297 - Attributed to Alexandre ROSLIN

Attributed to Alexandre ROSLIN (1718–1793) Portrait of the Duchess of Gramont, née Béatrix Choiseul-Stainville, with a Dove Oval canvas 71 x 58 cm Béatrix de Choiseul Stainville (Lunéville 1729–Paris 1794) was the daughter of François-Joseph de Choiseul, Marquis de Stainville, and the sister of the famous minister Étienne-François de Choiseul. In 1759, she married a former military officer, Antoine, Duke of Gramont (1722–1801), who had been imprisoned in the Bastille due to his dissolute lifestyle. One of the conditions of the marriage was that Choiseul lift the freeze on his assets. Béatrix de Gramont lived at court, where she gained a reputation as an ambitious and influential woman. There was even talk of making her Louis XV’s mistress, before the king chose Madame du Barry instead. After her brother, the minister, fell from grace, she was forced to leave Versailles and settled with her family at the Château de Chanteloup, where, as a discerning bibliophile, she built up a substantial library. Suspected of having sent money to the émigrés, she was sentenced to the guillotine in 1794. Three portraits of this same composition were painted by Roslin in 1766. A pastel, drawn from life, is believed to have served as the model for an oval portrait and a rectangular portrait; all three are in private collections (see the exhibition catalog *Alexandre Roslin: A Portraitist for Europe*, Palace of Versailles, 2008, no. 39, reproduced in figs. 2 and 3). Expert: René Millet - 01 44 51 05 90 - expert@rmillet.net