1683, Salomon’s estate of Bonnac was elevated to the status of a marquisate. This Lieutenant des maréchaux de France (Lieutenant of the Marshals of France) in the county and province of Foix (received in 1694) was also made the head of the guard assigned to the coast of Languedoc. The d’Usson family is known to have associated with such free-thinking philosophes and political theorists as Pierre Bayle.⁵See Bayle’s correspondence with the d’Usson family in Oeuvres diverses de M^r Pierre Bayle, professeur en philosophie, en histoire, à Rotterdam, vol. I (The Hague: P. Husson, T. Johnson, P. Gosse, J. Swart, H. Scheurleer, J. Van Duren, R. Alberts, C. Le Vier, et F. Boucquet, 1737). Salomon and Esther, who had both abjured their faith in favor of Roman Catholicism after Louis XIV revoked the Edict of NantesHuguenots: A name for French Protestants in the 1500s to 1700s. France had been a mostly Catholic country until French Protestants emerged around 1517, and this led to a series of civil wars from 1562 to 1598, called the Wars of Religion. In 1598, the former-Protestant king, Henry IV, issued the Edict of Nantes to offer religious equality and tolerance to the Huguenots. Many years later, Henry’s grandson Louis XIV felt his absolute monarchy was threatened by the Huguenots’ growing religious minority, and in 1685 he revoked the Edict of Nantes. Protestants faced increased persecution, deportation, or massacres, and about 200,000 fled France to settle in non-Catholic Europe. See also Protestant Reformation. that had deprived Protestants of their rights as French citizens, also had a number of children, notable among them Claude François d’Usson de Bonnac (b. 1673), an aide de camp in the French royal army as of 1690 who later entered the religious life, and Jean Louis d’Usson, the second Marquis de Bonnac (1674–1738).⁶A former musketeer and dragoon, Jean Louis entered the diplomatic corps in which his uncle François d’Usson de Bonrepaux had made a name for himself and eventually took up ambassadorial posts in Sweden (1701), Poland (1707), Spain (1711), the Ottoman Empire (1713), and Switzerland (1727–36), and in the process was inducted into a number of knightly orders. In 1715, he married Madeleine Françoise de Gontaut-Biron (1692-1739). While he was the French emissary to Turkey, one of Bonnac’s primary goals was to ensure that Franco-Ottoman alliance against the Habsburg leaders of the Austrian empire was in full force. He commemorated his mission in his Mémoire historique sur l’Ambassade de France à Constantinople (published in Paris by E. Leroux, 1894). It was in all likelihood the latter who commissioned Rigaud to paint the portrait of the Marquise de Bonnac.

Rigaud has depicted his fifty-two-year-old female subject set against a brooding sky, richly clad in a tightly corseted gown of a lustrous plum-colored velvety fabric edged with silver stitching with open-flared sleeves closed mid-arm with a brooch. The bouffant sleeves of her white silk underdress end in lace cuffs, and the frilly lace edge of the garment extends from the plunging neckline, providing modest coverage. Moreover, she is cloaked loosely in a blue velvet mantle edged with gold embroidery and lined with gold brocade. The sitter’s body is turned slightly to the right, whereas her head faces the artist, whom she looks at with her heavy-lidded, dark grayish-blue eyes under faint, probably plucked, eyebrows. Her nose is somewhat flared at the nostrils, and her rouged lips are raised in a discreet smile. The marquise’s black hair, which is graying at the temples, is piled high with two curls arranged on either side of her forehead in a style known as à la Fontange. This hairdo is topped by a transparent veil fluttering in the breeze. She is seated on a stone bench in front of a pillar around which swirls a piece of deep red drapery. At lower left are the red and green leaves of an ornamental plant (perhaps a coleus), while she holds orange blossoms in her hand.⁷This fragrant white flower was the height of fashion during the later reign of Louis XIV (r. 1643–1715), as evidenced by the completion of his orangery at Versailles in 1686 under the direction of the architect Jules Hardouin Mansart (1648–1708). See James A. Wearn and David J. Mabberley, “Citrus and Orangeries in Northern Europe,” Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 33, no. 1 (February 2016): 99. I am grateful to the Nelson-Atkins project assistant Glynnis Napier Stevenson for sharing this insight.

Fig. 4. Hyacinthe Rigaud, with the collaboration of Joseph Parrocel (background) and Pierre Nicolas Huilliot (bouquet of flowers), Portrait of Marguerite Françoise Colbert (née Béraud, 1642–1719), marquise de Croissy, 1697, oil on canvas, 53 1/8 x 41 1/8 in. (135 x 104.5 cm), private collection, Château des Essarts, Vendée; repro. in Ariane James-Sarazin, Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1659–1743: L’Homme et Son Art (Dijon: Éditions Faton, 2016), 1:120

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Notes

1. His official reception piece, a larger-than-life depiction of St. Andrew leaning on the cross of his martyrdom (Musée du Louvre, deposited in 1872 in the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, MRA 103, although painted the year of his induction, was only presented by Rigaud to the Académie in 1742, a year prior to his death.

2. See Stéphan Perreau, “Les portraits féminins de Hyacinthe Rigaud,” L’Estampille/ L’Objet d’art, no. 399 (2005): 44–51.

