École FRANÇAISE vers 1740

Portrait of the daughters of the Duke of Noailles. Round miniature painted on ivory, not signed, representing two young women in an interior writing and sewing, inlaid in the lid of a round box in brown tortoiseshell, mounted in gold 750 thousandths. Traces of punches of Paris of the 18th century, probably of the years 1780. D : 7,3 cm - Box : H : 2,7 - D : 8,3 cm Gross weight: 111.5 g. History: This scene is from an oil on canvas held in a private collection, identified as representing the daughters of the Duke of Noailles. The painting on the mantelpiece of this boudoir is a smaller version of the famous "Saint Michael overcoming the devil", painted by Raphael in 1518, commissioned by Pope Leo X as a gift to Francis I. Its presence is a probable allusion to the rank of knight of the Order of Saint Michael which the Duke of Noailles received in 1724. Adrien Maurice de Noailles, Count of Ayen, 3rd Duke of Noailles (1708), Marquis of Montclar, Count of La Motte-Tilly and Nogent-le-Roi, Viscount of Carlux, born September 22, 1678 and died June 24, 1766, raised to the dignity of Marshal of France in 1734. He had with his wife Françoise Charlotte d'Aubigné (1684-1739), niece and heiress of Mme de Maintenon, notably four daughters, born in 1704, 1706, 1710 and 1719, that it is difficult to identify here in a certain way.