ALPHONSE THÉODORE BOURDIN (1811-1890)

Miniature gouache portrait of the three daughters of the Count and Countess de Cessac, née de Montesquiou Fezensac: Louise (1842 - 1914); Marguerite (1844 - 1921) and Françoise (1845 - 1856). Signed on a tree trunk: A. Bourdin 46. Height: 19.5 cm - Width: 15 cm (Visible cracks) In a rich gilt bronze and chased frame by Maison Picart and in its original leather case. This charming portrait in its original 1845 frame and case is of the three granddaughters of the household formed by François Lacuée, comte de Cessac and his wife née Zélia de Montesquiou Fezensac. At the center of the picture is Louise, the future Madame Sauvage de Brantes, a central figure in Marcel Proust's life and work. She was the inspiration for the character of the Duchess of Guermantes in "Du côté de chez Swann", along with Laure de Chevigné and the Countess de Greffulhe. She is also the aunt of dandy Robert de Montesquiou, from whom Proust drew inspiration for the character of Baron de Charlus. With his lover Reynaldo Hahn, a famous conductor and composer, he frequented Madame de Brantes' salon in 1895. Proust dedicated his first novel, just published by Grasset in 1914, to her. Louise de Brantes was also one of the women whom Robert de Montesquiou catalogued in his satyrical poems on the women of the world of his time: the 40 bergères, under the pseudonym "Ludovise".