3. See provenance footnote 1 in this entry.

4. Alternative spellings are Jaussaud and Taravel.

5. See Bayle’s correspondence with the d’Usson family in Oeuvres diverses de M^r Pierre Bayle, professeur en philosophie, en histoire, à Rotterdam, vol. I (The Hague: P. Husson, T. Johnson, P. Gosse, J. Swart, H. Scheurleer, J. Van Duren, R. Alberts, C. Le Vier, et F. Boucquet, 1737).

6. A former musketeer and dragoon, Jean Louis entered the diplomatic corps in which his uncle François d’Usson de Bonrepaux had made a name for himself and eventually took up ambassadorial posts in Sweden (1701), Poland (1707), Spain (1711), the Ottoman Empire (1713), and Switzerland (1727–36), and in the process was inducted into a number of knightly orders. In 1715, he married Madeleine Françoise de Gontaut-Biron (1692-1739). While he was the French emissary to Turkey, one of Bonnac’s primary goals was to ensure that Franco-Ottoman alliance against the Habsburg leaders of the Austrian empire was in full force. He commemorated his mission in his Mémoire historique sur l’Ambassade de France à Constantinople (published in Paris by E. Leroux, 1894). See Jean Louis’s portrait by an unknown artist at Le Palais-Musée des Archevêques de Narbonne, https://webmuseo.com/ws/musees-narbonne/app/collection/record/20756.

7. This fragrant white flower was the height of fashion during the later reign of Louis XIV (r. 1643–1715), as evidenced by the completion of his orangery at Versailles in 1686 under the direction of the architect Jules Hardouin Mansart (1648–1708). See James A. Wearn and David J. Mabberley, “Citrus and Orangeries in Northern Europe,” Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 33, no. 1 (February 2016): 99. I am grateful to the Nelson-Atkins project assistant Glynnis Napier Stevenson for sharing this insight.

8. The Nelson-Atkins painting is also related to a drawing of an unknown woman: Rigaud, with the collaboration of Charles Viennot, Portrait of an Unknown Woman, after 1699, black crayon and white highlights on blue paper, 14 3/4 x 11 3/8 in. (37.5 x 28.9 cm),  Jeffrey E. Horvitz collection, Boston, inv. D-F-260/1.1993.152.

9. See Stéphan Perreau’s entry on the (now lost) painting of Edmée d’Hozier (née Terrier, 1655–1733), in Perreau, Catalogue Raisonné des Oeuvres de Hyacinthe Rigaud (2016): http://www.hyacinthe-rigaud.com/catalogue-raisonne-hyacinthe-rigaud/portraits/1685-terrier-edmee, where he suggests that Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac, asked the artist to use the same format as that used in d’Hozier’s portrait, which she would have seen from sketches kept in Rigaud’s studio.

10. Hyacinthe Rigaud, Livres de raison, Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France, Paris, from the collection of the magistrate and bibliophile Antoine Moriau (1699–1759) and the Bibliothèque de la Ville de Paris: Ms. 624 (Mémoire, par année, des portraits ou copies exécutées par Rigaud ou par ses soins, avec prix en regard [1681–1743]), fol. 26, as “Mad^e La marquise d’Usson de Bonnac, 500 lt” [livres tournois]; and Ms. 625 (Mémoire, par année, des copies que fit exécuter Rigaud, avec indication des artistes employés et de leurs honoraires [1694–1725]), fol. 21 (1706 Monmorency, as “Ebauché l’habit du portrait de la mère de mr de Bonnac, 8 lt”). Rigaud scholars Ariane James-Sarazin and Stéphan Perreau have identified this assistant as the Dutch painter Jan Baptista Monmorency (or “Montmorency,” act. 1706–at least 1744), a specialist in drapery who would ultimately establish a Rigaudesque portrait practice in The Netherlands. See Stéphan Perreau, “Delaunay, Montmorency, Melingue, et Dupré,” Catalogue Raisonné des Œuvres de Hyacinthe Rigaud (December 16, 2017): http://www.hyacinthe-rigaud.com/atelier-hyacinthe-rigaud/delaunay-monmorency-melingue-et-dupre; and Ariane James-Sarazin, “Dans le sillage de Hyacinthe Rigaud: le portrait de Benoît De Ruddere par Monmorency,” Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659–1743): L’homme et son art; Le catalogue raisonné (Editions Faton, October 9, 2017): http:www.hyacinthe-rigaud.fr/single-post/2017/10/09/Dans-le-sillage-de-Hyacinthe-Rigaud-le-portrait-de-Benoît-De-Ruddere-par-Monmorency.

