Unknown, Portrait of a Man, Possibly Henri Charles de Beaumanoir, Marquis de Lavardin, ca. 1670

Chicago:

Blythe Sobol, “Unknown, Portrait of a Man, Possibly Henri Charles de Beaumanoir, Marquis de Lavardin, ca. 1670,” catalogue entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan, The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, vol. 1, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.2112.

MLA:

Sobol, Blythe. “Unknown, Portrait of a Man, Possibly Henri Charles de Beaumanoir, Marquis de Lavardin, ca. 1670,” catalogue entry. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan. The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, vol. 1, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024. doi: 10.37764/8322.5.2112.

This depiction of a man, possibly Henri Charles de Beaumanoir, the Marquis de Lavardin (1644–1701) by an unknown miniaturist reminds us that much is still unknown about the production of portrait miniatures in seventeenth-century France. Using the brilliant, saturated colors popularized by the French court enameller Jean Petitot (1607–1691), the highly accomplished, unidentified artist painted this confident portrait in the more delicate medium of watercolor on vellum, materials preferred by English miniaturists but first practiced in France by painters like Jean Clouet (1480–1541) and his son, François (ca. 1510–1572). While the miniature remains unattributed, continental miniature specialist Bernd Pappe has suggested the quality of the painting indicates that the artist was probably one of the leading portrait miniaturists working at a time when so many remain anonymous.¹

Unlike Petitot’s enamels, which were painstakingly rendered over multiple firings and typically copied from large-scale oil paintings, this miniature was likely captured from life, enabled by the fluid rapidity of watercolor. It depicts the sitter with his hand assertively clasped to his chest, highlighting the rich fall of a blue silk sash or cloak against a contrasting red velvet coat, and a frothy white lace cravat at his neck and wrist. He is posed in three-quarters view, with a determined if not haughty gaze.

The first known identification of this portrait with Henri Charles de Beaumanoir, Marquis de Lavardin, dates to its inclusion in the catalogue of J. Pierpont Morgan’s collection of portrait miniatures in 1906–8.² Turn-of-the-century collectors like Morgan particularly prized portraits of named sitters with historical cachet, especially if the artist was unidentified. Lavardin became a well-known political figure after he was appointed as ambassador extraordinary to Rome in 1687, during a period of immense diplomatic tension between Louis XIV and Pope Innocent XI.³ This was no plum post but rather a deliberate provocation of the Catholic Church; it began with Lavardin entering Rome at the end of 1687 with seven hundred armed guards and culminated shortly thereafter with his excommunication in 1689.⁴ In this case, his prior military experience as lieutenant-general of Brittany and reputation for arrogance and obduracy likely held greater weight for the king than any diplomatic suavity.⁵ Lavardin’s family friend, the Marquise de Sévigné (1626–1696), remarked that he was “the least cowardly and least lowly courtier that [she had] ever seen” but complained about his deficient manners and poor sense of humor, strikes against him at a court that prized deportment and wit above all.⁶

The sitter of this miniature bears some resemblance to contemporary prints of Lavardin, which depict a man with a commanding presence; dark, heavily lidded eyes; a rounded chin; and an aquiline nose (Fig. 1). As was fashionable at the time, in both portraits, the sitter wears a dark, curling full-length peruke. Without further evidence, however, it is difficult to substantiate his identification. A small monogram inscribed on the reverse of the case, initialed “HB” for “Henri Beaumanoir,” may in fact be a red herring. The elaborate enameled back was in fact paired with the seventeenth-century miniature at a much later date.⁷ A riot of colorful flowers erupts from a blue and white delft vase, which itself displays a typically pastoral scene of a bearded man sitting and listening to a younger man playing a pipe. This vanitas scene, a reminder of the futility of earthly pleasures, is as charming as it is misleading, having probably been produced and added to the miniature around the end of the nineteenth century to entice an acquisitive collector with a taste for the precious and unique. Even so, the case back’s questioned provenance does not detract from the appeal of this striking, enigmatic portrait miniature.

Notes

1. We are grateful to Bernd Pappe, who examined this miniature during a July 23–25, 2023 visit. Notes in curatorial object files.

2. George Williamson, Catalogue of the Collection of Miniatures: The Property of J. Pierpont Morgan, vol. 3 (London: Chiswick Press, 1906–8), no. 5, p. 72 (repro.).

3. Philip Mansel, King of the World: The Life of Louis XIV (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019), 333.

4. W. H. Lewis, The Splendid Century (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1953), 118–19. Lavardin distributed a defense of his actions in pamphlet form on December 27, 1687, which was published the following year. Charles Henri de Beaumanoir de Lavardin, Protestation de Monsieur Marquis de Lavardin, Ambassadeur Extraordinaire de France à Rome (France, 1688). He remained in Rome through 1689, mostly as a form of protest, when he was finally withdrawn by the king.

