Description
17th century FRENCH SCHOOL, entourage of Philippe de CHAMPAIGNE. Portrait of Anne-Geneviève de Bourbon-Condé, Duchess of Longueville Oil on canvas (lining) 27.2 x 21.7 cm Anne-Geneviève de Bourbon (1619-1679), future Duchess of Longueville, was born on August 28, 1619 at the Vincennes dungeon, where her father, Henri II de Bourbon-Condé, a "prince of the blood", had been imprisoned for his opposition to the authority of the young King Louis XIII. Her mother, Charlotte de Montmorency, had been the last love of the previous king, Henri IV, and the unwitting cause of a European war!... Anne-Geneviève was attracted to religion from an early age, but her first ball in the Louvre revealed her seductive powers. Her wit and elegant finesse, matched only by her beauty, were revealed in the salon of the Marquise de Rambouillet. Married by her father to the Duc de Longueville, 25 years her senior and already with a mistress, the Duchesse de Montbazon, she took a lover, the Comte de Coligny, who was killed in a duel for her. Then, under the reign of the young Louis XIV, she threw herself fearlessly into the Fronde rebellion, with her brothers, the Grand Condé (so called after his victory at Rocroi, aged 22!) and the Prince de Conti, as well as her new lover, the Duc de la Rochefoucauld (the future author of the Maximes). In these madcap escapades, she rubbed shoulders with other titled adventurers such as the Grande Mademoiselle, daughter of Gaston d'Orléans and niece of King Louis XIII, at a time when the nobility still dared to challenge royal power. She seduced the wily Paul de Gondi, future Cardinal de Retz (and author of famous Memoirs) and even the brave Turenne, whom she convinced to join the opposition to the king and betray his country to the Spaniards! Light and exalted, she let her passions guide her, and her new affair with the Duc de Nemours led the Duc de La Rochefoucauld to break with her. But after the failure of the Fronde and her brother Condé's flight abroad, Anne-Geneviève turned in on herself. In 1661, at the start of Louis XIV's personal government, she resumed her interrupted religious life, dividing her residence between Port-Royal and the Carmelites of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. Her piety was strengthened by the death in 1672 of her favorite son, born of her relationship with the Duc de la Rochefoucauld, "the child of the Fronde". Provenance: A château in Languedoc
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17th century FRENCH SCHOOL, entourage of Philippe de CHAMPAIGNE. Portrait of Anne-Geneviève de Bourbon-Condé, Duchess of Longueville Oil on canvas (lining) 27.2 x 21.7 cm Anne-Geneviève de Bourbon (1619-1679), future Duchess of Longueville, was born on August 28, 1619 at the Vincennes dungeon, where her father, Henri II de Bourbon-Condé, a "prince of the blood", had been imprisoned for his opposition to the authority of the young King Louis XIII. Her mother, Charlotte de Montmorency, had been the last love of the previous king, Henri IV, and the unwitting cause of a European war!... Anne-Geneviève was attracted to religion from an early age, but her first ball in the Louvre revealed her seductive powers. Her wit and elegant finesse, matched only by her beauty, were revealed in the salon of the Marquise de Rambouillet. Married by her father to the Duc de Longueville, 25 years her senior and already with a mistress, the Duchesse de Montbazon, she took a lover, the Comte de Coligny, who was killed in a duel for her. Then, under the reign of the young Louis XIV, she threw herself fearlessly into the Fronde rebellion, with her brothers, the Grand Condé (so called after his victory at Rocroi, aged 22!) and the Prince de Conti, as well as her new lover, the Duc de la Rochefoucauld (the future author of the Maximes). In these madcap escapades, she rubbed shoulders with other titled adventurers such as the Grande Mademoiselle, daughter of Gaston d'Orléans and niece of King Louis XIII, at a time when the nobility still dared to challenge royal power. She seduced the wily Paul de Gondi, future Cardinal de Retz (and author of famous Memoirs) and even the brave Turenne, whom she convinced to join the opposition to the king and betray his country to the Spaniards! Light and exalted, she let her passions guide her, and her new affair with the Duc de Nemours led the Duc de La Rochefoucauld to break with her. But after the failure of the Fronde and her brother Condé's flight abroad, Anne-Geneviève turned in on herself. In 1661, at the start of Louis XIV's personal government, she resumed her interrupted religious life, dividing her residence between Port-Royal and the Carmelites of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. Her piety was strengthened by the death in 1672 of her favorite son, born of her relationship with the Duc de la Rochefoucauld, "the child of the Fronde". Provenance: A château in Languedoc
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