conservation

The canvas on which Rigaud painted Portrait of Esther d’Usson is comprised of two pieces, with a smaller strip, measuring approximately 18 centimeters wide, sewn onto the right side.¹Transmitted infrared (IR) photographs show the whip-stitched thread of the seam. In the radiograph, it is clear the canvases were joined together before a ground was applied evenly over the seam, creating a smooth surface on which to paint. The tacking marginstacking margins: The outer edges of canvas that wrap around and are attached to the stretcher or strainer with tacks or staples. See also tacking edge. have been removed, and the painting has a modern-looking glue-paste lininglining: A procedure used to reinforce a weakened canvas that involves adhering a second fabric support using adhesive, most often a glue-paste mixture, wax, or synthetic adhesive..²The lining treatment was likely undertaken shortly before the painting was acquired by the museum in 1977, and there are no records of the treatment. When the museum sought more information in 2000, the art dealer from whom the painting was purchased was out of business and the restorer who performed the treatment (unnamed) was deceased. Roger Ward, May 12, 2000, Committee on the Collections meeting minutes, NAMA curatorial file, F77-14. The lining has pushed the canvas seam forward, creating a vertical, convex ridge at the seam. There is visible cuspingcusping: A scalloped pattern along the canvas edges that relates to how the canvas was stretched. Primary cusping reveals where tacks secured the canvas to the support while the ground layer was applied. Secondary cusping can form when a pre-primed canvas is re-stretched by the artist prior to painting. on the top, right, and left perimeters of the painting, but hardly any is noticeable along the bottom edge, suggesting several centimeters of the picture planepicture plane: The two-dimensional surface where the artist applies paint. may have been cropped.³Though a prior report suggests that as many as twelve inches have been cropped from the bottom of the canvas (Roger Ward, June 15, 2000, deaccession proposal, NAMA curatorial file, F77-14), faint evidence of cusping suggests that it is probably not even half that number. In addition, the framing of the composition is quite similar to Rigaud’s 1697 painting of the Marquise de Croissy, on which the formula for this painting is based (see the accompanying catalogue entry by Joseph Baillio). Where visible, the canvas appears to be a tight yet heavy plain weaveplain weave: A basic textile weave in which one weft thread alternates over and under the warp threads. Often this structure consists of one thread in each direction, but threads can be doubled (basket weave) or tripled to create more complex plain weave. Plain weave is sometimes called tabby weave. with numerous slubs and several snagged threads throughout (Fig. 5). The painting is installed on a robust modern stretcherstretcher: A wooden structure to which the painting’s canvas is attached. Unlike strainers, stretchers can be expanded slightly at the joints to improve canvas tension and avoid sagging due to humidity changes or aging. with two cross-bars. There is apparently an inscription on the reverse of the original canvas, now obscured by the lining canvas, in a “contemporary, but not autograph, hand with name of artist and sitter.”⁴There is note of this inscription on an image at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Photo Archives. The same information was received from the Heim Gallery when the museum purchased the painting. No photographic evidence has been found to date, and it is likely the restorer noted the inscription after de-lining and exposing the reverse of the original canvas during treatment. NAMA curatorial file, F77-14.

Fig. 5. Radiograph detail of Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07), showing a snagged thread (highlighted in the yellow box) and canvas slubs (visible as dark dots, some highlighted in green boxes). Note also the canvas seam at the right (see arrows).

fullscreen Fig. 5. Radiograph detail of Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07), showing a snagged thread (highlighted in the yellow box) and canvas slubs (visible as dark dots, some highlighted in green boxes). Note also the canvas seam at the right (see arrows).

Fig. 6. Photomicrograph of a metal soap aggregate (white sphere) erupting through the red ground of Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07)

fullscreen Fig. 6. Photomicrograph of a metal soap aggregate (white sphere) erupting through the red ground of Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07)

The ground layerground layer: An opaque preparatory layer applied to the support, either commercially or by the artist, to prevent absorption of the paint into the canvas or panel. See also priming layer. is a warm, opaque red, which is consistent with what is known about Rigaud’s studio practices.⁵Alain R. Duval listed several Rigaud paintings with red grounds in “Les préparations colorées des tableaux de l’Ecole Française des dix-septième et dix-huitième siècles,” in Studies in Conservation 37, no. 4 (1992): 239–58. Stephan Perreau also described “la fameuse préparation rouge posée à même la toile” (the famous red preparation placed directly on the canvas) in Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1659–1743: Le Peintre des Rois (Montpellier: Presses du Languedoc, 2004), 96. All translations by Susan Pavlik Enterline unless otherwise noted. Metal soap aggregates and related crater-like surface anomalies are scattered across the painting (Fig. 6).⁶For an explanation of metal soap formation in paintings, see Francesca Caterina Izzo, Matilde Kratter, Austin Nevin, and Elisabetta Zendri, “A Critical Review on the Analysis of Metal Soaps in Oil Paintings,” ChemistryOpen 10, no. 9 (September 2021): 904–21. The red ground is visible along the edges of the original canvas and also in cracks, losses, and abrasionsabrasion: A loss of surface material due to rubbing, scraping, frequent touching, or inexpert solvent cleaning. across the surface. In transmitted infrared (IR) photographytransmitted infrared (IR) photography: An examination technique whereby the light source is placed on one side of the artwork while an electronic infrared imager or IR-modified digital camera placed on the opposite side captures the IR that is transmitted. This form of IR photography can be used to detect characteristics of the artist’s paint application, underlying compositions, artist changes, or inscriptions now covered by a lining canvas. (Fig. 7), some lines of painted underdrawingunderdrawing: A drawn or painted sketch beneath the paint layer. The underdrawing can be made from dry materials, such as graphite or charcoal, or wet materials, such as ink or paint. are visible as thick, dark strokes of carbon-containing pigment outlining the figure’s garments and the column to the left.⁷James-Sarazin describes Rigaud’s use of a “léger dessin sous-jacent de couleur sombre, trace à la pointe du pinceau” (light, underlying design in dark color, traced with the tip of the brush) to lay out the overall pose of the sitter after painting the face. Ariane James-Sarazin, Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1659–1743: L’homme et son art (Dijon: Éditions Faton, 2016), 1:330. The sitter’s face does not show the same dark lines in IR, which aligns with Rigaud’s known practice of painting the head of a sitter alla prima, directly onto the ground without any underdrawing.⁸Rigaud’s alla prima (meaning directly or wet-into-wet) painting of a sitter’s head as the first step in his process is mentioned several times in James-Sarazin, Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1:330, 360. She also describes and gives examples of Rigaud painting the head on a small piece of canvas to later insert into a larger one.