5. James B. Collins has observed that Lavardin had a particular “skill at alienating people [which perhaps] also explains Louis’s choice of the marquis as his ambassador to Rome in 1687, when the king wanted to annoy the pope.” James B. Collins, The State in Early Modern France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 119n34.

6. “C’est le moins lâche et le moins bas courtisan que j’aie jamais vu,” Sévigné wrote in one of her famous letters to her daughter, Madame de Grignan. Translation is the author’s own. Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, to Madame de Grignan, October 16, 1675, in Lettres choisies de Mme. de Sévigné à sa fille et à ses amis, ed. Mme. A. Tastu (Paris: Didier, 1843), 266.

7. According to observations by conservator Carol Aiken, the case may have been reassembled to prepare it for sale in the nineteenth century, with the bezel, hanger, and tapered ornaments probably added at that time. Carol Aiken, conversations with the author, March 18–22, 2018. This was also confirmed in conversations with Bernd Pappe, who shared his observations on the miniature’s attribution and date. Notes in curatorial object files, 2023.

Probably commissioned by the sitter, Henri Charles de Beaumanoir (1643–1701), by 1701;

Michel (1819–1904) and Amélie Marie Céleste (1831–1915) Heine, Paris, by 1905 [1];

With Jacques Seligmann and Company, Paris, by 1905 [2];

Purchased from Seligmann by John Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913), London, 1905;

By descent to his son John Pierpont Morgan Jr. (1867–1943), London and New York, March 31, 1913–February 24, 1935;

Purchased from his sale, The Famous Collection of Miniatures of the British and Foreign Schools: The Property of J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq., Christie’s, London, June 24, 1935, lot 92, as The Marquis de Lavardin, by Harry Seal (1873–1948), Ullesthorpe House, Leicestershire, 1935–1949 [3];

Purchased from his posthumous sale, Catalogue of the Choice Collection of Portrait Miniatures, formed by the late Harry Seal, Esq., Christie’s, London, February 16, 1949, lot 86, as Le Marquis de Lavardin, by S. J. Phillips, London, 1949 [4];

Probably purchased from S. J. Phillips by Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1958 [5];

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

Notes

[1] The miniature was likely in the Heines’ possession by 1904, as Michel Heine died that year, and J. P. Morgan purchased the Heine collection en bloc, via Seligmann, in 1905. Morgan’s purchase of the Heine collection is documented in the J. P. Morgan Jr. Papers (ARC 1216) held in the Archives of The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, box 143, folder 109.3. A handwritten note inserted in a bound inventory titled “List of Miniatures Owned by Estate of J.P. Morgan” on a page including inventory no. 440, Unknown Artist, Marquis de Lavardin, along with other miniatures from the Heine collection, reads, “Seligman 1905 / Collection of 84 miniatures, gouaches and boxes purchased from / Mme. Michel Heine. / (but some items from “Heine” collec- / tion purchased from others.)” In a different hand, on the same sheet, is written, “nearly all of 84 are miniatures.” The date the Heines acquired the miniature of Lavardin is unknown, but they had miniatures in their collection since at least 1874. Miniatures from the Heine collection were exhibited in Paris in 1883 and 1888.

[2] Refer to note 1 for Seligmann’s role in the sale of this miniature.

[3] The lot is described as “French School, The Marquis de Lavardin, with brown wig, and blue cloak, lace tie. In watercolour. Oval – 1 1/4 (?) x 1 1/2. In gold frame, the reverse enameled in colours with a vase of flowers.”

[4] The lot is described as “Le Marquis de Lavardin (1644–1701), French School. French Ambassador to the Holy See in 1687; three-quarter face to the right, in brown coat and blue cloak, with lace tie and brown wig. Oval – 1 7/8 in. high – in 17th Century gold frame, the reverse enameled in colours with a vase of flowers and signed with the monogram H.B. Illustrated in the Connoisseur, August, 1907, page 207. [. . . ] From the Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq., 1935, described and illustrated in Dr. G. C. Williamson’s Catalogue, Vol. III, No. 440.”

[5] S. J. Phillips, a London dealer operating since 1896, is still known for their sales of antique jewelry and objects of vertu. The Starrs acquired several miniatures from S. J. Phillips, including Richard Cosway, Portrait of Sir Robert Adair, 1792, F58–60/17 and Thomas Flatman, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1660, F58–60/51.

George Williamson, Catalogue of the Collection of Miniatures: The Property of J. Pierpont Morgan, (London: Chiswick Press, 1906–1908), 3:72, (repro.).

“Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan’s Pictures. The Foreign Miniatures. VI,” The Connoisseur XVII (August 1907): 206–07, (repro.).

The Famous Collection of Miniatures of the British and Foreign Schools: The Property of J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq. (London: Christie’s, June 24–27, 1935), 38, as The Marquis de Lavardin.

Catalogue of the Choice Collection of Portrait of Miniatures, formed by the late Harry Seal, Esq. (London: Christie’s, February 16, 1949), 17, as Le Marquis de Lavardin (1644-1701).

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 20, p. 14, (repro.), as Marquis de Lavardin.