Attribué à E. Pottier (actif au XVIIIe siecle)

Portrait of Louise-Henriette de Bourbon-Conti (1726- 1759), Duchess of Orléans Oil on canvas 55 x 65 cm. On the back, labels from the Bedel & Cie furniture repository, probably dating from the early 20th century, annotated by hand: 75696 and 76772 In the early 1750s, inspired by a portrait of Princess Louise-Henriette Louise-Henriette by Nattier (Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, inv. NM1186), presented at the Salon in 1745, the painter Pottier produced a variant depicting the model as a "frileuse", dressed in an elegant cape, a lace-edged bonnet and her hands immersed in a comfortable fur muff. This original composition was quite successful, as not only are there three known copies (Versailles, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, inv. MV; Orléans, Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. 678; Brussels, private collection in 1984 [possibly our painting]), but it was also translated into engraving, around 1752-1755, by Gilles-Edme Petit (one copy at Versailles, inv. V.2016.28.3). Few details have come down to us about Pottier, whose first name is known only by the first letter: he is listed as a member of the Académie de Saint-Luc, assistant to a professor, usher to the cabinet of the Duc d'Orléans, and exhibited at his Académie's Salon in 1759 and 1763. Documentary sources: - Jean-Marc Nattier: 1685-1766, cat. exhibition, Versailles, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, October 26, 1999 - January 30, 2000, Paris, 1999