Fig. 7. Comparison of details of Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07). On the left, a transmitted infrared photograph showing dark lines of painted underdrawing in the figure’s gown and outlining the column to the left. On the right, the same view in normal illumination.

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The figure’s skin tone is made up of opaque, well-blended pinks and peaches, with thicker white strokes defining the highlights, such as along the ridge of the nose and bow of the lips. Small amounts of blue create subtle shadows, for example, at the left corner of the mouth. The same use of white dabs for highlights and touches of blue for shadow is also evident in the hands and eyes (Fig. 8).

Fig. 8. Photomicrograph of Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07), showing the proper right eye. Note the use of dabs of white for highlights and the addition of blue to add shadow.

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The midtone gray at the sitter’s temple was created by softly blending wet paint from the forehead into the dark hair. The curls, especially along the face, are accentuated with pale bluish-gray paint. The hair and veil appear to have been painted concurrently, with some white from the veil being picked up by the brushstrokes of the dark curls, then thicker white highlights were added later. Retouchingretouching: Paint application by a conservator or restorer to cover losses and unify the original composition. Retouching is an aspect of conservation treatment that is aesthetic in nature and that differs from more limited procedures undertaken solely to stabilize original material. Sometimes referred to as inpainting or retouch. around the veil may cover severe abrasion or, given its shape and appearance, the artist’s earlier placement of the fabric, as any pentimentipentimento (pl: pentimenti): A change to the composition made by the artist that is visible on the paint surface. Often with time, pentimenti become more visible as the upper layers of paint become more transparent with age. Italian for "repentance" or "a change of mind." could become more visible through abrasion or the paint’s increasing transparency over time (Fig. 9).⁹The retouching and possible artist changes in the area around the veil are enhanced in transmitted IR photographs. For more on increased transparency in paint films, see Stephen Hackney, On Canvas: Preserving the Structure of Paintings (Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 2020), 155.

Fig. 9. Detail of Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07), showing retouching near the right side of the sitter’s veil (arrows), perhaps covering up pentimenti which have become more apparent from abrasion or as the paint’s transparency has increased over time. The image’s exposure was increased to enhance the difference between the retouching and original paint.

fullscreen Fig. 9. Detail of Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07), showing retouching near the right side of the sitter’s veil (arrows), perhaps covering up pentimenti which have become more apparent from abrasion or as the paint’s transparency has increased over time. The image’s exposure was increased to enhance the difference between the retouching and original paint.

Fig. 10. Photomicrograph showing the textured brushwork in the figure’s garments, Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07)

fullscreen Fig. 10. Photomicrograph showing the textured brushwork in the figure’s garments, Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07)

To create the figure’s gown and blue mantle, highlights were built up using white or barely pigmented paint. These zigzagging brushstrokes constructed the folds of the garment and are comparatively thickly impastoedimpasto: A thick application of paint, often creating texture such as peaks and ridges. (Fig. 10). Remnants of translucent reddish purple in valleys of the textured brushstrokes and around stronger impasto suggest that the gown was probably finished with rich glazesglaze: A transparent, oil or resin-rich paint application that influences the tonality of the underlying paint. (Fig. 11). Such glazes would have further developed the sumptuous appearance of the garments by subtly adjusting the tones and giving a higher level of finish overall. Most of these glazes are now absent, likely removed during a past cleaning.

Fig. 11. Photomicrograph showing translucent reddish purple paint around an impasto passage in the gown of Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07), which is likely a remnant of a glaze atop the light paint

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Finely painted details, for example the gold lining and edging of the mantle, the silver edging on the gown, and the white lace trimming the chemise, were all constructed in a similar manner. Thick dabs of paint were applied with a fine brush, in just a few colors, generally from darkest to lightest. In the gold lining, for example, dabs of bright ocher, warm red, and pale yellow add detail and develop the design (Fig. 12). In the silver and white lace, white highlights stand out over layered black, gray, and pale blue.

Fig. 12. Photomicrograph of the mantle’s gold lining, which was constructed with thick dabs of paint and a thin brush, Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07)

fullscreen Fig. 12. Photomicrograph of the mantle’s gold lining, which was constructed with thick dabs of paint and a thin brush, Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07)

Fig. 13. Photomicrograph showing dark background paint defining the contour of the blue mantle in Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07)

fullscreen Fig. 13. Photomicrograph showing dark background paint defining the contour of the blue mantle in Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07)

The background has little detail, focusing attention on the sitter. The background was addressed once the figure was painted, as evidenced by strokes of the background adjusting contours of the garments in the figure’s shoulder and veil (Fig. 13), though some dabs of white highlights appear to have been painted afterward. It is probable that the sky was originally closer to that of the portrait of the Marquise de Croissy (Fig. 4), on which the formula for this painting was based. Widespread abrasion has exposed a fair amount of ground, warming and darkening the overall tone of the sky.

The flowers painted on top of the background and the figure’s garments consist of wet-over-drywet-over-dry: An oil painting technique that involves layering paint over an already dried layer, resulting in no intermixing of paint or disruption to the lower paint strokes. brushwork, indicating that these elements were painted last. The paint handling of the large stone vase is similar to that of the background, whereas the flowers themselves were painted with attention to detail and bold, wet-into-wetwet-into-wet: An oil painting technique which involves blending of colors on the picture surface. brushstrokes (Fig. 14). The petals were built up using brushes of varying thickness, and paint containing more white was dragged into a brighter color, and vice versa, creating tonal gradations. Thicker strokes, dabbed on top instead of blended, add highlights and definition.

Fig. 14. Photomicrograph showing wet-into-wet brushwork in the greens and yellows of a flower bud in the bouquet at the right of Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07)

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The lining is in good condition, though there is some planar deformation likely built into the memory of the canvas, primarily along the upper edge. In the lower left and upper right corners, the radiographX-ray radiography (also referred to as x-radiography or radiography): Radiography is an examination tool analogous to the use of X-rays in medicine whereby denser components of a painted composition can be recorded as an inverted shadow image cast on film or a digital X-ray imaging plate from a source such as an X-ray tube. The method has been used for more than a century and is most effective with dense pigments incorporating metallic elements such as lead or zinc. It can reveal artist changes, underlying compositions, and information concerning the artwork’s construction and condition. The resulting image is called an x-radiograph or radiograph. It differs from the uses of X-ray spectrometry in being dependent on the density of the paint to absorb X-rays before they reach the film or image plate and being non-specific as to which elements are responsible for the resulting shadow image. reveals significant loss in ground and paint layers. Both areas have been heavily retouched, as has the vertical seam and the lower right of the figure’s gown.

Previous cleanings have led to widespread abrasion overall, mentioned above in regard to the sky. The bouquet of flowers to the right also shows significant abrasion as does the right side of the veil. Fine pinpoint retouching minimized the visual impact of abrasions in areas like the face, and it continues throughout the composition (Fig. 15). There is a network of crackingcraquelure: The network or pattern of cracks that develop on a paint surface as it ages. over the surface of the painting with associated pinpoint losses. A combination of more visible red ground and thick, discolored varnish in the cracks gives them a darker appearance.

Fig. 15. Ultraviolet-induced fluorescence image of Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07), showing dark areas of retouching throughout, especially in the background

fullscreen Fig. 15. Ultraviolet-induced fluorescence image of Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07), showing dark areas of retouching throughout, especially in the background

Fig. 16. Photomicrograph showing the crizzled and disrupted varnish layer of Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07)

fullscreen Fig. 16. Photomicrograph showing the crizzled and disrupted varnish layer of Portrait of Esther d’Usson, Marquise de Bonnac (1706–07)

The painting has two layers of natural resin varnish, one present when the painting was acquired and a second mastic varnish spray-applied in 1995.¹⁰Scott A. Heffley, June 30, 1995, treatment report, NAMA conservation file, F77-14. The painting has a history of crizzling and pinpoint delaminationdelamination: The separation of layers in a painting. Examples include separation of the original canvas from the lining canvas, or separation of the paint layer from the ground layer.,¹¹Heffley, June 30, 1995, treatment report, and Heffley, March 20, 2000, “Rigaud: Description of Incident,” unpublished report, NAMA conservation file, F77-14. which has led to some loss of transparency and an appearance of tiny white spots (Fig. 16). Scientific analysis identified starch in a varnish sample; its presence and its hygroscopic nature are likely contributing factors to the disruption in the varnish.¹²Four samples (one cross section and three varnish scrapings) were analyzed by Orion Analytical using stereomicroscopy and FTIR. The presence of starch was noted in one of the varnish scraping samples. James Martin, Orion Analytical conservation scientist, “Report on Analysis of Samples from a Portrait of the Marquise d’Usson de Bonnac,” unpublished report, April 27, 2000, NAMA conservation file, F77-14. It is probable that starch incidentally remains on the surface in the form of residues related to a facing applied during lining treatment in the 1970s. The painting will likely remain sensitive to environmental changes until the starch is removed. Treatment, including a varnish removal and thorough surface cleaning, would mitigate the risk of further associated condition issues. Fortunately, these condition issues affect only the varnish and do not extend into the paint layers. The varnish has discolored somewhat, visible as dark yellow buildup in cracks and around impasto brushwork.

Notes

1. Transmitted infrared (IR) photographs show the whip-stitched thread of the seam. In the radiograph, it is clear the canvases were joined together before a ground was applied evenly over the seam, creating a smooth surface on which to paint.

2. The lining treatment was likely undertaken shortly before the painting was acquired by the museum in 1977, and there are no records of the treatment. When the museum sought more information in 2000, the art dealer from whom the painting was purchased was out of business and the restorer who performed the treatment (unnamed) was deceased. Roger Ward, May 12, 2000, Committee on the Collections meeting minutes, NAMA curatorial file, F77-14.

3. Though a prior report suggests that as many as twelve inches have been cropped from the bottom of the canvas (Roger Ward, June 15, 2000, deaccession proposal, NAMA curatorial file, F77-14), faint evidence of cusping suggests that it is probably not even half that number. In addition, the framing of the composition is quite similar to Rigaud’s 1697 painting of the Marquise de Croissy, on which the formula for this painting is based (see the accompanying catalogue entry by Joseph Baillio).

4. There is note of this inscription on an image at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Photo Archives. The same information was received from the Heim Gallery when the museum purchased the painting. No photographic evidence has been found to date, and it is likely the restorer noted the inscription after de-lining and exposing the reverse of the original canvas during treatment. NAMA curatorial file, F77-14.

5. Alain R. Duval listed several Rigaud paintings with red grounds in “Les préparations colorées des tableaux de l’Ecole Française des dix-septième et dix-huitième siècles,” in Studies in Conservation 37, no. 4 (1992): 239–58. Stephan Perreau also described “la fameuse préparation rouge posée à même la toile” (the famous red preparation placed directly on the canvas) in Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1659–1743: Le Peintre des Rois (Montpellier: Presses du Languedoc, 2004), 96. All translations by Susan Pavlik Enterline unless otherwise noted.

6. For an explanation of metal soap formation in paintings, see Francesca Caterina Izzo, Matilde Kratter, Austin Nevin, and Elisabetta Zendri, “A Critical Review on the Analysis of Metal Soaps in Oil Paintings,” ChemistryOpen 10, no. 9 (September 2021): 904–21.

7. James-Sarazin describes Rigaud’s use of a “léger dessin sous-jacent de couleur sombre, trace à la pointe du pinceau” (light, underlying design in dark color, traced with the tip of the brush) to lay out the overall pose of the sitter after painting the face. Ariane James-Sarazin, Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1659–1743: L’homme et son art (Dijon: Éditions Faton, 2016), 1:330.

8. Rigaud’s alla prima (meaning directly or wet-into-wet) painting of a sitter’s head as the first step in his process is mentioned several times in James-Sarazin, Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1:330, 360. She also describes and gives examples of Rigaud painting the head on a small piece of canvas to later insert into a larger one.

9. The retouching and possible artist changes in the area around the veil are enhanced in transmitted IR photographs. For more on increased transparency in paint films, see Stephen Hackney, On Canvas: Preserving the Structure of Paintings (Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 2020), 155.

10. Scott A. Heffley, June 30, 1995, treatment report, NAMA conservation file, F77-14.

11. Heffley, June 30, 1995, treatment report, and Heffley, March 20, 2000, “Rigaud: Description of Incident,” unpublished report, NAMA conservation file, F77-14.

12. Four samples (one cross section and three varnish scrapings) were analyzed by Orion Analytical using stereomicroscopy and FTIR. The presence of starch was noted in one of the varnish scraping samples. James Martin, Orion Analytical conservation scientist, “Report on Analysis of Samples from a Portrait of the Marquise d’Usson de Bonnac,” unpublished report, April 27, 2000, NAMA conservation file, F77-14. It is probable that starch incidentally remains on the surface in the form of residues related to a facing applied during lining treatment in the 1970s. The painting will likely remain sensitive to environmental changes until the starch is removed. Treatment, including a varnish removal and thorough surface cleaning, would mitigate the risk of further associated condition issues.

provenace

In the possession of the sitter, Esther d’Usson (née de Jaussaud or Jossaud, dame de Tarabel, 1654–1750), 1st Marquise de Bonnac, Château de Bonnac and Tarabel, France, 1707–50 [1];

Paul Friedrich Meyerheim (1842–1915), Berlin, by 1896–September 14, 1915 [2];

Purchased at his posthumous sale, Nachlass Paul Meyerheim, Rudolph Lepke’s Kunst-Auctions-Haus, Berlin, March 14, 1916, lot 92, erroneously as by Alexandre Roslin, Weibliches Bildnis;

Purchased on the U.S. art market by an unknown private collector, ca. 1967 [3];

Purchased from the private collector, through Leonardo Lapiccirella, by Heim Gallery, London, stock no. 30/77, by November 1976 [4];

Purchased from Heim by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1977.

Notes

[1] The Marquise’s husband Salomon d’Usson de Bonnac, Marquis de Bonnac, died in 1698, and the following year she was briefly confined in an Ursuline convent at the insistence of her brother-in-law, Tristan Dusson de Laquère. But in 1702, the Marquise returned to Tarabel, where she had been born and raised. It was while she was living there that the portrait was painted in 1706–07. It is plausible that she visited Paris for her portrait sitting. The painting may have been commissioned by her son, Jean Louis d’Usson, Marquis de Bonnac, with whom she lived, at rue de Grenelle in Paris from 1710 to 1739. After his death in 1738, she returned to Tarabel to live with her granddaughter, Constance Françoise Wignacourt, where she died in June 1750, at around 96 years of age. See “2 E 10982, Tarabel. 1 E 6 bis registre paroissial: BMS (collection communale), (1635-An V),” Departmental Archives, Haute-Garonne, Toulouse.

Inventories of the offspring of Salomon and Esther d’Usson, Marquis and Marquise de Bonnac, in the National Archives, Paris, do not cite the Nelson-Atkins painting in lists of family property. See T/1042/3, “Lettres, mémoires, comptes, contrats de mariage, papiers divers relatifs à la famille d’Usson depuis le Moyen-Âge et au marquis de Bonnac,” Archives Nationales, Paris. See correspondence between Glynnis Napier Stevenson, NAMA, and Lauranna Favasuli, doctoral researcher on the d’Usson de Bonnac family, and Myriam Daydé, specialist in medieval archaeology and history based in Toulouse, France, September 2022, NAMA curatorial files.

See Stéphan Perreau’s entry on the (now lost) painting of Edmée d’Hozier (née Terrier), in Perreau, Catalogue Raisonné des Oeuvres de Hyacinthe Rigaud (2016): http://www.hyacinthe-rigaud.com/catalogue-raisonne-hyacinthe-rigaud/portraits/1685-terrier-edmee, where he suggests that the Marquise de Bonnac asked the artist to use the same format as that used in d’Hozier’s portrait, which the former would have seen from sketches kept in Rigaud’s studio. See also Hyacinthe Rigaud, Livres de raison, Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France, Paris, from the collection of the magistrate and bibliophile Antoine Moriau (1699–1759) and the Bibliothèque de la Ville de Paris: Ms. 624 (Mémoire, par année, des portraits ou copies exécutées par Rigaud ou par ses soins, avec prix en regard [1681–1743]), fol. 26, as “Mad^e La marquise d’Usson de Bonnac, 500 lt” [livres tournois]; and Ms. 625 (Mémoire, par année, des copies que fit exécuter Rigaud, avec indication des artistes employés et de leurs honoraires [1694–1725]), fol. 21 (1706 Monmorency, as “Ebauché l’habit du portrait de la mère de mr de Bonnac, 8 lt”).

[2] The painting appears in a photograph of Paul Meyerheim’s music room from 1896; see Hermann Rückwardt, Ausgeführte Architekturen in Berlin von Alfred Messel (Leipzig: Gross Lichterfelde, 1896), pl. 17.

[3] According to A. S. Ciechanowiecki, Heim Gallery, London, in a letter to Ross Taggart, April 19, 1977, NAMA curatorial files, the unknown private collector purchased the painting in the U.S. “about ten years ago,” then sold the painting indirectly to Heim on the Continental art market “quite recently.” In early 1978, the Kansas City Star reported that the painting was purchased from a Chicago collection, although that could be a reference to Mary Withers Runnells (1892–1977), who lived in Lake Forest, IL, and financially supported the purchase but never owned the painting. See Marietta Dunn, “Rigaud to Gallery,” Kansas City Star 98, no. 130 (January 29, 1978): 3E.

[4] The name “Lapiccirella” appears here: “July 28, 1977,” Heim Gallery Commission Book, 1970–1988, Heim Gallery Records, Series V.A, Financial, Stockbooks, Box 202, folder 6, Special Collections, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.

related

Studio of Hyacinthe Rigaud, Study for the Portrait of Louise-Marie du Bouchet de Sourches, comtesse de Lignières, 1696, 12 1/16 x 9 1/2 in. (30.6 x 24.2 cm), black and white chalk and black ink, with touches of white gouache, on blue antique laid paper, framing lines in black chalk, squared in black chalk, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA, 1979.65.

Hyacinthe Rigaud, Portrait of Louise-Marie du Bouchet de Sourches (1665–1749), comtesse de Lignières, 1696, oil on oval canvas, 32 1/16 x 25 3/8 in. (81.5 x 64.5 cm.), Château de Parentignat, France.

Hyacinthe Rigaud, with the collaboration of Joseph Parrocel (background) and Pierre Nicolas Huilliot (bouquet of flowers), Portrait of Marguerite Françoise Colbert (née Béraud, 1642–1719), marquise de Croissy, 1697, oil on canvas, 53 1/8 x 41 1/8 in. (135 x 104.5 cm.), private collection, château d’Essarts, Vendée.

Hyacinthe Rigaud with the collaboration of Charles Viennot, Portrait of an Unknown Woman, after 1699, black crayon and white highlights on blue paper, 14 3/4 x 11 3/8 in. (37.5 x 28.9 cm.), Jeffrey E. Horvitz Collection, Boston, Inv. D-F-260/1.1993.152.

Hyacinthe Rigaud, Marie Madeleine Passerat (née Lemoine), 1699, oil on canvas, 36 x 29 in. (91.5 x 73.5 cm), private collection.

Hyacinthe Rigaud, Edmée d’Hozier (née Terrier, 1655–1733), 1699, oil on canvas, dimensions unknown, location unknown.

Jan Baptista Monmorency, Study of the costume of the portrait of the mother of Mr. De Bonnac (Ébauche l’habit du portrait de la mère de m[onsieu]r de Bonnac), 1706, medium unknown, dimensions unknown, location unknown.

Old Master Paintings and Sculptures, Heim Gallery, London, November–December 1976, no cat.

references

Hermann Rückwardt, Ausgeführte Architekturen in Berlin von Alfred Messel: photographische Original-Aufnahmen nach der Natur; in Lichtdruck Herausgegeben von Hermann Rückwardt (Leipzig: Gross Lichterfelde, 1896), pl. 17, (repro).

Paul Eudel, Les Livres de comptes de Hyacinthe Rigaud (Paris: Librairie H. Le Soudier, 1910), 72, 170, as M^me La Marquise Dorson [sic] de Bonnac.

Nachlass Paul Meyerheim Berlin; 1. Abteilung: Der künstlerische Nachlass Des Meisters, Gemälde des 16.–18. Jahrhunderts; 5 Werke von A. v. Menzel und zahlreiche Arbeiten anderer Künstler des 19. Jahrhunderts; Versteigerung 14. und 15. März 1916 (Berlin: Rudolph Lepke’s Kunst-Auctions-Haus, March 14–15, 1916), 12, (repro.), erroneously as by Alexandre Roslin, Weibliches Bildnis.

“Kunstausstellungen Berlin: Sammlung Paul Meyerheim,” Kunst und Künstler 14 (1915–16): 416, erroneously as by A. Roslin, weibliches Bildnis.

“Der Kunstmarkt—Versteigerungen,” Der Cicerone, no. 5–6 (March 1916): 114.

“Berlin,” Der Kunstmarkt, no. 23 (March 3, 1916): 97–98, (repro.), erroneously as by Alexandre Roslin, Weibliches Bildnis.

“Nachlaß Paul Meyerheim, Berlin. I. Abteilung: Der künstlerische Nachlaß des Meisters. Gemälde des 16. bis 18. Jahrh. und Arbeiten anderer Künstler des 19. Jahrh. Versteigerung am 14. und 15. März 1916 bei Rudolph Lepke, Berlin,” Der Kunstmarkt, no. 27 (March 31, 1916): 114, erroneously as by Alex. Roslin, Weibliches Bildnis.

“Vom Kunstmarkt.,” Internationale Sammler-zeitung, no. 9 (May 1, 1916): 87, erroneously as by Alex. Roslin, Weibliches Bildnis.

J[oseph] Roman, Le Livre de Raison du peintre Hyacinthe Rigaud (Paris: Henri Laurens, 1919), 130, 132, as Mad^e la marquise d’Usson de Bonnac.

“Heim: Old Master Paintings and Sculptures advertisement,” Burlington Magazine 118, no. 885 (December 1976): lxi, (repro.), as Portrait of the Marquise d’Usson de Bonnac.

Marietta Dunn, “Rigaud to Gallery,” Kansas City Star 98, no. 130 (January 29, 1978): 3E, (repro.), as Portrait of the Marquise d’Usson de Bonnac.

Roger B. Ward, Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Nelson-Atkins, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 117, as Portrait of the Marquise d’Usson de Bonnac.

Alvin L. Clark, Jr., ed., Mastery and Elegance: Two Centuries of French Drawings from the Collection of Jeffrey E. Horvitz, exh. cat. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Art Museums, 1998), 156, 365n5, (repro.), as Portrait of the Marquise d’Usson de Bonnac.

Dominique Brême, “‘Personne n’a poussé plus que lui l’imitation de la nature,’” exh. cat., L’Estampille: L’Objet d’Art, special issue (2000): 42.

Neil Jeffares, “The Marquis de Bonnac: a suggested identification of a portrait by Louis Vigée,” British Journal for Eighteenth Century Studies 25 (2002): 49, 70n18.

Ariane James-Sarazin, “Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659–1743)” (PhD diss., École Pratique des Hautes Etudes, 2003; Lille: Atelier national de reproduction des thèses, 2008), 2, pt. 3: no. 834, pp. 1315–16, (repro.), as Mad^e la marquise d’Usson de Bonnac.

Piero Boccardo, Clario Di Fabio, and Philippe Sénéchal, Genova e la Francia: Opera, artisti, committenti, collezionisti, exh. cat. (Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 2003), 218.

Sven Kuhrau, Der Kunstsammler im Kaiserreich: Kunst und Repräsentation in der Berliner Privatsammlerkultur (Kiel, Germany: Verlag Ludwig, 2005), 72, 281, (repro.), erroneously as by Alexander Roslin, weibliches Bildnis.

Stéphan Perreau, Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659–1743): catalogue concis de l’œuvre (Sète, France: Nouvelles Presses de Languedoc, 2013), no. PC.973, p. 205, (repro.), as Portrait de Esther de Jaussaud, marquise d’Usson de Bonnac.

Neil Jeffares, “Vigée, Le marquis de Bonnac,” Pastels and Pastellists (February 3, 2016): http://www.pastellists.com/Essays/Vigee_Bonnac.pdf#search=%22bonnac%22, 3, as Mad^e la marquise d’Usson de Bonnac.

Neil Jeffares, “Usson de Bonnac,” Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, Online edition, Iconographical genealogies (December 29, 2016): http://www.pastellists.com/Genealogies/Usson.pdf.

Ariane James-Sarazin, Hyacinthe Rigaud 1659–1743: L’homme et son art and Catalogue raisonné (Dijon: Éditions Faton, 2016), no. P.1005, pp. 1:474, (repro.); 2:170, 335, 608, (repro.), as Esther d’Usson de Bonnac, née de Jaussaud.

Stéphan Perreau, Catalogue raisonné des œuvres de Hyacinthe Rigaud (2016): http://www.hyacinthe-rigaud.com/catalogue-raisonne-hyacinthe-rigaud/portraits/1272-jaussaud-esther-de, no. PC.973, as Esther de Jaussaud, or as Madame d’Usson de Bonnac, and mentioned under nos. P.504, PC.625, and P.1217.

Ariane James-Sarazin, “Ni tout à fait la marquise de Croissy, ni tout à fait Mme d’Usson de Bonnac,” Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659–1743): L’homme et son art; Le catalogue raisonné, online edition by Editions Faton (March 24, 2018): http://www.hyacinthe-rigaud.fr/single-post/2018/03/24/Ni-tout-a-fait-la-marquise-de-Croissy-ni-tout-a-fait-Mme-dUsson-de-Bonnac.

Kristie C. Wolferman, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A History (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2020), 262–63, (repro.), as Portrait of the Marquise d’Usson de Bonnac.